Book Review: Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

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Want to know if Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid is worth the read? Here’s my full review to help you decide.

Daisy Jones & The Six Book Info

Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid

Published: February 4, 2020

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Rating: 5/5

Where to buy Daisy Jones & The Six

Amazon | Popular | MPH | Kinokuniya

Daisy Jones & The Six Book Summary

A gripping novel about the whirlwind rise of an iconic 1970s rock group and their beautiful lead singer, revealing the mystery behind their infamous break-up.

Everyone knows Daisy Jones & The Six, but nobody knows the real reason why they 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 and 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.

Another band getting noticed is The Six, 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 the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.

Daisy Jones & The Six Book Review

Daisy Jones & The Six is my second book by Taylor Jenkins Reid. The first is The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, obviously.

I have to say, the author did it again! Because I love reading this book! Daisy Jones & The Six was such a good read!

The main draw for me in reading this book is the writing. The writing was just so captivating and so immersive that I could not stop reading it once I started.

The writing style in Daisy Jones & The Six is in the form of an oral history format whereby an “author” is conducting interviews of the main characters to write a biographical book of sorts (or is a memoir I always forget the difference) which is completely different from the authors’ previous book The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo where it was written in first-person POV.

Even though the writing style is different but the immersion the readers feel is exactly the same.

Daisy Jones & The Six honestly reads like I am legit watching interviews done for a documentary of a rock band, I know I said the interviews are for a book but how my mind processed this book was literally me watching a documentary on Netflix but it’s all in my head.

I sound nuts but that’s just how it is.

How Taylor writes all the characters are so individualistic that I never have a problem distinguishing who is whom and the writing is clear and easy to understand that I am not lost at any point of the plot even though there are so many characters in the book.

The plot of Daisy Jones & The Six is honestly very simple. It’s about the lifespan of this rock band and the members that make up this band and why the band disbanded at the height of its career.

But it is the writing that makes all the difference because the main characters we focus on in this book are not very nice characters.

They are not evil but they’re also not the most sympathetic characters.

Because I honestly hated Daisy Jones. I hated her so much, she was such a spoiled brat that thought that just because she had raw talent and she was drop-dead gorgeous, she deserved everything in life.

I mean people made it easy as they gave her what she wanted so easily.

But when she couldn’t get what or more specifically who she wanted, she throws tantrums and gets upset and whatnot I couldn’t sympathize nor empathize with her due to her attitude.

For example, Daisy falls in love with Billy, she knows Billy has feelings for her as well but she can’t fathom why he won’t leave his wife for her. You read that right, Daisy Jones cannot understand how Billy Dunne just won’t leave his wife for her when it’s obvious they have feelings for each other.

And when Billy doesn’t reciprocate Daisy’s kiss and kindly rejects her, she outright spills his secrets to a Rolling Stone journalist. Secrets that could hurt Billy’s family and when Billy retaliates by speaking his mind and calling Daisy Jones out she gets upset.

Like, grow up Daisy.

She does so many immature things yet she doesn’t expect there to be any consequences for her actions.

Not all is bad with Daisy Jones though, I must say when she wants to she does take criticism well and does try to improve herself and her art.

My favorite character in this book is obviously Camila Dunne, Billy’s wife. She is such a Queen!

She knows what she wants, she knows how to get it, and get it she will!

She knew being involved with a rising rock n’ roll star was risky but she knew she wanted Billy Dunne so come hell or high water she was going to make the relationship work.

In the hand of a less capable author, Camila would definitely read as a doormat as she gave Billy a second chance after she found out about not only his drug addiction but also his philandering ways.

But Camila is no door mat, you knew that this second chance was all the chance that she is giving Billy to get his shit together and if he didn’t he can kiss her and their kid goodbye.

Another aspect of the writing that I enjoyed was how the author wrote the theme (?) of memory reliability within the book.

This is because when you start getting into the book you start to realize that their memories and the character’s narration of what happened sometimes don’t add up.

It’s not a huge difference but the difference is important as that memory stays with the characters and when memory is remembered differently from how it actually is, resentment, misunderstandings, and miscommunication can occur causing a rift the in relationship to happen.

I mean nobody likes to remember themselves in a bad light so they tend to either just remember the ones that make them look good or just slightly alter what happened in their mind.

Not only that, I like how this reliability theme(ish) connects with the songs that Billy and Daisy create together where the same song can mean different things even to the people who wrote it.

And this songwriting aspect becomes a way how these two characters to express their hidden (not hidden very well, to be honest) feelings for one another without crossing any boundaries.

This brings me to ask a question regarding Billy’s and Daisy’s feelings for one another. Do they truly feel something for each other or were the romantic feelings induced by the fact they work VERY closely and most times isolated together ALONE to write songs.

Not only that but they also go on tour together.

It wouldn’t be the first time these things happen, on-set romances happen during the filming of a movie.

Just a random thought, I thought of whilst writing this review to ponder upon.

Side note, aside from Camila, Warren is my second favorite character. He is just hilarious, especially his deduction of who Karen is banging.

As much as I hated Daisy Jones, I have to appreciate that Taylor includes different women with different priorities to showcase how women aren’t all the same. Different women have different aspirations that fulfill them.

Most of all I really appreciated how the author mostly writes about healthy female friendships in this book.

For example, Daisy and Karen are similar in the fact that they both love making music but the difference between them is that Daisy has pretty privilege and a no fucks given attitude that allows her to get away with so much more as opposed to Karen who genuinely wants to be taken seriously as a musician and thus takes a different and more serious approach to her career.

Karen has to take a different approach because at this time music as well as most industries is male-dominated and to be taken seriously by her male counterparts she can’t give them any leeway to think otherwise.

This differs with Camila whereby what fulfills and makes her happy is being a wife and mother. She is more traditional in her beliefs but that doesn’t stop her from being a staunch believer of her husband and a devoted and caring friend, especially to Karen during Karen’s decision to abort her pregnancy.

The same goes for Daisy’s best friend, Simone. Although at the start of their friendship it was Simone who was the rising star and eventually Daisy eclipsed her fame and success, Simone was not written to be a jealous fried out to get Daisy. She was a genuine friend to Daisy who told Daisy off when Daisy was being too much and seeing healthy female relationships like this is important.

I have a lot more stuff to say about this book but it’s more fun to have a discussion rather than me just endlessly listing what I loved about this book.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it to anybody.

Side note, you can read my answers to the questions/discussions regarding Daisy Jones & The Six here.

Quotes

Warren: It wasn’t my problem Billy and Camila decided to get married in the middle of the night.

Simone: In that moment, I thought, She’s going to be the girl bleeding in a beautiful dress until it kills her.

Billy: That’s the problem with people who don’t have to work for things. They don’t know how to work for things.

Billy: I will tell you exactly what I said. It’s right there in the article I said, “she’s a selfish brat who’s been given everything she wants her entire life and thinks it’s because she deserves it.”

Billy: But she was always the person I loved most. She was always the person I would choose.

Warren: I swear to you, Karen had this “I just got laid” vibe to her all night. And I was convinced Bones was lighting her special.

Warren: At one point in the flight, Billy was sitting next to me making a list of pros and cons, you know, whether Daisy should join the band or not. And I see Karen coming out of the bathroom looking like somebody’s balled her. All flushed and her hair messed up. So I turn around and who’s mysteriously gone from his seat? Bones.

FAQ

Is Daisy Jones & The Six based on a real band?

Taylor Jenkins Reid confirms that Daisy Jones & The Six were inspired by the band Fleetwood Mac in numerous interviews due to the romances happening between bandmates and how that dynamic affected the band as a whole.

Will Daisy Jones & The Six be a movie/series?

Yes. The book does have an upcoming TV adaptation which will be airing on Amazon Prime soon. Can’t wait!

Does Daisy Jones & The Six have any correlation to Taylor’s other books?

No, it doesn’t but they do share the same universe.

Other books by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Forever Interrupted (2013), Supernova (2014), After I do (2014), Maybe in Another Life (2015), The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (2017), Evidence of the Affair (2018), Malibu rising (2022), Carrie Soto is Back (2022)

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• Daisy Jones & The Six Discussion