Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

It’s hard not to miss this book, the social media campaign and love for this story has had it gracing my twitter and instagram feeds for MONTHS. I’ll admit I bought it because of the hype and the eye-catching cover. I knew nothing about what the plot was nor the writing style and I even hadn’t made the connection that Taylor is also the author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo – another book on my pile!

This book blew me away from start to finish, it’s told in a rather unusual way. The narrator has pieced together interviews she conducted with The Six, Daisy, other important industry members and friends. Right from the very start, you feel you’re reading a memoir about a real life band. I actually looked it up to check, because the detailed style and the depth of the plot makes it hard to comprehend that the band is fictional!

The note at the beginning lets you know that the band broke up in 1979 very abruptly, and that the narrator is trying to figure out the ‘why’. The story begins in 1965 to build up the background of how the band got together and their rise to fame. I was completely absorbed in the continuously changing POVs as the story captures the memories from each band member and other key individuals. With the band split at the back of my mind, each time tension started to build you’d wonder ‘is this the reason?’.

With so many different perspectives, there are a lot of wonderful side stories to follow throughout – Graham and Karen’s really piqued my interests and because of the way the story is set up, you know that the characters already ‘know’ their ending. I felt this added another layer to this story as their past was coming back alive through their re-telling of it to the narrator. I love how Taylor balanced it, so that you knew some of how the character feels ‘currently’ about another character, whilst also concealing a lot of emotions to allow the story to give an unbiased account of how characters felt about one another during the 60s and 70s. What I’m trying to say is, none of the characters spoilt the ending.

Daisy Jones & The Six are a rock’n’roll band, with Billy and Daisy creating the lyrics, which are often very deep, emotional and reflect their own feelings on topics; they both pour their hearts and souls into those lyrics and you can feel their connection to the words. The rest of the band bring the guitars, the drums and all the other amazing instruments into the mix, bringing the words to life. Taylor depicts the band’s process on creating an album with such detail, always homing in on the challenges, the rivalry and the eventual highs that the band feels. I also loved how she brought in the battle of classic rock’n’roll vs the hip hop/pop rock songs that are more likely to get the band a number one single and more success. It highlighted to me that often bands are singing what we want to hear, not always what they want to write and sing about.

Reese Witherspoon is quoted on the back cover as having devoured this book in a day, like her, I can agree this book has allurement that is quite special.

I’d highly recommend this book to all, it’s not the kind of book I’d usually read but Taylor has made a topic I’m not usually interested in – INTERESTING. Prepare to be amazed!

Daisy Jones & The Six is out now in hardback and eBook versions!

Until next time, Chloé x