This month I’ve been reading so much more, and I’ve been absolutely loving it. Last year I did the same thing where around April I started reading loads, and then over the summer that grew as I had finally completed my undergrad and had not a lot else to do! Now, this circumstance is different and I find myself burying my head in a book so I stop looking at the news and things that I know will make me panic, so I have been on the hunt for good books that I just don’t want to put down. Daisy Jones and the Six is exactly that. This is the first Taylor Jenkins Reid book that I read, and I loved it. This review should be spoiler free!
Daisy Jones and the Six is a book based on a fictional band, and explores the rise and fall of their band among themes of drugs, love and loss. It explores how the band comes together and what led to their sudden split, and makes for really intriguing reading as you know it'll end badly, but without knowing how. It is set in 1970s LA, and even though it is told through a series of interviews, it gives a really atmospheric feel that makes you want to experience that period in the time of rock and roll. And it really was a great time for it, we can imagine that Daisy Jones and the Six were easily inspired by bands such as Fleetwood Mac, The Rolling Stones and The Who, and this in part is what I think helps make the band seem so realistic. I loved that the interviews didn’t take away from the imagery that normally features in books, and also didn’t over do it trying to compensate.
So the book is set out in a really interesting way, with Daisy Jones, members of The Six and their family/friends being interviewed. For me, although I’m a fast reader anyway, this made it a really accessible and quick to read format that I could easily get stuck in to. Even though the characters were telling their stories through short interview quotes, it never felt like they were two dimensional, Taylor Jenkins Reid made them complex and made you want to learn more about them. They deliver some really powerful lines (I highlighted a lot when I read this on my kindle) that made you think about things in different lights, or made you appreciate the struggle they faced. I think Taylor Jenkins Reid is amazing at making you feel for characters and delivering sentences that make you stop and think, something that I aim to do in my own writing.
For me one of the most interesting things about it was that because of the interview style format you really got to see the different perspectives on the same things, so how two characters may have read situations completely differently. I loved that. Because so often we only get one biased perspective, and even in this case, you never really knew which one was probably true, if some of the characters were lying about how they saw things, or even lying to themselves later on in life. And I really enjoyed that, because it made me second guess situations and people.
Another thing that I loved is that Taylor Jenkins Reid created this bubble of 1970s LA, the band and their histories but also the music. I love music because I love words, and often I love the lyrics more than a song itself. And she made the song, with some beautiful lyrics that really helped you understand the emotions that the characters had, the only thing that would be better for me would be to hear them actually set to music, and really get a feel for the vibes they were aiming towards. Taylor Jenkins Reid really managed to make them feel like a real band that you were invested in and I loved it. And when I say that I genuinely mean it, there were times that I forgot they weren’t a real band because as characters they feel so real, the drama and plot is so real, especially in the context of rising bands in the 70s. I think it’s a really special thing to be able to make the reader genuinely forget this isn’t real, and she managed it perfectly.
One of the best parts about it though was how the female characters were portrayed. They were strong, independent and complex. They were really well written and developed, and you can understand how easy a choice it would have been to pit them against each other (especially in a love triangle context), but Taylor Jenkins Reid didn’t do that. She made sure that you loved each female character, no matter their flaws and never poisoned their relationships, and she showed different interpretations of feminism from them which was really interesting. All the women were feminist but in different ways and it made for a really interesting read. I loved Daisy, Karen and Camilla all for different reasons.
The only part I can see flaws in was that I didn’t really care for the plot twist (don’t worry I won’t spoil it!), it wasn’t that shocking to me and I feel like the book would’ve been just as strong without it. While it did add more depth to the book and the world, I just didn’t really care that much about it which was slightly disappointing, and it made things seem a bit awkward in hindsight. However, I also don’t think that it ruined the book or took anything away from it. Let me know what you think once you've read it!
When I tell you reading this book inspired me I really mean it, like up until half one in the morning (very unusual for me) furiously writing paragraphs into the notes app on my phone because of the ideas I had for a book of my own. I have loved Daisy Jones and The Six, and especially the way that Taylor Jenkins Reid writes, and so I highly recommend reading this, trust me you won’t regret it. Having just finished The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, another Jenkins Reid book, my review for that will be coming soon! And I can't wait for Daisy Jones and the Six to be adapted into a TV series!
I hope you love this book as much as I did!
Love,
Carey
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