Review – Daisy Jones and the Six

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.

Content Warnings: If you are sensitive to discussion of Alcohol and substance addiction/abuse, or discussion of abortion then this may not be the book for you.

Taylor Jenkins Reid has a way of creating such vivid and real characters that you would believe that you were reading a non-fiction. For me, this book was just perfection. I grew up listening to Fleetwood Mac and this just captured that era perfectly mirroring the feelings of the Rumours album, within this fictional bands struggles in writing their own epic album. Fleetwood was my parents music and Rumours was definitive soundtrack in our house so I think that’s why I so easily fell into the feel to the music era within the story. It was easy for me to see the look and the feel of the album cover discussions, the types of music they were producing. Jenkins Reid’s writing just makes it so easy to picture all of this.

Each member of the band was fully realised all with their own opinion on the events. Even the side characters just felt so real. There were memories that matched and those that contradicted each other. Those that added a bit of flavour or context to the events those that just humanised the characters. Taylor can truly form characters that have a rich personalities, they have such depth to them that they exist beyond the pages and we feel we are only getting a snapshot of their life. She excels at exploring the human condition and how we form relationships throughout life.

I listened to the audiobook while reading along. It gave it the feeling of watching a documentary. As the audiobook was full cast it gave that feeling of a well cut together documentary with old footage mixed in with the interviews in order to supplement the memories. The Audiobook is by far the best way to consume this book. The interview layout on its own doesn’t do this book justice you need the full cast to bring it to life.