Inside the world of rock n roll during the late 60s: Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

I was lured into reading this book because I liked the idea that it was set in the 70s, but also because I have never read a novel in this format. It is written in the perspective of everyone in the band The Six, and the singer Daisy Jones. The "author" who steps into the narrative a few times during the entire book, is writing a book about Daisy Jones and The Six's career and their time together.

I have a lot to say about this book, but I am going to keep this written review brief, and as always, spoiler free.

Ok, let's get into it!

Plot

From the back of the book:

Everyone knows DAISY JONES & THE SIX, but nobody knows the reason behind their split at the absolute height of their popularity . . . until now.

Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock ’n’ roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things.

Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she’s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road.

Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.

The making of that legend is chronicled in this riveting and unforgettable novel, written as an oral history of one of the biggest bands of the seventies. Taylor Jenkins Reid is a talented writer who takes her work to a new level with Daisy Jones & The Six, brilliantly capturing a place and time in an utterly distinctive voice.

Characters

I really like Daisy Jones. I think she had so many layers to her, and it took the entire book to even unwrap those layers. Billy Dunn, on the other hand, I found so stereotypical and annoying. But his personality didn't seem to match his behaviour for most of the book, and that was one thing that I found interesting.

The minor characters—Graham, Karen, Edie... basically everyone else who was in The Six were necessary but not unique additions to the POV structure. To me, they each represented different viewpoints on a variety of things. Working in a group versus fighting for individuality, wanting children versus not, being an older sibling versus not...they complimented each other.

I found Camilla to be too much of...one of those characters who's put up on a pedestal; I guess. She seemed too calm, too understanding, too ahead of her time. But there has to be one of those characters in this type of book. Everyone seemed to have serious issues that they were fighting against or struggling to acknowledge. Drugs, alcohol, abortions...it's all there. And then there are the characters who felt themselves losing control over their career, unable to feel like the superstars they were.

I will not give out detailed spoilers, but I have to mention that Daisy and Billy are really similar. Their character arcs veer off in different directions at some point, but mostly, that's why their relationship develops the way it does. It's bittersweet all the way to the end.

Writing Style

I haven't read a book in this format before, where there were so many points of view. Sometimes a new character would be added in for a chapter, just because they were a part of a scene that required their POV to actually be written down. It was interesting, but I sometimes felt disconnected from Daisy and Billy because there were so many characters interrupting each of them.

I don't think that I would've been able to actually read this book. It works really well as an audiobook, but if I were to read it in ebook format, I believe that I would not have finished it.

What I liked

As I mentioned, I found the writing style different from other books I've read with more than one POV. I also thought there was a lot of detail put into settings and descriptions of characters. For example, if Billy was watching Daisy, he described her in a visualizing way. So visualizing that she materialized in front of me. And it was the same for Billy. When Daisy described scenes with them on stage together, or in the studio, her feelings in that moment blended in with the description. It was beautiful.

Final Rating

I would say that for people who enjoy stories set in the 70s, this book is great. For me, I didn't mind it, and I haven't been exposed to a lot of novels set in the 70s. My final rating would be 5 out of stars. Read it, listen to it, devour it.

Do it like Daisy Jones would.

I hope you liked my review of Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. If you'd like to, check out my other reviews and content, and subscribe to the blog!

I'll catch you later.

-May