Review: Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

 

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. 

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. ~ Goodreads

Source: Library | Audiobook (I HIGHLY recommend this on audio)

Review: First of all – it’s a blogging miracle - A REVIEW!!! lol

This book was SO hyped so I had been avoiding it. But, honestly, I didn’t know much about it. I knew it was about a band but I thought Daisy was murdered and it was a thriller lol I just kept hearing that I MUST listen to this on audio and I was looking for my next audiobook and put it on hold at my library.

Daisy Jones & the Six is NOT a thriller – Daisy isn’t dead but if you were a fan of VH1’s Behind the Music docuseries or 70’s rock bands this might be the book for you. The story of the rise and fall of the band is told documentary style through interviews with the band members and those surrounding them (spouses, photographers, managers, etc.).

I wasn’t sure I could get past that this wasn’t a real band and that these weren’t real people. I also imagine the documentary style format comes off very dry in print – hence the audio recommendation. This is a full production with a full cast so it truly feels like a documentary and I quickly fell down the rabbit hole and was hooked. It’s rare for me to forget I’m reading these days and to get totally lost in the book and wonder with baited breath what’s going to happen next. But I did with Daisy Jones & the Six.

The story is exactly what you expect. Two brothers round out their band with new members and try to make it big. They're plodding along until lightening strikes with the addition of Daisy and her connection to lead singer Billy. It’s a cliché but they butt heads and then make beautiful music together. The band has a meteoric rise which always comes with the fall. Love, sex, drugs, rock & roll – this story hits all the notes & I won’t say too much more because of spoilers.

What makes this book stand out from your typical rock & roll tale is the agency it gives the women. In any other story, gorgeous Daisy would enter the story – every guy would want to fuck her, she would be taken advantage of, abused, spiral and be the catalyst for Billy’s story.

These things are true but Daisy isn’t anyone’s manic pixie dream girl…

Daisy

“I had absolutely no interest in being somebody else's muse.
I am not a muse.
I am the somebody.
End of fucking story.”

She learns early on what the industry can do to woman and asks – no – demands – what she deserves before joining the band. Daisy is many things – beautiful, talented, self absorbed, a drug addict but she’s no pushover. 

Nor is Karen, a band member having an affair with Billy’s brother and fellow band member Graham (voiced by Benjamin Bratt). She doesn’t want to follow the traditional path for women of those times and a lot of great heartbreaking and female bonding moments come from that conflict.

The rest of the band isn't nearly as interesting but the dynamics and resentments still are. This is Billy and Daisy's world - everyone else just lives in it. Their opinion only seems to matter if Billy or Daisy need them on their side. Otherwise both Billy and Daisy are pretty clueless and not so great band mates. 

Billy and his wife Camilla were the most intriguing to me. They’re marriage is both rock solid and as fragile as glass. Camilla is understanding of what it means to be married to a rock star and recovered addict. Billy is always trying to be the man Camilla sees him as while being constantly pulled into Daisy’s orbit and on the edge of relapse while on the road.

Camilla makes so many interesting choices. I’m not sure I could have made the same ones or that I always agreed with her, but it takes a mature woman to understand her own worth, lay down her rules and then…trust in them, trust in Billy. She was pragmatic, empathetic and maybe a tad unrealistic as a character but it’s something not often seen of women in literature and something to aspire to. 

Love them or hate them - the characters of Daisy Jones & the Six made their choices and were willing to live with the consequences. 

This is getting long and rambly – which is why I hate writing reviews for books I really enjoy – so I’ll just wrap this up.

The book is not without flaws. Some pov’s are more interesting than others, there are lulls, and there are often abrupt shifts in pov just to add one or two lines of information that felt off, it is a cliché story you’ve probably heard a thousand times but the audiobook and the way the characters can’t be pigeonholed really elevated this for me. Even if you don't like audiobooks - give it a try. It's more like listening to a podcast.

While reading this all I could think of was Fleetwood Mac & that bands tumultuous history, so I googled it and the book was inspired by the band and one particular moment which you can read about in this article by Jenkins on Hello Sunshine. I remember that moment between Stevie and Lindsey that Jenkins is talking about and the obvious chemistry they have whenever they played Landslide together.

 

I also have a few spoiler thoughts for those of you that read the book – if you reply back make sure to add a SPOILER tag in the comments or DM me on twitter/instagram/email.

SPOILER –> What did you think of Camilla’s choice to stand by Billy even though he was in love with Daisy? I felt like she was more of his anchor to sobriety than the love of his life but – I can’t discount how important that is in a long term relationship. She believed in him and, for the most part, he lived up to that for her. At the point she realized his feelings for Daisy they had 3 kids and a family to protect. And it seems like maybe she had a one day fling??

Daisy was, by her own admission, selfish back then. And didn’t care if she wrecked their marriage – and I think Daisy and Billy would have went down in flames pretty quickly with that level of passion and probably drugs/alcohol. I think they were closer in temperament but that’s not necessarily love – or the kind that lasts anyway.

Do you think they can make it now that they’re so much older and learned to love themselves (mainly Daisy) or would they just be good friends?  <- END SPOLIER

Have you read this book? Do you love music bio's. Dating myself - did you watch Behind the Music on VH1? Does VH1 still exist?? lol