Daisy Jones and The Six

The novel tells the story of a fictional hit rock band from the 1970s, including all the drama and disputes and sexual tension between the band members that led to the group breaking up right when they were at their height. It's told in an "oral history" format, with little "interview" snippets from the various characters interspersed to tell the story, giving something of the feel of watching a behind-the-music documentary. You'd think maybe this format might feel gimmicky, or start to get old after a while, but it works really well. Not only did I get very caught up in the lives of these people and come to care about them and their messed-up interactions, but I think I actually started to find it difficult to remind myself that they show more weren't a real band whose music I had somehow inexplicably never heard. Although now I really, really wish I could hear it. show less

I wasn't sure whether to rate this 4 or 5 stars but decided on 5 because it was truly masterfully written. Taylor Jenkins Reid clearly sold her soul to the devil to be able to write such addictive, engaging, and visceral books about the rich and famous that I don't usually care for. The 2 main characters, Billy and Daisy, were unlikeable as hell, complete disasters, but the way the story is told through interview format with twists and turns makes it so freaking compelling. I don't know how but I think we can all somehow hear the songs by the band as they are described. I didn't expect the last page to make me burst into tears but oof. I've resigned myself to reading all future books by TJR now.

The Short of It:

An accurate depiction of what fame can do to a person, to a band, to a family.

The Rest of It:

Daisy Jones & The Six has been everywhere. It was chosen for Reese Witherspoon’s book club Hello Sunshine and so many of my reader friends have read it…or tried to. Not everyone has loved it, which is the way it goes when a book hits the scene with so much hype.

I, however, loved it. I’ve not felt like this about a book in a long time.

The story is about the beginnings of a fictional rock band called The Six during the late 60’s, well into the 70’s. Headed up by Billy Dunne, a writer and singer with talent coming out of his pores, The Six clearly has a sound that the record industry immediately notices.

At the same time, show more Daisy Jones is this barefoot wisp of a thing. Young and strung-out on drugs, but possesses a voice and presence that is hard to ignore. Under the same record label as The Six, it’s only a matter of time before their manager tries to put the two of them together and their chemistry if off-the-charts. The crowd loves them.

What happens when you put two, larger-than-life people together and ask them to share the stage? What happens to the rest of the band? What happens to Billy’s relationship with his wife and kids? What happens to Daisy as she slowly sinks ever deeper into a cloud of drugs, desperately wanting what other people have?

Wow. Wow. Wow. The story started off slow but once I got into it, I could not turn the pages fast enough. Throughout the story there is this sense of doom that I could not shake. I had to know what it was.

The format did not bother me. It’s written like a script so it’s not surprising that it’s slated to be a TV series soon. Reid mentioned that Fleetwood Mac might have been the inspiration behind the book. I can totally see it. What I cannot stress enough is how the story made me feel. It contains that classic mix of love and pain and recklessness and danger. Anyone who has experienced complicated love or love that makes you question everything you know to be true will get totally caught-up in this story. You don’t even have to love rock and roll to get it.

This is a book you must experience for yourself. Read it. Feel it. That’s all I can say about it. Readers have said the audio book is fabulous so if you don’t like the script format perhaps that’s the way to go.

For more reviews, visit my blog: Book Chatter. show less

This is the most entertaining book/audiobook I've enjoyed in a long, long time. I know I'm late to the party, so I won't bother with a recap of the story itself, you can likely find that in other reviews here. I will say that the audiobook really captures the spirit of a rockumentary, with Jennifer Beales, Benjamin Bratt, Judy Greer, and others turning in absolutely pitch-perfect performances as members of The Six.

The dialogue is authentic, the performances are nuanced, and the situations the band finds itself in feel familiar from the canons of rock (Fleetwood Mac, amongst others) without feeling cliche. Everything from song titles to band dynamics ring true. If you were to hand this audiobook to someone who didn't know it was a work show more of fiction and said, "Listen to this. They were a huge band in the 70's", I imagine they would be taken in by Taylor Jenkins Reid's gift for making this band come to life in such a realistic fashion.

I laughed a lot, my heart ached a lot, and even if I saw a plot turn coming around the corner, it made it no less powerful because Reid pays off every situation with humanity and an awareness of how artists move through this world. How they love, how they clash, how they wrestle with their demons, and which battles they choose. It's all here. I unabashedly loved this book. show less

This was one of the most enjoyable pieces of fiction I have read in quite some time. It was just like viewing an insiders documentary of the momentous rise and precipitous decline of a much loved rock and roll band while getting a front row ticket to it all. The love, the distaste, the joy, the anger, all the emotions all wrapped up in the many different perspectives of the ones who lived it all. Reading this as an audiobook added even more to the delight with the full cast emoting the characters in just the right nuanced way to bring out the sighs and laughs that evoke a reminiscent thought that just doesn't translate the same when reading the written word. This is the very book I have dreamed of writing for over 20 years and Taylor show more Jenkins Reid did it. Bravo. show less

Wow! I haven't gotten this emotionally invested in a novel in ages. There are a few intellectual ideas to ponder - something about subjectivity and truth - but really this story shines because of its characters. It had me thinking about these characters all day when I wasn't reading - err listening. That's the other thing. The audio book production of this novel is the best I've ever heard. A full cast of readers including Jennifer Beals, Judy Greer, Benjamin Bratt, Pablo Schreiber, and others. They all nail their parts.

The characters, though. The characters were alive and broken and each one of them struggled with their own variation on the novel's main theme. Spoiler: it only seems like it's about love.

This story made me want to roll show more down the windows on my commute and blast that divorce anthem for boomers everywhere at full volume: "You can go your own waaay!"

I think I've personally recommended this novel to more people in the two days it took me to read it than all other books combined this year and I recommend it to anyone reading this. show less

“…loving somebody isn’t perfection and good times and laughing and making love. Love is forgiveness and patience and faith and every once in awhile, it’s a gut punch. That’s why it’s a dangerous thing, when you go loving the wrong person. When you love somebody who doesn’t deserve it. You have to be with somebody who deserves your faith and you have to be deserving of someone else’s. It’s sacred.”

This one threw me a bit of a curveball with its interview-style narrative, which initially had me unsure. The interviewer's silence and the constant jumping around between characters threw me off, creating an emotional distance, but as the story unfolded, it surprisingly grew on me.

Despite the unique writing style, I ended show more up enjoying the book. It even sparked my interest in Fleetwood Mac, rumored to be the inspiration behind the tale, leading me to delve into their story.

True to Taylor Jenkins Reid's style, there's a little twist at the end that adds that extra punch. Overall, it's a journey worth taking, even if the road starts a bit bumpy. show less