“I may have ended up more notorious than famous, but make no mistake: long before Aura Lockhart began commodifying her feminist rage ballads, I was the best-known person to come out of Keyhole, New Jersey.”
In 1977, twenty-six-year-old Lynda Boyle is desperate for fame and a way out of New Jersey. After failing to make her mark as an East Village poet and rubbing elbows with stars at Studio 54, she discovers a new path to glory through two local musicians, Johnny Engel and Aura Lockhart. Lynda believes she alone can transform them into rock ‘ n’ roll legends.
Fast forward four decades: Lynda is in hiding after a series of events force her to flee the tri-state area. When she sees Aura inducting Johnny into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Lynda’s rage ignites.
Determined to reclaim her narrative, she sets out to tell her story and secure her rightful place in music history. If she settles a few other scores along the way, that’s just a bonus.
Last Night at the Disco is a bold exploration of ambition, fame, and the often messy intersections of friendship and betrayal in the music world.
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Praise for Last Night at the Disco
“Last Night at the Disco is a comic gem, told from the perspective of a delusional narcissist with a Jersey-sized chip on her shoulder. Lisa Borders is a very funny writer who knows a ton about pop music and junior high school and bruised egos, and this is one of the most entertaining and psychologically astute novels I’ve read in quite some time.”
— Tom Perrotta, author of Little Children and Tracy Flick Can’t Win
“In Last Night at the Disco, Lisa Borders has created an indelibly magnetic and occasionally terrifying heroine. Lynda Boyle is vain, seductive and irresistibly selfish, and she does the Garden State proud, as a comic wonder and the star of this delightful novel.”
— Paul Rudnick, author of What Is Wrong with You?
“Lisa Borders’s Last Night at the Disco is as much fun as a night spent boogying on the coke-dusted dance floor of Studio 54, and its narcissistic, beautiful, indefatigable narrator Lynda Boyle should go down in the annals of literature as one of the best anti-heroes ever created. Throughout the pages of this wild and hilarious romp of a book, I alternated between covering my eyes and cheering her on for her terrible behavior. A smart, outrageous, and wonderfully escapist read!”
— Whitney Scharer, author of The Age of Light
“After reading this deliciously deranged cri de coeur, I hereby declare Lynda Boyle our next great camp icon.”
— Christopher Castellani, author of Leading Men
“LAST NIGHT AT THE DISCO is a dazzling feat, with its wry echoes of Nabokov’s Pale Fire. A Jersey girl outsider longs for her rightful place at the glamorous Studio 54, in this deliciously celebrity-studded, disco-and-rock-fueled novel. I didn’t want the night to end.”
— Patricia Park, author of Re Jane
“Outrageously funny, deliciously sexy, and sneakily moving, Lynda Boyle’s voice is every bit as unforgettable as she’d surely tell you it is. Come for the history of Studio 54 and stay for the subtle send-up of our own glitz-blinded culture. Or come for the catastrophic oedipal triangles and stay for the sweet love story. Either way, there’s a strong case to be made that this is the Great New Jersey Novel.”
– Yael Goldstein-Love, author of The Possibilities
“In Last Night at the Disco, novelist Lisa Borders deftly, with cutting humor, explores the impact of ruthless ambition, corruptive casts of fame, and the betrayal of friendship in the competitive music world. A fully entertaining and engaging read from cover to cover.”
— Midwest Book Review, June 2025