Book Review: Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
TITLE: DAISY JONES & THE SIX
AUTHOR: TAYLOR JENKINS REID
PUBLISHER: PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE
GENRE: WOMEN’S FICTION | LITERARY FICTION
ACCOLADES:
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
REESE’S BOOK CLUB X HELLO SUNSHINE BOOK CLUB PICK 2019
Synopsis
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.
Thoughts
Initially, I was apprehensive about the writing style — it’s written like a documentary film transcript, which I thought might be jarring — but I didn’t even notice as I become fully engrossed in the characters and how their sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll lives weaved together.
I finished the book in two days (the majority of it on a long train ride so I had more time than usual to devote to reading) and I was sad the story was over (book hangover)! Taylor Jenkins Reid captures the 1970s era so well I found myself googling if Daisy Jones & The Six was ever actually a real band (spoiler: it’s a novel, so nope, they don’t exist, although the likeness to other band members of that generation, like Stevie Nicks etc., is evident). The plot can be a bit predictable at times, but for some reason, I didn’t mind, as I liked seeing how each character reacted in each situation.
Overall, it’s an enthralling, quick read if you’re lookin’! I’ve been listening exclusively to the ‘70s ever since and re-watched Almost Famous with Kate Hudson so I could linger in the decade a little longer.