Book Review: Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

/ Theresa Smith Writes

Daisy Jones and The Six…

About the Book:

A thrilling story told in the form of an extended oral history, Daisy Jones and the Six transports the reader to the world of ’70’s rock ‘n roll; creative chaos, musical alchemy and an iconic sound.

There was Daisy, rock and roll force of nature, brilliant songwriter and unapologetic drug addict, the half-feral child who rose to superstardom.

There was Camila, the frontman’s wife, too strong-willed to let the band implode – and all too aware of the electric connection between her husband and Daisy.

There was Karen, ice-cool keyboardist, a ferociously independent woman in a world that wasn’t ready for her.

And there were the men surrounding them: the feuding, egotistical Dunne brothers, the angry guitarist chafing on the sidelines, the drummer binge-drinking on his boat, the bassist trying to start a family amid a hedonistic world tour. They were creative minds striking sparks from each other, ready to go up in flames.

It’s never just about the music…

My Thoughts:

Well, it was bound to happen. After a run of five and four star reads, it was inevitable I’d hit a wall at some stage. In my defence, this is not the sort of book I’d usually choose to read, so it’s probably no surprise that it really didn’t float my boat. It is, however, the six degrees title for January, and also my local book club title, hence it making its way onto my reading list. Generally speaking, I quite enjoy music biographies, so I’m not adverse to reading about rock stars and their lifestyles. I do find the 1970s sex, drugs and rock’n’roll scene particularly distasteful though; it’s truly not my favourite music era and I find it repulsive to read about how much alcohol and drugs a person can consume without dying. So, from the get go, this was probably not the best book to reader fit. Clearly, this is all my problem and not the book’s fault. But it does offer you some context.

In terms of creativity though, this novel is clever and unique. It’s set up from the beginning as a non-fiction account of a real band, there’s even a dummy ‘author’ note at the start, and the book finishes with the lyrics of each song from the fictional Daisy Jones and The Six album. The entire story unfolds in transcript format, extracts from all of the interviews the ‘author’ did organised chronologically to chart the rise and fall of the band. Stylistically, it’s clever, but for me, it made for very flat and boring reading. It put me in mind of my early journalism tasks, reading through transcripts to rewrite into news stories. Except this had a lot more pages. I posted on Facebook that I wasn’t really enjoying this book and the overwhelming response was that it was excellent…as an audio book. I can see how that would be the case, particularly if the narration was spot on, which it must be because so many people recommended it. I believe it’s being made into a TV series. Again, I can see how this would work. There’s something about the story that lends itself to being heard and watched. It’s just not (for me) very readable – all tell and no show.

There were, however, some stand out quotes that I wanted to include here, and it’s through these you’ll see perhaps why this book is enjoying so much popularity. It has a strong feminist current running through it – hence it gaining the Reece Witherspoon sticker of approval. I also just want to point out that I liked the little twist towards the end where we find out who the ‘author’ is. That was nicely done.

‘That’s how it was back then. I was just supposed to be the inspiration for some man’s great idea. Well, fuck that. That’s why I started writing my own stuff.’

~~~

‘She was a drug addict. The type of addict that thinks that other people don’t know she’s using, which is maybe the worst type of addict of all.’

~~~

‘Eddie: Daisy showed up in a thin tank top and these tiny cutoff shorts. Barely covered anything.
Daisy: I run hot and I always have. I am not going to sit around sweating my ass off just so men can feel more comfortable. It’s not my responsibility to not turn them on. It’s their responsibility to not be an asshole.’

~~~

‘I don’t believe in soul mates anymore and I’m not looking for anything. But if I did believe in them, I’d believe your soul mate was somebody who had all the things you didn’t, that needed all the things you had. Not somebody who’s suffering from the same stuff you are.’

~~~

‘I wanted drugs and sex and angst. That’s what I wanted. Back then I thought that the other type of love … I thought that was for other types of people. Honestly, I thought that type of love didn’t exist for women like me. Love like that was for women like Camila. I distinctly remember thinking that.’

And my absolute favourite:

‘Camila: It’s not my place to say what happened that day. All I will say is that you show up for your friends on their hardest days. And you hold their hand through the roughest parts. Life is about who is holding your hand and, I think, whose hand you commit to holding.’

☕☕+1/2

About the Author:

Taylor Jenkins Reid is the author of several novels, including The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Forever, Interrupted. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, their daughter, and their dog.

Daisy Jones and The Six
Published by Penguin Random House Australia
First Released March 2019

24 thoughts on “Book Review: Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid”

  2. Hi Theresa, it doesn’t really sound like my kind of book either, but…that last quote was excellent. So maybe we can still discover some really good life lessons from books that don’t really tick our boxes.

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  3. I think I enjoyed it more than you (but not as much as others!) – it was a solid 3 stars from me, on account of the creativity of the format. I thought the author did well to create the characters and give them decent back-stories, in short bursts.

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  4. I’m with you: I have no interest whatsoever in the sex, drugs and rock’n’roll scene. After all, it’s not as if people don’t/didn’t know about the harm they’re letting themselves in for. The current fad for books about addiction holds no interest for me at all.

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    • You know as a teen I wouldn’t strive to find books that portray and display addictions but for people who have experienced watching alcoholism their whole life, I really feel the author helped me sort of understand the brain and thoughts of an alcoholic. Being around an alcoholic mother, uncle, grandpa and many others I always asked myself why are they doing this to ME? Could I do more? Why won’t they just get help? And other conflicting questions that I would never have the guts to ask them myself because I would be ignored, and pushed away as they fell deeper down the path of alcoholism. This book helps me and hopefully so many other people see both points of view as Camila wants Billy to get help, but Daisy just doesn’t care about how drugs and alcohol have been destroying her life, even though Simone has cared so much and offered countless amounts of support attempting to help her achieve sobriety. There’s always the person who ignores and someone who doesn’t want to be ignored as well as the person who wants to help them not be an ignorer. Yes, people know the risks of falling into addiction, yes they’ve probably thought about prying away from the substance but alcoholism and drugs are a blatant disease, that is so hard to overcome. You go into rehab and there’s is a high chance you relapse. I almost felt like Billy’s tequila relapse was maybe similar to how my mother felt wanting to put the bottle down but the sensation of forgetting the pain and giving in overtook her. I understand that everyone has different opinions but this hits a little to close to home and I want others to be vulnerable enough to put themselves in a position of someone who’s apart of the addicted or someone being amongst the addicted.

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      • Thanks for your thoughts on this. I recently watched this book in its TV series format and all of this came across a lot stronger in the TV series than the book, in my opinion. I definitely appreciated these aspects of the story more from watching.
        As an aside, I grew up with an alcoholic mother. I don’t have much interest in books about addiction because I’m tired from having lived with it. I guess it works either way, dependent upon the individual.

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      • One of the formative experiences of my life was when I was a teenager and a six year old and his little brother from next door knocked on our door after dark asking for food because ‘mummy was asleep’. She wasn’t asleep. She was too drunk to take care of her vulnerable little children, and at six, this kid knew that he couldn’t tell the truth about her.
        I encountered many of such children in my teaching career too, parents who’d fight to the death in the courts for custody of their children (all on legal aid, of course) and then we’d deal with the neglect and the cruelty these ‘loving’ parents dished out to their vulnerable children.
        I don’t want to read about any of it now, it was hard enough to deal with the emotional cost at the time when there was nothing much we could do about it except feed and clothe the kids, and pay for their books and pencils and excursions. And worry about them long after they’d left our school. No more for me.

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  7. I had never heard of this book at all until last week, but I think yours is the 4th or 5th review I’ve seen of it since then. It must be the Six Degrees challenge which has prompted all the bloggers I follow to read it.
    These quotes actually sound rather thought provoking, if a tad heavy handed. It also seems quite conversational, so I can see how it might work as an audiobook. Because I’m blind and therefore use audio all the time, I will probably end up reading it sometime.

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    • Yes, I’d say that six degrees bumped up the mentions of this one in recent weeks. Although I believe it also made a few best books of 2019 lists, so perhaps that has contributed.
      I would be interested to hear what you think if you do ever decide to read it.

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  8. I have to say I’m super impressed you read the whole thing considering how much you weren’t enjoying it. I couldn’t have read it, I only got a chapter or so in and gave that up. Well done! Audio definitely is the way to go with this one.

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  9. I’ve avoided this one for this exact reason: SO MANY people REALLY love it, I feel like I’m bound to be disappointed. And sharing anything less than a glowing review takes a lot of courage, good on you doll 😉 I actually don’t mind the whole sex-drugs-rock’n’roll angle, but don’t love it so much that I’ll give this one a go despite the hype. I’d give anything to be a fly on the wall at your book club chat, though! 😉

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