Blair  Fell

Disco Witches of Fire Island

Lindsay

gazed up to watch the moon do her walk of shame across the early morning sky.

“At the end of the world there will be suffering, there will be chaos, there will be death. But still, there will be dancing. Dancing is the only hope to overcome the Great Darkness. Dance, Disco Witches, dance!”

Howie recalled all the friendships and romantic paramours he had lost over the years when he revealed his true nature. Most gay men had no problem with the most lurid or complex sexual fetish, but tell them you follow an offbeat esoteric spiritual practice that enables you to sometimes levitate while wearing six pounds of ostrich feathers on your head and then boogying to Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” with dozens of other Disco Witches, and within a matter of minutes you’ll hear the screen door slamming behind them. Yet, if Howie wanted to make Joe a true friend, he had no choice.

Oh, how the queer and magical, so lonely in their journey to maturity, all long for everyone they love to be queer and magical too!

I wanted to love this book because the concept is so good, but I think the execution let it down. the characters feel kind of half-formed, and the plot is also not fully fleshed out. I think it was aiming for mystical and funny but ended up landing somewhere between that and confusing. I wish there was more disco and more witches and also that the romantic relationships were expanded on so that we had a reason to root for them. that said, I liked the characters and I really felt for joe. this book had some really touching moments, and I laughed at some of the narration. I wish this had maybe more of an editor and more of a cohesive plot, instead of being largely vignettes. it took me a long time to read this. and I think that is because there was such a large disconnect between the objective, straightforward narration and the emotional tone the plot was aiming for. I felt like I could set the book down and didn’t need to pick it back up. I’m glad I did, because this isn’t bad at all, it just didn’t wow me

fris🐝

Let me start this by saying that this was, for me, one of those rare books where I felt such affection for this group of characters that I was a little sad to leave. It also reminded me of two things: one was reading Tales of the City for the first time after moving from my small hometown to the city at the same age as one of the main characters. Just being able to live her adventure as I was also living mine. And two, going to one of my favorite clubs with my friends on Sunday nights when they had “trash Disco”! In other words, this was a combination of those two feelings for me.

  Summer of 1989- the AIDS epidemic is still a death sentence that the government cares nothing about but cannot be ignored by the gay community. So many have lost lovers, friends, mentors, or family. Every new acquaintance gives everyone pause wondering if they are infected. This is where we find Joe. Having lost his first and only love to the disease two years earlier, Joe is mired in grief and a feeling of nothingness that he can’t move past. Random hookups are all he can handle at the moment. This is how he meets Ronnie. They understand afterwards that they can really only be friends. Ronnie takes it upon himself to try and teach Joe how to flirt, pick up men, and basically get him to aim higher in life.

  When Ronnie presents the opportunity to bartend on Fire Island for the summer so they can find rich men and have fun, Joe reluctantly agrees. Unfortunately, when Joe arrives he finds out the plan is not going to go the way they planned- no housing or bartending job awaits Joe. Luckily, when he got off the ferry he was fortunate enough to meet two quirky men named Lenny and Howie who gave him their number and a promise to help him out if he was ever in need. They turn out to be as good as their word and give him a room for the summer and help him get a bartending job. This is where our summer adventure starts! 

  Little does Joe know, Howie and Lenny are actually Disco Witches whose job it is to look out for the troubled and protect them from the Great Darkness. The truth about their abilities unfolds slowly throughout this story. Like I said, every character has secrets. But it’s worth the wait in my opinion. 

    Every chapter starts with a paragraph from the Disco Witches Manifesto, which I loved. The story takes place over the whole summer,  every character has a moment , and there are many ups and downs throughout- just like life. I don’t want to give too much away, so I’ll just end with this: I loved these characters and I hope you will too. 

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book early!

Cindy McKee

Let me start this by saying that this was, for me, one of those rare books where I felt such affection for this group of characters that I was a little sad to leave. It also reminded me of two things: one was reading Tales of the City for the first time after moving from my small hometown to the city at the same age as one of the main characters. Just being able to live her adventure as I was also living mine. And two, going to one of my favorite clubs with my friends on Sunday nights when they had “trash Disco”! In other words, this was a combination of those two feelings for me.

  Summer of 1989- the AIDS epidemic is still a death sentence that the government cares nothing about but cannot be ignored by the gay community. So many have lost lovers, friends, mentors, or family. Every new acquaintance gives everyone pause wondering if they are infected. This is where we find Joe. Having lost his first and only love to the disease two years earlier, Joe is mired in grief and a feeling of nothingness that he can’t move past. Random hookups are all he can handle at the moment. This is how he meets Ronnie. They understand afterwards that they can really only be friends. Ronnie takes it upon himself to try and teach Joe how to flirt, pick up men, and basically get him to aim higher in life.

  When Ronnie presents the opportunity to bartend on Fire Island for the summer so they can find rich men and have fun, Joe reluctantly agrees. Unfortunately, when Joe arrives he finds out the plan is not going to go the way they planned- no housing or bartending job awaits Joe. Luckily, when he got off the ferry he was fortunate enough to meet two quirky men named Lenny and Howie who gave him their number and a promise to help him out if he was ever in need. They turn out to be as good as their word and give him a room for the summer and help him get a bartending job. This is where our summer adventure starts! 

  Little does Joe know, Howie and Lenny are actually Disco Witches whose job it is to look out for the troubled and protect them from the Great Darkness. The truth about their abilities unfolds slowly throughout this story. Like I said, every character has secrets. But it’s worth the wait in my opinion. 

    Every chapter starts with a paragraph from the Disco Witches Manifesto, which I loved. The story takes place over the whole summer,  every character has a moment , and there are many ups and downs throughout- just like life. I don’t want to give too much away, so I’ll just end with this: I loved these characters and I hope you will too. 

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book early!

Disco Witches of Fire Island

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