DISCO WITCHES OF FIRE ISLAND, fun urban fantasy *gay men only*

DISCO WITCHES OF FIRE ISLAND
BLAIR FELL
Alcove Press (non-affiliate Amazon link)
$14.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: In the late 1980s, a coven of queer witches on New York's Fire Island strives to protect a young man facing a devastating tragedy.

A gripping novel of magic, romance, and hope—perfect for fans of The House in the Cerulean Sea, the Tales of the City series, and Red, White, and Royal Blue.

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 RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Delightful. In the midst of the devastation of AIDS, there's nothing left to do but laugh, find friends who love and care about you, and go right on with your pursuit of the merman who runs the ferry to your magical home.

We've all been there—don't front.

The kind of matter-of fact tone telling this wildly off-beam from consensus reality story is my jam. The men, reeling from their individual and social losses, are perfectly imperfect in their responses to new stressors while remaining open to changes. Circumstances aren't changing much in 1989, but the Disco Witches are vibrating to brighter days coming...if they can summon them up.

It's not like they're not optimists, all these people. You do not go to Fire Island to end it all from depression...as Joe discovers. They've been bitch-slapped by life as we gay men were all through the first ten or eleven years of that pandemic. It wasn't showing more than glimmers of being solved, so many many blessings went unremarked. I hope y'all can see, based on 2020's broader slap, how tough one had to be to keep it together.

Love did keep us together like the awful Captain and Tenille song smarmed. "There is no friendship without failure," a truism I read here, ran through my mind as Ronnie behaved like a dick to people who accept him as he is; then it really hit me: all the friends I've ever really loved have forgiven me my failings, and I theirs. Howie and Lenny, the titular Disco Witches, embody this ethos as they journey on past their disco heyday into a world they still love, but from the outside now. Protecting these new boys is easiest from the perimeter, guys. It's quite moving seen from my perspective, and will probably not be notable to thirtysomethings.

I'm very sure this book is not remotely heterosafe. There's a lot of just...not for y'all...information and opinion.

Babyqueers encouraged to check what the elders got up to. We weren't always old, my little chickadee. *nostalgic sigh* The read was fun and is a well-aimed summertime/Pride Month/beach read. Well done, and well worth your time and treasure for the fun it gives.