Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

SYNOPSIS

Everyone knows Daisy Jones & The Six, but nobody knows the reason behind their split at the absolute height of their popularity . . . 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 and 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. 

Synopsis from Goodreads

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PERSONAL REVIEW

Wow, do I have a lot of feelings about this book. I had to take a few days to step back and reflect on what I thought about it because I was definitely everywhere. There are so many characters to follow and emotional stories to track that only someone as skilled as Reid could have successfully accomplished it. I flew through Daisy Jones and The Six because I honestly felt like I needed to complete this journey with the band before it all ended. It was definitely more of a rollercoaster than I had anticipated!

Unique Storytelling
I ended up loving the way the novel is told, but it did take me a chapter or two to get comfortable with the interview style. I can understand that some people wouldn't necessarily enjoy how Reid has structured her story this way, but I found it really compelling! It created a unique experience where we are given the individual thoughts of all the characters and their perspective of what was happening. It really shows how everyone has such different interpretations of events; while Billy might remember giving Eddie a pat on the shoulder, Eddie remembers how he was insulted by something Billy had just said. It was such an interesting look at how humans interpret and remember these little moments. 
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Kept Wishing This Was a Documentary That I Could Watch 
I really enjoy documentaries (Free Solo and McQueen are some of my favourites), so all I kept thinking while I was reading Daisy Jones and The Six is that I really would have loved if this was an actual documentary that I could watch. Reid brought the story to life through these interviews and I felt like I was jumping back into time with them as they reflected on their individual memories. I can only imagine how visual this would be as a film, but even so, I felt like was watching and reading each of these characters talk about their journey. It was wonderful.

Camila is My Favourite Character 
All I kept thinking while reading this book is "Wow, Camila is such a badass. I don't know how she does it." Although she's not physically part of every moment in The Six's story, her presence is constantly felt. And so many of Camila's actions blew me away. Her strength and her belief in her and Billy's love and marriage was beautiful (and there are a lot of moments where I don't think anyone could blame her if she chose to walk away), even as I was often confused by some of her choices. It's hard not to give spoilers, but I will say I don't know if I could have forgiven or accepted of my husband that Camila forgives of Billy. But as she says: "I just kept choosing trust and hope. I believed he was worthy of it". 

​Overall, I thought this was a brilliant book. I have some mixed feelings about some of the events that happened but I love that it really made me reflect on some of my own thoughts around relationships (I'm still not sure how I feel about the ending of the book. Do I love it? Am I once again impressed by Camila or confounded by her choices? Does that make me selfish?). This is a high recommendation for anyone who likes musical history (albeit a fictional one), interesting storytelling, a story that spans years of time, or just wants to take part in a fictional bands rise and fall before reaching true stardom.

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FINAL RATING: 4.5/5