Book Review :: Daisy Jones and the Six, by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
ISBN: 1524798622
Published by Ballantine Books
on 2019-03-05
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Historical Fiction
Pages: 355
Format: eBook
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Everyone knows Daisy Jones & The Six: The band's album Aurora came to define the rock 'n' roll era of the late seventies, and an entire generation of girls wanted to grow up to be Daisy. But no one knows the reason behind the group's split on the night of their final concert at Chicago Stadium on July 12, 1979 . . . 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.

Last updated on 29 March 2023

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What is Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid about?

Daisy Jones and The Six, like the synopsis implies, follows the story of two musical talents in the 60s and 70s. Daisy Jones is a young girl who does what she wants, who lives how she likes and sings about what she feels like. The Six is a rock band, with Billy Dunne as their lead singer. The two stories are introduced separately for a few chapters, then their worlds collide and the musical magic starts happening.

My thoughts on Daisy Jones and The Six

After reading Taylor Jenkins Reid’s book, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and really enjoying it, I thought I’d just continue right on and read another by Jenkins Reid.

What was really interesting about this book was the way it was written. It’s an oral history sort of format, a transcription of interviews that the author (not Taylor Jenkins Reid in this case, the author documenting the lives of the two musical talents) has undergone with members of the band and Daisy Jones, as well as ‘side characters’ such producers, friends outside the band, talent scouts, bar owners, anyone the interviewer could contact.

“I think you have to have faith in people before they earn it. Otherwise it’s not faith, right?”

I usually don’t like formats like this. I really detest reading books in letter form, for example, and this type of writing sits alongside that kind of vibe.

Despite that, I didn’t actually mind reading Daisy Jones and The Six like this. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be – the style, not the story – and while it did take me a lot longer to get through than Evelyn Hugo, I didn’t give up on it like I perhaps would other stories in odd formats.

However! I think I’ve figured out that this transcription format is the reason that I dropped it a star or two.

I did really enjoy the story that we see through the interviews and following the characters on their musical and personal journeys. But I think it was missing that something-something that makes you feel connected to the characters, or that allows you to have favourites and want them to succeed.

The story in this format, for me, placed me way out of the story and was missing the essential parts of prose and dialogue that we’d get in another book, which I so love. Because of that, you never saw the characters really interacting with each in the moment; it’s all a retelling of past events, and while that’s exactly how a transcript of an interview is and would be, it didn’t grab me as much as it would had it not been in this style. It was lacking emotion.

“I used to think soul mates were two of the same. I used to think I was supposed to look for somebody that was like me. I don’t believe in soul mates anymore and I’m not looking for anything. But if I did believe in them, I’d believe your soul mate was somebody who had all the things you didn’t, that needed all the things you had. Not somebody who’s suffering from the same stuff you are.”

Taylor Jenkins Reid is a phenomenal writer though, and the elements in this story were wonderfully put together (despite me struggling with the format). The way she writes as the interviewer and not the author of a book was very well done, and we didn’t know who the interviewer was until about the last, maybe 6th of the book.

The discrepancies in the story were just as they would be had she actually interviewed people; no one ever recalls the same event the same way, and this is shown in the book excellently.

I’ve heard amazing things about the audiobook, so if you’re keen to pick up this story, then perhaps give the audiobook a go! I can see this actually being a really cool movie or TV show: jumping between the interviewer (who perhaps you wouldn’t see/know who it is till the end, just like the book) and the characters answering questions and telling their story, and then the events playing out (complete with discrepancies and side characters) in the past. I would watch that.*

So while Daisy Jones and The Six wasn’t as good as The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo in my opinion, I still recommend checking this book out. If, like me, you’re put off by the style, please still give it a go. And if it doesn’t work for you, no harm done.

Have you read this book? What did you think?

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*Update in 2021 Ha! After looking for something else online, I’ve discovered that they are, in fact, making a TV Show and while there’s no release date yet, Reese Witherspoon is producing it, and it will be on Amazon. There’s also going to be original music in it, which is very cool!

Update in 2023: Daisy Jones and the Six the TV show was released by Amazon on March 3rd 2023. At the time of adding this update (end of March ’23), it has received a 8.1/10 on IMDB and a 70% on Rotten Tomatoes.