Book Information
Author: Taylor Jenkins ReidGenre: Fiction, Romance, Contemporary
Published: Arrow, Jone 2020
About the Book
Everybody knows Daisy Jones & the Six.Their sound defined an era. Their albums were on every turntable. They sold out arenas from coast to coast.Then, on 12 July 1979, Daisy Jones walked barefoot onto the stage at Chicago Stadium. And it all came crashing down.Everyone was there.Everyone remembers it differently.Nobody knew why they split. Until now …My Review
Daisy Jones & the Six is another brilliant book written by Taylor Jenkins Reid. It tells the story of the band Daisy Jones & the Six, as they embark on a star-studded career which will echo down the halls of music for decades to come. On 12 July, Daisy Jones stepped onto the stage at Chicago Stadium barefoot, and it all fell apart. No one is sure why, and this book seeks to answer that in an interview-style format, with a heart-wrenching email at the end.
I absolutely loved the way this story is told. Rather than being written like a traditional novel, the entire story unfolds through interviews with the people who were there. At first, I wasn't sure how much I would enjoy this format, but I quickly became completely absorbed in it. Every character has their own version of events, and sometimes those versions don't quite match up. This makes you question what really happened and who is telling the truth. It also means that you gradually build up a picture of the band and their relationships without ever being given the whole story at once.
The members of the band (Daisy, Billy, Graham, Karen, Warren and Eddie), family, friends and other people involved with the Six are interviewed. The story is one that keeps you engaged and interested, and I hung onto every word, finishing the book in two hours, and those were some of the best hours of my life.
The interview format also makes the characters feel incredibly real. It almost feels as though you are watching a documentary about a real band and listening to people who were actually there tell their stories. I found myself completely forgetting that Daisy Jones and the Six wasn't a real band. I could picture the concerts, the clothes, the recording sessions and the chaos surrounding them. There is something about the way Taylor Jenkins Reid writes these characters that makes them feel like people I could genuinely have met.
The characters talk about their struggles, their part in the band, their life and many other things, and a picture of the band starts to unfold pretty quickly. The characters of the book have interesting relationships with one another, both good and bad. Billy and Camila. Daisy and Simone. Daisy and Billy. Billy and Graham. Just to name a few of the interesting links.
One of my favourite things about Daisy Jones & the Six is that there isn't really a simple “good guy” or “bad guy”. Everyone has their own problems, mistakes and reasons for behaving the way they do. Some characters make decisions that I completely disagreed with, but I could still understand why they made them. This made the story much more interesting because the characters felt complicated and human rather than simply being there to move the plot along.
I particularly enjoyed the relationship between Daisy and Billy. They have such a complicated connection, and you are constantly wondering what is going to happen between them. There is attraction, frustration, jealousy, friendship and something else that neither of them seems quite able to explain. Their relationship is at the centre of so much of the story, and I found myself wanting to know what would happen between them, even when I wasn't sure I wanted them to be together!
At the same time, I really liked Camila and the role she plays in Billy's life. She is much more than simply “Billy's wife”. Her relationship with Billy develops throughout the story, and I really enjoyed seeing the different sides of their marriage. There are difficult moments, but there is also so much love and understanding between them.
I enjoyed learning about Daisy’s life, but I also equally enjoyed learning about Billy Dunne’s life. His struggles, his rehabilitation, his career and most of all his family. I don’t think there was a character I actively remember disliking!
Daisy herself is such an interesting character. She is talented, confident and completely unapologetic about who she is, but underneath all of that there is a much more vulnerable side to her. I enjoyed discovering more about her childhood and how her experiences shaped the woman she became. Her journey from a young girl who wants to be noticed to a famous singer is fascinating, but it isn't presented as a simple success story. There are plenty of consequences that come with fame, and Daisy has to deal with many of them.
The music is another huge part of what makes Daisy Jones & the Six so enjoyable. Even though we never actually hear the songs, the descriptions and the conversations about them made me feel as though I could. I could imagine the band writing songs, arguing about lyrics and performing together. The whole book has such a strong atmosphere, and I think that is one of the reasons I found it so easy to become completely immersed in the story.
There are also themes of addiction, relationships, fame, family, ambition and the sacrifices people make for the things they want. Billy's struggles with addiction are particularly difficult to read at times, but I thought his journey was handled really well. His rehabilitation isn't presented as something that magically fixes everything. Instead, it is part of a much longer journey, and I really enjoyed seeing how it affected his relationships with the people around him.
And then there is the ending.
I obviously won't spoil it, but the final part of Daisy Jones & the Six completely broke my heart. The email at the end is such a clever way to finish the story, and it changes the way you look back at everything that came before it. I remember just sitting there thinking about it after I had finished reading. It is one of those endings that makes you want to go back and read the book again because suddenly little details seem much more significant.
This is another brilliant book from Jenkins Reid, and it’s safe to say that Daisy is joining Evelyn on the shelf reserved for favourites! 5 stars! The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
