BOOK REVIEW – Daisy Jones & The Six

Daisy Jones & The Six by: Taylor Jenkins Reid – A novel.

AGE GROUP: 16 and up (due to content and coarse language)// GENRE: Fiction/ Oral History// AMOUNT OF PAGES: 351// RATING: 5/5

ADULT BOOK

summary

At the height of their fame, the ’70s rock ‘n’ roll band, Daisy Jones & The Six, inexplicably broke up, causing an extreme uproar from virtually the entire world. Daisy Jones & The Six weaves a tale that clearly displays the reasoning behind the band’s renowned split that transpired after the last show of their tour.

However, before they were Daisy Jones & The Six, there was merely Daisy Jones and there was The Six, both gaining a following, albeit gradually. Excessively self-indulgent and strikingly beautiful, Daisy Jones found herself yearning to record anything. Luckily, soon enough, her voice starts to turn heads and earn recognition.

As Daisy begins releasing music, The Six — a rock ‘n’ roll band led by Billy Dunne — is also slowly gaining a relatively large fanbase. But neither Daisy Jones nor The Six have the hit that will guarantee long-lasting stardom. Nonetheless, when brought together, Billy Dunne and Daisy Jones create a sound so full of longing and emotion. With each other, Daisy Jones & The Six is formed, and enduring fame is secured.

review

I– Wow.

Hello, and welcome back to a new review! I decided to do something a little different with this review, because I used a review I had posted on Goodreads and then expanded it. I did not split everything into categories, but I do cover the usual sections (the plot, characters, writing, and “overall”).

There have been so many reviews praising this novel, so I decided to give it a go!

I was able to effortlessly become immersed in the world of Daisy Jones & The Six, as the premise grasped my attention the moment I had read about it online. The book is formatted as an interview, which can be extremely jarring for those who have not read anything quite like it, but I, personally, found it to be a pleasant change.

Daisy Jones & The Six absorbs readers in the thrilling time of rock ‘n’ roll, where substances and debauchery are the primary source of amusement. Throughout this narrative, Taylor Jenkins Reid managed to explore the devastating effects of substance abuse in an optimistic and heart-rending way, all the while thoroughly contributing deep emotion to the story. For the better half of Daisy Jones & The Six, the leading characters, Billy Dunne and Daisy Jones, are deeply tangled in the destructive world of addiction, both yielding to its influence over their bodies and the extreme toll it eventually takes on the ones surrounding them. However, though their dependency on drugs and alcohol is frighteningly severe, Taylor Jenkins Reid succeeded in writing about their addiction in a hopeful and entirely consuming way. 

Billy and Daisy have a certain rawness to them, which contributed immensely to the adoration I felt for the two. They pour so much emotion into their songs — emotion that is not so easily expressed verbally for the both of them — which adds to the intricacy and intimacy of their relationship. Nonetheless, they are not the only characters that were distinctly well crafted. In fact, I found that there was one of the most empowering and valiant group of female characters I have ever read about present in this book. The female characters’ motives are flawed and their actions are able to speak for themselves, but these imperfections are what create dynamic and layered characters — characters that provoke sentiment and fascination. The layers that become apparent in even the supporting characters are profound and are, in part, responsible for the animation and life that practically emanates from this story. 

There is something so special about this novel, whether it is a persistent inkling that the band, Daisy Jones & The Six, truly existed, or the feeling that you honestly lived through their gradual growth and rise to extreme fame. And that is what it felt like to read Daisy Jones & The Six, because each page transports you to the vivid period of the band’s impending, and eventual, celebrity. You experience both the band members’ struggles with creating memorable music and painting their personas, and each of their struggles in their personal lives. To read Daisy Jones & The Six is such a refreshing and authentic experience.

Although most of the characters and entire premise captured my heart, I did, in fact, find the ending to be somewhat of a let-down. The huge question of this novel was why the ’70s rock ‘n’ roll band, Daisy Jones & The Six, broke up after their final concert in 1979. Despite the fact that many individual conflicts played a part in the ultimate split of the band, I found that, sadly, there wasn’t that BOOM moment that I was expecting. Most unfortunately, the ending truly changed some of my thoughts… I would’ve leaned more towards a 5/5 stars, had there been more closure regarding the band’s break. I also felt that Daisy and Billy’s nonromantic relationship should have been more completely resolved in a way that it wasn’t (instead of leaving room for inferences… which I hate). However, the very last page did clue at something!

As the story ended (and during it), I found myself craving more of Daisy and Billy. The energy they generated was palpable. Together, they created a mesmerizing feeling of extreme risk; their actions became steadily more dangerous and detrimental as the tale progressed, yet I remained eager for more.

With all that being said, I would now like to reread Daisy Jones & The Six, partly because I sort of felt as if I had to enjoy it; the craze surrounding this novel was insane and, although I truly fell in love with this story,  I would like to see how — and if — my views shift on a second read through! Overall, Daisy Jones & The Six is such a heartbreaking and stunning novel (much like Taylor Jenkins Reid’s other novel, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, which I loved so incredibly much) that deals with forms of betrayal, forms of trust, forms of compassion, and forms of love — both simple and complicated.

Now I’m going to go reread this fabulous book!

Also, THE SONGS! TAYLOR JENKINS REID HAS FREAKIN’ OUTDONE HERSELF, WHAT WITH WRITING TEN OR SO ENTIRE SONGS WITHOUT EVEN BEING A SONGWRITER HERSELF! I’M OFFICIALLY BLOWN AWAY. GO BUY THE BOOK. AND WHILE YOU’RE AT IT, GO BUY THE SEVEN HUSBANDS OF EVELYN HUGO, AS WELL. YOU WON’T REGRET IT. Also, can we just take a moment to appreciate this beautiful cover. I mean, I would have bought this book for the cover alone, had I not been interested in the premise itself.

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