Disco Witches of Fire Island

All right, grab your disco ball and pour an extra shot of courage…“Disco Witches of Fire Island” is a witchy rollercoaster with heart. Right from page one you’re dumped into Fire Island Pines circa 1989 where the acid-wash era flirts with an utterly haunted heartbreak. Joe Agabian’s wandering through the haze of losing his boyfriend to AIDS, clutching onto nostalgia like a lifeline. He and his friend Ronnie are there to chase some summer relief, or maybe just forget, for a second, that grief is still burning a hole through him.Enter Howie and Lenny, the pair of older house cleaners who do not behave like your typical dusty caretakers. They’re quirky, wise, and maybe cosplaying a little too hard…because, oh yes, they’re disco witches. The glitter-soaked reveal hits just right. These guys aren’t just blending herbal teas and gossiping over brunch. They’re on a secret magical mission to protect queer lives during the AIDS crisis. Their power is shaky, their grief runs deep, and they’re desperate to save the next generation from the same heartbreak that stole so many of their own.The coven’s sorrow is contagious. Through dance floors and late-night protection rituals, we watch Joe stumble between relief and relapse, desire and duty. The ferryman Fergal, the actual, dreamy, slightly-magical, maybe-a-merman ferry operator with webbed feet and lungs like a dolphin, massages Joe’s bruised heart with enough longing to make your own pulse throb. Romance isn’t sweet and packaged. It’s trembling, nuanced, and terrifyingly possible. Joe’s messiness? So real it stings.What hits hardest is the backdrop. AIDS isn’t just a subplot, it’s a wrathful undertow. The devastation of the disease rips right through you, reminding you that for these islanders magic isn’t whimsical. It’s armor. It elevates friendship, struggle, and love into spells, because without fairy dust, how do you survive the world when half your chosen family is gone?There are moments you’ll cringe at Joe’s ego. He’s impulsive, emotionally myopic, swimming in grief that hijacks his heart. But that’s the point. He’s a guy in crisis trying to gut through to being better. Watching him shift, realize, quiet the internal scream enough to actually hold Fergal’s gaze and really honor those lost before him, that’s a catharsis you can feel in your bloodstream. And his messy loyalty to Ronnie? That flubbed blindspot of friendship…yes, yes, yes to that complexity.The coven itself shines. Howie and Lenny, dusty disco veterans, carry the weight of loss with humor and stubborn pride. Their bond, their rituals, it doesn’t feel made up. It’s alive, brimming with grief, joy, glitter, stern elder magic, and the occasional questionable club joke. Their manifesto? It pulses through every chapter of their fierce, tragic, hopeful duty to a generation burning up in those years.If you want a Pride Month tale that is not saccharine but is glittering, grief-struck, and lovingly queer…this is it. “Disco Witches of Fire Island” is a shimmering Coast-to-Coast hug, a tear soaked, dance-floored remembrance of what we lost and what we can build if we let ourselves feel. Summoning queer magic, heartbreak, and disco fever all in one witches’ brew.

I LOVE THIS BOOK!!!! It's an absolutely wonderful story - delicious, poignant, endlessly entertaining, romantic, juicy, moving, with countless laugh-out-loud moments and vivid, intriguing characters. Disco Witches of Fire Island is the perfect adventure to enjoy, whoever you are and wherever you may be. A fabulous world awaits you.

I’m a writer, too – and I know how difficult it is to weave a patchwork quilt full of memorable characters, depict their arcs and to leave the reader at the end of the story feeling moved and satisfied. I felt for Joe (and his friends!) and wanted the best for all of them. Fell's contagious sense of humor helped immeasurably with this.Using disco witch magic was a funny, clever but very moving way to have the characters combat the horrible plague of AIDS. Belief can help us make it through anything, even in the worst of times. It felt so different and invigorating to have that belief not be the traditional religion that we’ve seen so many times.Highly recommended.

I really loved this. It's hopeful and sad, reflective and forward-looking, scary and sexy. A lyrical ode to love, disco, and the joy of gay sex, it's about the competing pains and joys of youth and of age and wisdom. The book is highly uninterested in the question of whether magic is "real"—there are certainly threats to the gay community in the summer of 1989, and these dancing queens will fight those threats wherever they are called to do so, with bells on. This is a semi-autobiographical book by Blair Fell and the events and feelings experienced by the characters hit with veracity.

It took me a while to get into this book, but once I got into it, I was hooked! I am not normally into fantasy novels. I wanted to read this one because it was queer. I loved how loyal the characters were to each other. I also loved how the characters communicated and worked through their issues. The end of the book was so wholesome!