Member Reviews
Fantastic! Just like being in the 1970s as a fly on the wall to a Fleetwood Mac - in this case, Daisy Jones and the Six - concert backstage. Utterly addictive .
I was really looking forward to this one after Evelyn Hugo and while I didn’t enjoy it AS much it was a great read. Really unusual format but it made it easy to read, and it was very cleverly done
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review. I did provide this in Aug 2019 on Goodreads however it did not save on Netgalley.
I'd saved this book for holiday because I was so certain I would adore it. I'm a music fangirl and a massive fan of Fleetwood Mac (loose parallels) and it was highlighted on Between Two Books, my favourite book group headed by my favourite musician (Florenece Welch).
However, I hated the lead singer so much in this book that I felt no empathy for him whatsoever. Talk about a sanctimonious, pretentious bore. Why would Daisy like him? I simply didn't believe the relationship. I also didn't believe the character of his wife as no one is that forgiving. Some of this can be put down to the format, using the brilliant lay out of a Behind the Music documentary, and in such documentaries people are on their best behaviour. It just didn't ring true to me.
Reading other reviews, I wish I had opted to listen to the audiobook. It had an alright ending, if a bit sweet, but that may reflect more reading preferences (lack of happy endings!).
Easily one of my favourite titles of the year, Daisy Jones and the Six has sparked my love of Taylor Jenkins Reid.
Everything about this book was perfect, from the writing to the characters and the plot. I'm incredibly excited to watch the TV adaptation as soon as it is available.
This is a pitch-perfect exercise in sense of period and rock-bio plausibility. At one point, I had to check if this was actually based on a real band. The American author Taylor Jenkins Reid is the latest writer to enter the unforgiving mosh-pit that is pop fiction, written as an oral history with each band member and associate (managers, partners, producers etc) giving their side of the story with recollections that often differ.
Daisy Jones and The Six feel so vividly real that part of my mind was trying to recall the chorus of such-and-such a song or the sound of Daisy's raggedly beautiful voice. She really immerses you in it, the crazy rollercoaster of life in a band. This masterpiece of a novel will fill your head with dreams of Fleetwood Mac, boho chic and that one song that will change your life.
I really enjoyed this book.
The narrative style is really compelling and the characters' unique voices come out strongly and clearly. The book depicts an extraordinary lifestyle but the relationships and emotional challenges are very relatable.
I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley but after reading reviews of the book I decided I wanted to listen to the audio book as I read so I bought the audio. This is such a brilliant novel and I loved it! It’s the story of a band called The Six in the 1970s and all the ups and downs that comes with making it big. Things become even more complicated for the band when Daisy Jones joins them. The dynamics between the band members is fascinating and it all felt so real! I loved how the book is told in snippets from interviews, which meant that we see each person’s view point and how memories differ from each perspective. Some people want to be seen in the best light, to be the hero and this shows through. Others play down the part they played, seemingly wanting to be a little more distant. This book was so good that by the end it felt like I’d read about a real band and I wanted to look up their music and to listen to it! It’s the mark of a great novel when you completely forget that this isn’t a true story. I highly recommend this book, I am sure it will be in my favourite books of the year list!
Daisy Jones is addictive. She is the woman who you want to be or want to fall in love with, or even simply be her best friend.
In Daisy Jones and The Six, we get a thrilling and almost voyeuristic insight into the life of a rock star which will keep you coming back for more. Taylor Jenkins Reid builds a rich and elaborate world for her fictional superstar, from their life on the road, right down to the lyrics and sounds for their songs. Through an innovative interview-style narrative she builds a picture of how this fictional band rose to fame, and how it all ended, framed as a look back decades later. The style lends an interesting angle to the tale, showing how unreliable the perspectives and our memories are, how characters spin events and even just how two different people see (or don't see) the same situation. It's an original way of writing which suits the style and genre of the book and serves to propel the narrative forward.
The wild, hedonistic lifestyle of a band on the road is shown warts and all, while the characters and relationships between them are not only larger than life, but thoroughly developed, with layers of complexity. In Daisy, Jenkins Reid establishes a modern feminist before her time, a woman who is very much her own person without falling into the cliché of 'strong, independent heroine', and without it becoming so overt that it is clumsy. We also see another side to this in Camila, and again in Karen and Simone, with a cast of female characters who, if not quite diverse, are all sufficiently different to show a breadth of female experience.
Jenkins Reid injects the novel with all of the wonder and intrigue of celebrity, but balances this perfectly with the intimacy of personal relationships. She is also unafraid to slap you with a hard dose of reality, reminding you sharply that Daisy's drug fuelled lifestyle is problematic as opposed to romantic.
It's no wonder this book has captured both public and critical imaginations, and has already been snapped up for TV by Reese Witherspoon. If you haven't already been swept up by the fever that is Daisy Jones and The Six, you are missing out on the sensation of the summer, event the year.
Such a clever book! Hit all the right notes and one that I can't stop recommending! Five stars is not enough for this modern classic in the making.
My first Taylor Jenkins Reed book and what an incredible one to begin my journey with this author. This was absolutely incredible. I listened to the audio book and am so glad I did, as the range of cast that narrated each character really brought the whole thing to life. The setting was so good, I loved all of the 70s references, I totally believed this band had to have been truth. That’s how good this was written. The characters were great, my absolute favourite being Camilla. Her perspective on relationships, her strength and the way she always without a doubt took the high ground, was so admirable. I loved how she always chose trust, no matter what. It was such an incredible way to look at relationships and family. Definitely will be continuing on with this author, as this book lived up to the hype it deserved. (less)
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The book is written in an unusual interview style, with multiple perspectives, but it is far from being dry, with the author’s skill making it lush and evocative. The narrative was occasionally hard to follow due to its myriad voices and the novel lacked the climax I was expecting, but overall an enjoyable read.
An amazingly convincing biography of a fictional band in the 70s, following their rise to fame and the toll it takes on the artistic individuals in a band. It explored the way that narratives can differ hugely when describing the same event, depending on the individual remembering. Great twist at the end too.
A superb book that I loved from cover to cover, I really enjoyed the transcript way in which it was written and it took you on a brilliant journey from the first to last page.
This is a really memorable read that I would highly recommend to friends wanting to read something a little different to their normal style
**Warning: Sex, drugs substance abuse alcoholism **
First off, I was not even alive in the 70s and am not really into rock bands, or rock music as a genre. But I do love other music.
There was something that made me request this from the publisher— curiosity. I wanted to know all about the band: their striving for success and also about them as people, their hopes fears and dreams. I listened to the ebook version of this via VoiceOver on my iPad and it is a Book of the Month this month in Nothing but Reading Chellenges Goodreads group.
The title got me interested. I wanted to know who Daisy Jones was, and who The Six were. This is my first book by Taylor Jenkins Reid and I have yet to review more from her.When I found out that the band in the book wasn't real but instead were modelled off an actual band I was surprised and shocked. The characters are so well fleshed-out and realistic. The author has such a talent.
The writing style is through a series of interviews and you can clearly tell who's speaking at the time. I did find the dialogue tags a little repetitive- "he said/ she said," but it's a very in-depth book.
Thanks to Taylor Jenkins Reid and Ballantine Books for my ARC in exchange for an honest and voluntary review.
4 stars.
I chose this book as my book for the "Most Popular Books on Goodreads Right Now" category of the Goodreads Summer 2019 Reading Challenge and it was at the time this review was written.
Until I realised that I had no musical ability, I spent most of my teenage years wanting to be in a rock band. It was the decade of emo, after-all; Hayley Williams and Paramore filled the radio waves and told me that, little girls from little towns could have great hair and be a rockstar too.
Then I wanted be a music journalist, following them along on tour like the guy from Almost Famous and being privy to their backstage shenanigans, at least until I realised I wasn’t great at writing (not that kind of writing anyway. How does one describe sounds in words, anyway? Because, I have not a single clue).
Then, the option was groupie but, of course, I don’t have any boobs so that one was, near-instantly, a no-go.
Now, in 2019, I have finally come to terms with the fact that, the closest I will probably ever come to a tourbus is by reading about one in a book just like this one. And honestly, after much rumination in my teenage years and finally growing up to have more interests than just in what the guy from All Time Low is doing at all times, I am completely fine with that.
After-all, books come without the hangovers.
Which, you know, although I would like to think I could party like rockstar, two years out of university means that fact can be more and more disputed.
So instead, I have Daisy Jones and the Six to live vicariously through and, despite it being written in the form of an interview transcript, Taylor Jenkins Reid’s expertly-crafted novel managed to perfectly evoke the time, atmosphere and people of the late-1970s and early-80s.
I was there at the Roxy, in the hotel bars, on the bus, in the Californian sunshine. I was there on stage, basking in the cheers of the crowd and doing anything I could to prolong the rush that I got from it. I was there on the arm of Daisy Jones, effortlessly cool, endlessly damaged and more than a little off my face at any given time.
The decades through which the eponymous Daisy Jones and the Six hit the big time was, in my mind at least, filled with possibility to a level that does not appear in any era; groups of teenagers grabbed their shitty guitars and their friends, got in a shabby van that one of them had conned off of a relative and really did have the possibility of ‘making it’. And, sure, maybe that is just a mirage but, reading Daisy Jones and the Six, maybe just for a second, you can achieve your dreams too.
Everyone knows Daisy Jones and The Six. They were famous. They sang rock & roll. They sold out arenas. Their music defined an era. And every girl wanted to be Daisy Jones. What people don’t know is what went on behind the scenes and why, on July 12 1979, did they split. Until now that is. This is the story of both Daisy Jones, and also of The Six and how they become Daisy Jones & The Six. It follows Daisy as she grows up in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs, sleeping with rock stars, partying with alcohol and drugs, and dreaming of becoming a singer-songwriter. As she grows up she starts getting noticed, for both her voice and her beauty. Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by Billy Dunne, who goes a little wild on tour when he struggles to deal with the pressure of finding out he is going to be a father. While in recovery, a producer puts Daisy Jones and The Six together when he realizes they could be huge together. What happens next is the stuff of legend.
I have been wanting to read a Taylor Jenkins Reid novel for so long. Ever since I’ve seen numerous trusted bloggers hyping The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo up, I’ve been desperate to read something of hers. I requested Daisy Jones & The Six a while back as I thought it was a great time to try a Taylor Jenkins Reid novel, and also, I wanted to branch out of my comfort zone of YA into something a little different. Lets just say Daisy Jones & The Six didn’t disappoint.
Daisy Jones & The Six is a slow-paced and character driven novel, so if that is your thing, then I highly recommend you pick this one up. The beginning was a little too slow for me and didn’t really grab my attention immediately but that is simply because it focused more on The Six and I found Daisy. to be the much more interesting character. But around the halfway mark it really picked up and I couldn’t stop reading.
I absolutely adored the narrative style – which was like an interview/oral history style, so that was really good. What I really enjoyed about this style was how each character sometimes had a different recollection of a specific event, of how they perceived it or interpreted something different than a different character. However, this narrative style sometimes meant you didn’t get to really know some characters – for example some of the male characters sort of just … blended together for me.
The real story here though was about Billy and Daisy and all that romantic tension between the two characters. The two resented each other, but also admired each other and the whole relationship was kind of toxic but very interesting to read about.
Overall, I really enjoyed Daisy Jones and the Six and it has definitely made more desperate to give The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo a go.
Having heard so much about this book I was intrigued to know what all the fuss was about. I wasn't disappointed. Written like an interview, or docudrama, the narrative jumps from person to person which is a bit confusing at first (I found it helped to give each character a distinct accent or voice in my head!), but adds to the feeling of it being a real band that you are reading about. I understand it is going to be made into a TV series - I think it is perfect for that, and I look forward to watching it.
I’ve heard loads of good things about Daisy Jones and the Six, so was super excited to read this and was completely charmed and gripped by this documentary style narrative that interviews a whole cast of characters. I stayed up till 4am to finish this brilliant, heartbreaking book.
This follows the rise of Daisy Jones, a rich white rebellious young woman in the 70s LA who writes songs, and the rise of her singing career. Alternating the narrative is the formation of the band The Six. A quarter of the way into the story the narratives overlap and we see how Daisy Jones merges with The Six, and they become a huge music sensation. The story moves towards their individual struggles and their conflict with other band members leading towards their inevitable breakup.
I loved the interview style of the narrative and the story really zipped along. I enjoyed how two characters’ account of the same event would differ and the slight shifts in perspectives. I also loved the vivid setting of the story, Reid really captures that 70s sunny but drugs and sex fuelled LA atmosphere. My favourite characters were Daisy, who’s messy and self-destructive, and her tension filled love/hate relationship with Billy. I also really enjoyed seeing the behind-the-scenes of how the song is created and recorded, and the drama it brings. This is a complex, character-led story that’s more than about a band, that’s about people and how they relate to each other and the shifting moulds of their relationships. A nuanced and wonderful read.
I was blown away and literally couldn't put this book down! It was brilliantly insightful and addictive (no pun intended) and completely original. Cobbling together transcripts of the different characters, as if they had been interviewed, the story is set in the 1970's and follows the story of gorgeous, poor little rich girl Daisy with oodles of natural talent and charisma, and the journey of a band called the Sixes, front-manned by an equally sexy, broody lead singer Billy Dunne. The narrative was so fresh and realistic, that I was convinced the band had actually existed and searched the internet for photos and press releases only to keep finding references to the book.
The characters are beautifully painted, with depth and realism. The era described in such detail that I felt like I was there. And the exploration of the relationships and symbolism was pure art. A standing ovation to this author, I will remember this book for a long time. It still feels more like a biography than fiction.
I really loved the way the author created the characters and the conversations between them. Their chemistry was amazing and I felt that I was sitting amongst them. A fantastic read and very highly recommended.