Book Review: The Disco Witches of Fire Island by Blair Fell

Official Synopsis: It’s 1989, and Joe Agabian and his best friend Ronnie set out to spend their first summer working in the hedonistic gay paradise of Fire Island Pines. Joe is desperate to let loose and finally move beyond the heartbreak of having lost his boyfriend to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

The two friends are quickly taken in by a pair of quirky, older house cleaners. But something seems off, and Joe starts to suspect the two older men of being up to something otherworldly. In truth, Howie and Lenny are members of a secret disco witch coven tasked with protecting the island—and young men like Joe—from the relentless tragedies ravaging their community. The only problem is, having lost too many of their fellow witches to the epidemic, the coven’s protective powers have been seriously damaged.

Unaware of all the mystical shenanigans going on, Joe starts to fall for the super-cute bisexual ferryman who just happens to have webbed feet and an unusual ability to hold his breath underwater. But Joe’s longing to find love is tripped up by his own troublesome past as well as the lure of a mysterious hunk he keeps seeing around the island—a man Howie and Lenny warn may be a harbinger of impending doom.

The Disco Witches need to find help—fast—if they’re to save Joe and the island from the Great Darkness. But how? Fans of queer romances with a dash of fantasy will fall in love with this stunning novel of community, love, sex, magic, and hope in desperate times.

I found this book while randomly walking through a Half Priced Books, waiting for them to give me a super cheap price for the book I brought in (sigh), but wow am I so happy I chose to buy it. This book was a wild ride of both reality and fantasy. It has found family, as well as a strong community of queer men, looking for love in a time when it was dangerous. Taking place in height of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, this story weaves between the real, what Joe has lost, trying to move on and the fantasy of the Disco Witches, and their ability to keep their community safe. But the witches have run into a problem, they have lost too many of their coven, and their magic is harder to use to keep everyone safe.

Howie and Lenny, the two men Joe ends up living with while on Fire Island, are doing their best to keep the magic alive, but they need to add new people to the coven, while also working on finding the one they are supposed to protect from the Darkness. As they learn more about Joe's story, and about his friend Ronnie, they start to wonder if Joe is the one they need to keep sage, but they are without their head witch, who is sick in New York, and are struggling to keep the Coven together.

One of my favorite parts of this book was the cast of characters on Fire Island. Howie and Lenny, and the rest of the their friends/coven were well written and incredibly interesting. As Howie and Lenny try to figure out if Joe is their 'chosen' one, they help him get a job at a run down bar with two wonderful characters working at it. I adored the way the community in this book came together, even the ones who didn't get along with each other. Then you have Joe's best friend Ronnie, who is determined to find a rich husband and never work another day in this life. Ronnie searches throughout the island, at times leaving Joe on his own, looking for this person he thinks will be 'perfect' for him.

Having a really serious background to a story that has a lot of lighthearted moments was also a really interesting concept. Overall, all of them are worried, about their friends, their community, themselves. The risk of getting sick, of loving someone who is sick, of losing someone who you love to the sickness. There is a lot of serious moments throughout the book, as well as ones that made me giggle. The fact the Disco Witches can only do their magic while dressed up as Drag Queens and twirling to music was one of my favorite parts of the story.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, and am happy that I accidently stumbled upon it on day. The book was a fun ride, with a lot of love, death and many sassy Disco Witches. Though there are romantic scenes within the book, I think there are a lot of other moments, and moments of realization for our main character, that really make the book great.

I rated this book 4 out of 5 stars!

This book is currently available pretty much everywhere! Check it out!

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