“You aren’t you right now; you’re not the silly goofball we’re used to. I’ve seen you in every era of your life, but right now, you’re a stone-cold curmudgeon, you’re bitter, and you’re angry, and baby, anger is sadness with nowhere to go.” – Eric David Roman, The Bairwick Witches
ERIC DAVID ROMAN’S The Bairwick Witches is a playful, sensual, and intensely queer affirming work of gay paranormal fiction. Let me reiterate: this book is openly and proudly queer. Set in the magically inclusive southern USA town of Bairwick, where witches live and love freely, the novel offers a vibrant portrayal of contemporary gay/queer life that blends fantasy-romance (“Romantasy”), eroticism, and magical self-expression.
Roman’s world is alive with queer men of every kind—older and younger, cis and trans, twink and bear—all rendered with warmth, humour, and passion. The story’s gay/queer presence feels effortless and authentic, a natural heartbeat of the narrative rather than a forced element. This is an Own-Voices work, yet Roman’s writing never crosses the line into performative or didactic territory.
The story follows recently divorced Schuyler Croy, a gay man in his 40s, as he returns to Bairwick to live with his uncles, Beau and Marshall, a couple affectionately referred to as his “guncles.” However, their relationship is much more close-knit; as the novel progresses, seeing them as his parents, his “dads,” is absolutely reasonable, and frankly, they’ve earned it.
Schuyler embodies a particular type of queer identity that’s no stranger to mature gay men: self-aware yet self-deprecating, resilient yet imperfect, and still open to love and transformation despite the weight of past disappointments.
Many gay or MM romances focus on young protagonists experiencing first love, first gay sexual experience, or coming out. A lot of “firsts.” In this novel, the main character is older, experienced, weary, and unsure of his place in the world. The story takes a genre often centered on youth and instead follows a middle-aged man working to rebuild his life and confidence. Schuyler’s divorce and return home serve as a kind of “second coming-out.” He must rediscover himself—not as a young man exploring his sexuality, but as someone forging a life later in adulthood.
This focus on an older queer man’s story is refreshing. It highlights issues such as ageing, loneliness, and the need to feel and be seen as desirable after life changes. Schuyler’s romance with Issac Carrow, though complicated by their age difference, becomes a way for him to find energy and hope again. However, he is not averse to dating within his own age bracket, as seen with his friend Cal, a man dealing with his own demons (not literally, though). So this isn’t a novel about how young men “fix” broken older men. Adults are treated as adults, regardless of age; no man in the book is infantilized or is youth pedestalized.
In this novel, Roman masterfully weaves relationships, friendships, and situationships in and out of one another; you never know how something will begin, end, or sustain itself, which keeps the story entertaining.
It’s in this energetic, yet complicated setting that Schuyler encounters Isaac, the younger man I mentioned earlier, who has come to town to perform a magical ritual. Their meeting sparks a narrative rich with romance, erotic magic, and hidden secrets and schemes.
Speaking of erotic magic…
The novel is very open about queer sex. The story includes erotic scenes involving rituals, group sex-magic, and even “analmancy,” a mix of humour, fantasy, butt-play, and a little magic. These scenes are more than just for shock or entertainment; they present queer sexual pleasure between men as something magical, joyful, and powerful rather than shameful, hidden or awkward. This is gay sex, and it’s never heteronormalized, watered down, written in euphemisms or sanitized to appease more conservative, prim or easily-scandalized readers.
And there’s no judgment here in either direction of sensitivity and comfort: there were a few occasions when even I clutched my pearls! Still, I applaud Roman for writing in his authentic voice.
By connecting magic and sex, Roman celebrates gay/queer erotic life as creative and transformative. This is significant in LGBTQ+ storytelling because it challenges the outdated notion that queer relationships must be tragic or hidden. In The Bairwick Witches, sex and desire are integral to the characters’ power and sense of identity, and there is never any shame surrounding these themes.
As a gay man reading about gay men, I found Roman’s unapologetic portrayal of queer desire, and its physical expression between men, refreshing and authentic. This is where Own-Voices storytelling shines.
One of the novel’s most distinctive strengths lies in its nuanced depiction of masculinity, which is at once traditional and familiar yet open to a rich diversity of experiences and identities. Roman’s writing embraces the full emotional range of his male characters. They are allowed to be passionate, nurturing, insecure, sensual, funny and fierce, often all at once. In doing so, he dismantles narrow ideas of what it means to “be a man.” His witches are both magical and masculine, yet unafraid to be feminine or camp when they choose—not simply because their magic grants them freedom but because they’ve learned, through it, the courage to embrace the full range of themselves.
The Bairwick Witches shines as a celebration of queer masculinity in all its forms. Roman gives readers a world where cis and trans men stand side by side, united by love, community, and shared magic. His characters are strong without being closed-off, sexual without being objectified, and emotional without being perceived as fragile. In Bairwick, masculinity isn’t something to prove—it’s something to explore, enjoy, and share. Roman’s novel reminds readers that true strength lies in authenticity, tenderness, and connection. In doing so, he crafts not only a powerful queer romance but also a hopeful vision of what masculinity can be when it is freed from fear and filled with magic.
The setting of Bairwick, a witch town where everyone practices magic, can be read as a metaphor for queer community. Witches have long represented outsiders or people who are feared because they live differently. In this novel, however, Bairwick is a safe and thriving place, much like a queer haven where everyone can be themselves. Schuyler’s home life with his “guncles” and the other witches around him shows how queer people often create chosen families instead of (or including) traditional ones. The town’s sense of togetherness reflects how LGBTQ+ communities support one another through shared differences and acceptance.
Something I need to mention is that Eric David Roman occasionally slips into a metafictional “author voice,” giving the narrative a self-aware, almost mischievous perspective. These intrusions are intentionally funny, sharp, and unapologetically sassy—like a gay Jiminy Cricket popping in to deliver witty asides, sly observations, or playful commentary. Importantly, this voice is the author himself, and Roman wields this approach carefully, enhancing the story without overshadowing his characters’ experiences or the emotional stakes.
This metafictional element may feel jarring to some readers, but when you notice these moments, you’re not misreading anything; you’re directly engaging with the story’s dual-voiced banter. Clearly, Roman is having fun with the written word and the conventions of storytelling.
The Bairwick Witches, part of the Own-Voice multi-author series, Haunted Hearts: Season of the Witch, is an entertaining and unapologetically queer paranormal romance. It stands out because of its older protagonist, its healthy engagement with gay/queer sexuality, and its use of witchcraft as a metaphor for queer community and self-acceptance. It’s a book that celebrates pleasure, blood and found family, and the freedom to live authentically.
Eric David Roman’s novel succeeds in giving readers a playful, affirming Romantasy world where gay/queer love and magic thrive together, and that, in itself, is a kind of wonderful spell.
