
Title: Daisy Jones and The Six
Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
Genre/Themes: Light Historical Fiction, Pop Culture, Relationship Dynamics

Blurb from Goodreads
For a while, Daisy Jones & The Six were everywhere. Their albums were on every turntable, they sold out arenas from coast to coast, their sound defined an era.
And then, on 12 July 1979, they split.
Nobody ever knew why. Until now.
They were lovers and friends and brothers and rivals. They couldn’t believe their luck, until it ran out. This is their story of the early days and the wild nights, but everyone remembers the truth differently.
The only thing they all know for sure is that from the moment Daisy Jones walked barefoot onstage at the Whisky, their lives were irrevocably changed. Making music is never just about the music. And sometimes it can be hard to tell where the sound stops and the feelings begin.

My Review
Three stars??? I think.
I’m right in the middle with my rating of this. Everyone seems to either love this or hate it and I’m mostly ambivalent.
It took me nine or ten days to read this. I found it so easy to put down and never wanted to pick it back up again until I forced myself to this evening and then blew through the last 40ish percent of the book just so I could finish it and start something new.
Pros
- The narrative as given to us in an interview format. Loved that. Made me feel like it was a VH1 Behind the Music special in book format.
- The feeling of the music scene in the seventies really came alive and I could almost pretend that I was living my best Fleetwood Mac fangirl life…. Oh yeah. I read this PURELY because of the Fleetwood Mac vibes. I bloody love them. Best gig I ever went to was back in 2015 when the whole crew played an incredible extended set, no support act… Good times indeed.
- The female characters. The complete lack of crap they gave and just owned who they were as women.
Cons
- The male characters. I swear they felt interchangeable AF. I was surprised at about 3/4 way through the book to realise that there were two sets of brothers in the band…yup. That’s how utterly lacking in memorability those side characters were. Yes I get that rock bands are gonna always be about the lead singers because that’s just they way it goes but eh… This was just too sucky with character development. I need more.
- The prose…okay this is more on me than the author because the simplified prose style made sense with the interview format but it was just so perfunctory IMO.
- The interviewer / author of the piece…. *eye roll*
- Just toss off with that simpering cringe fest of an ending. Nope, no and no way.
- And the song lyrics at the end of the book………….. Oh dear god no. Sometimes snippets are so much better. And letting things up to the reader’s imagination. Felt like I was being force fed Jenkins Reid’s interpretation of the music too much. The thing I love about music is that as listeners we don’t ever truly know what the songwriter/s was/were feeling when they wrote it. And so the song becomes deeply personal to the listener. So in this book giving song names and an odd snippet of a lyric throughout the book was great because I could let my own imagination conjure up the entire emotional picture that the songs were painting in my own head… I did not want to read the song lyrics at the end. Cheesy AF in my eyes.
So there were good points and not so good points but as I have written this review and thought about how I feel about the book my ambivalence seems to have turned to negativity i.e. the cons seem to have outweighed the pros. The writing was definitely dull, plot line predictable and it made me not want to read for a week…
Two stars it is
But I can totally see this working as a TV mini series!

Other Works by Taylor Jenkins Reid I’ve Reviewed
My Socials

I keep hearing about this one and considering it, but the mixed responses and the idea of the interview format keeps kinda putting me off. Great review. ❤️
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It seems like one of those books that will really work better as a tv show. I’m so excited to see how the adapt it :))))
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Ah I ended up DNFing this one not very far in at all but I definitely identified with everything you wrote! The few intriguing things weren’t quite enough to keep me going. I agree that it would work way better as a TV show, with visuals and faces to names and seeing rather than being told! 🙂
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Yay nice to know I’m not alone in feeling underwhelmed by this. Definitely sounds like it suits tv better :))
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Sorry you didn’t love it! I’ve heard such good things about it
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I’m very much in the minority with this book I think. Such a shame, I really had high hopes
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I have seen people on both sides when it comes to this book. I still haven’t picked it up but I don’t know if I ever will. It’s not really my thing.
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Turns out it wasn’t my thing either lol XDDD
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Aw, I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy this one 😞 I loved it when I read it last month and managed to finish it in a day. I got emotional LOL I did listen to a majority of this on audiobook though which I think really brought the story to life a bit more. I do agree that reading the lyrics in the back was a bit meh — not really weird or anything but without having the beat in my head it just fell kind of flat. BUT they’re making this into a show and apparently they’re recording all the songs, and I’m SO excited for it!
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I was so disappointed by this…ugh sucks when that happens!!! But I can totally see it working as a tv show. I think it’ll be way better in that form. I wonder who they’ll cast for it?!?? It’ll definitely be interesting to see :)))
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I know! I’m really excited to find out and to finally hear the music! Finaally!!! Haha I’m so excited, don’t know if you could tell 😂
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Oh not at all could I tell. You’re keeping that excitement very under wraps 😂😂😂
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Bahahaha what can I say, I just keep it cool like that 😏😏
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Delightful review. I was ambivalent when I kept hearing/reading about this book. You have sort of dragged all my unstated reasons for feeling I did not want to read it into the light. Now I do not need to wonder any more, so thanks for that!
The structure does seem interesting, though.
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The structure is definitely interesting but it does become jaded by the end in my opinion. I don’t think TJR paid enough attention to creating her characters within that format as frequently there wasn’t a clear sense of distinctiveness between which character was giving their answer at a given time.
But I have a massively unpopular opinion with this book. The overwhelming viewpoint is positive… But I’ve always liked to march to my own drum beat I guess!!
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