Daisy Jones & the Six
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.
Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid | Publisher: Ballantine Books
Rating: 4/5
“No matter who you choose to go down the road with, you're gonna get hurt. That's just the nature of caring about someone. No matter who you love, they will break your heart along the way.”
This book sat on my proverbial bedside table for a long time — I kept meaning to read it in a given month, and it kept getting crowded out by upcoming releases, library due dates, etc. Then someone told me that the audiobook was supposedly really good — so I decided to do “read” it that way.
This was an excellent decision. The book is written in the form of a sort-of script, as it’s a mock collection of interview snippets from the members of the band and their friends and families. The audiobook cast and voice acting really went above and beyond to bring the story to life. I found myself riveted, heart breaking right alongside them.
Daisy Jones’ parents weren’t really parents to her, and she entered the drug scene early in her life. She found her way to her natural musical talent by accident, but her first record contract wouldn’t let her record her original songs. Meanwhile, The Six had formed, evolved a bit, and started to grow. They had their first tour, which went well for the band but poorly for some of its members. Drugs again. Eventually, they write a song that needs a female vocalist, and they find Daisy. Boom, chemistry. They skyrocket up to the very top of the rock and roll world.
But it isn’t easy along the way. Love, drugs, depression, heartbreak, excitement, family, loyalty (and not) — these things take a toll on a person’s life, and on the lives of those who love them. And then there’s a great little twist at the end.
What this novel is really, really about is love —for yourself, for others, for music and your own talent. It’s about people struggling all the time, and finding out which struggles are worth it. It’s about how the same situation looks different depending on whose eyes you view it through. And it’s about how you can be both alone and not alone at exactly the same time.
I really liked it, and I definitely recommend the audiobook. 100%.
“I had absolutely no interest in being somebody else's muse.
I am not a muse.
I am the somebody.
End of f*cking story.”