NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A gripping novel about the whirlwind rise of an iconic 1970s rock group and their beautiful lead singer, revealing the mystery behind their infamous breakup—from the author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and the new novel Malibu Rising, available now!REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK • IN DEVELOPMENT AS AN ORIGINAL STREAMING SERIES EXECUTIVE PRODUCED BY REESE WITHERSPOON … STREAMING SERIES EXECUTIVE PRODUCED BY REESE WITHERSPOON
“An explosive, dynamite, down-and-dirty look at a fictional rock band told in an interview style that gives it irresistible surface energy.”—Elin Hilderbrand
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR • The Washington Post • Esquire • Glamour • Real Simple • Good Housekeeping • Marie Claire • Parade • Paste • Shelf Awareness • BookRiot
Everyone knows DAISY JONES & THE SIX, but nobody knows the reason behind their split at the absolute height of their popularity . . . until now.
Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock ’n’ roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things.
Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she’s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road.
Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.
The making of that legend is chronicled in this riveting and unforgettable novel, written as an oral history of one of the biggest bands of the seventies. Taylor Jenkins Reid is a talented writer who takes her work to a new level with Daisy Jones & The Six, brilliantly capturing a place and time in an utterly distinctive voice.
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Daisy Jones and The Six is amazing!! I wasn’t sure how the story would unfold told in interview style but the story flowed magically. I am a child of the 70’s and loved all the rock icons. I felt as if I was being granted access to the intimate parts of the band’s lives. I fell in love with all the characters especially Daisy, who in my head is a cross between Stevie Nicks and Janis Joplin. I have been listening to the Daisy Jones Spotify playlist while reading and wish I could hear the songs from the book!
I’ve long been a fan of Taylor Jenkins Reid, and in Daisy Jones & The Six, her talent is on full display as she reinvents what it means to write a novel. She gives us memorable characters teeming with an artistic passion you can feel, and a wild ride that somehow seems to combine your own musical memories with a wholly fictional world. Immersive, original, and utterly irresistible.
I like 70’s music & the author makes the characters like able. It was an easy read. Makes you wish you were there @ a concert.
Reid’s writing is addictive and all-consuming. Filled with passion, complexity, and fascinating detail, Daisy Jones & The Six felt so real, I had to remind myself that it was fiction.
I absolutely loved Daisy Jones & The Six and I’ve heard the audible version is even better. The format of the book is interviews with each of the band members and the audiobook has different narrators for each character. I think I listened to Fleetwood Mac nonstop for a month after finishing the book because I just wanted more of that 70s Daisy Jones vibe. I wish there was a real album by Daisy Jones & The Six. Actually, random house has a playlist on Spotify for this book!
The story centers around Daisy, her love-hate relationship with Billy, the tension among band members touring together, and the lifestyle of drugs, sex, and rock & roll. Daisy, Karen, and Camila are all strong women and seeing how each of them interacts with each other is interesting. Billy and Daisy write their songs from pain and deep emotions, resulting in beautiful meaningful lyrics. BTW, the song lyrics are at the end of the book. I didn’t want to put this book down. The events, relationships, and emotions just kept drawing me in for more.
“Write a list of things you’ll regret
I’d be on top smoking a cigarette
Oh, we could get be lovely
If this could get ugly”
“Don’t you dare sleep easy
And leave the sleepless nights to me
Let the world weigh you down
And, baby, when you think of me
I hope it ruins rock ’n’ roll”
Overall, I’d say it was “meh.” She’s a brat, he’s an arrogant SOB. It felt like a bunch of whiny drug users complaining about how hard it was to be rich and famous…even though that was the goal all along. It also took me a while to get used to/enjoy the “interview style” of the narrative. Clearly I am alone in these feelings, as the novel is hugely popular and is being made into a TV show or movie. This one just wasn’t my jam.
It’s not real, it’s not real, don’t cry, it’s not real…
Is it though?
Why did I wait so long to read this?! I absolutely loved it! I could not put it down, I read it in one sitting! I went into this book blind, I just knew it was very popular. I loved the way it was written! I loved that you got so many different points of views in the book. It could of been a hot mess but it was done wonderfully! I think everyone should read this book! If you ever wondered what it would be like in a rock band in the 70’s read this. I’m giving this book all the stars!
This is one of the best historical fictions
If you haven’t read my fellow Los Angeles author Taylor Jenkins Reid, get this book. Although this is told in a unique format it has her signature style of building great feminist characters who offer surprises to the reader time and again. I fell into this book’s cool rock n’ roll world that is so vivid you’ll want to believe it’s real. I cannot say enough about the positive connections between females, the empowerment of strong women in an industry dominated by men, the clever view of addiction that avoids the pitfalls of stereotypes or glamorization and the love of music that you can almost hear. Read this before the Amazon show comes out. You need to experience it from the author first.
Additional Note: I rarely think an audiobook can surpass print, but I have to admit the massive undertaking by producers to create an all-star audio version almost does it. There is such life in this damn thing that you see them and in away, I sort of wonder if the Amazon show can live up. Seriously, get this book. In any format. Then listen to the Rumors album or some other great one from a time gone by.
As someone who loves Fleetwood Mac and seventies folk music, this book was my shit
Really 4.5 half.
First the good. There is a lot of good. This book is tightly plotted and wonderfully written. Reid Jenkins does an amazing job of creating these three dimensional characters using only dialogue. I thought the transcript format worked well.
She captures the life cycle of band to perfection. You feel the band falling apart but it’s never obvious. Same with Daisy’s downward spiral.
Now the lukewarm. (Because it’s not really bad.). This was a five star book right to the last page. I could have done without the very last note from Camilla. It reminded me of “How I Met Your Mother” and I didn’t like it. I would have ended the book at the end of the transcript.
My very first audiobook and what a way to start! I loved the story, loved the voices, and the actors/actresses who participated. They truly put so much emotion into these characters and they felt so real to me. Highly recommended!
I felt utterly immersed in this book, although I have to confess that it isn’t my usual fare. What an incredible idea! A rock group docudrama told through interviews taken 50 years after the events. Gloriously rendered. Bravo!
Sex, drugs & rock ‘n roll…this book about a rock band has everything you’d think, and even more. It’s beautifully constructed, with a build-up that leads to a satisfying conclusion. The only reason I didn’t give it five stars was because I thought a plot twist at the very end was a little contrived. I would’ve loved the book even more without it. All in all, a great read, and great insight into the highs (literally) and lows that come with being a rock star. (I guessed who Daisy was modeled after about half-way through…maybe you’ll realize it sooner than that.)
In spite of all the hype, I was reticent to read DAISY JONES & THE SIX, mostly because I had read that it was written as interviews, and that did not appeal so much to me. The story happened in the seventies, I wondered how accurately the era would be portrayed, but this concern turned out to be unjustified. The narrative – the interviews – takes place today, and overall the past was credible except the band had boatloads of money before their megahit, and it just doesn’t happen that way.
So I took the plunge. It took me two weeks to reach 35% because I kept putting the book down, it didn’t hold my interest. If you’ve read memoirs and biographies of 70s rock bands, DAISY JONES & THE SIX is pretty much it, except it’s fiction and the a-hole is a woman. I think the author did a great job regarding substance abuse and the creative and recording processes; in fact, that was handled better than in most legitimate biographies.
I liked Karen, the keyboardist; she had a distinct personality. My favourite characters besides Karen were Graham (the main male character Billy’s brother), Eddie (a frustrated band member, I expected more drama with this guy), and Camila (Billy’s wife). Billy, our hero, has his moments; at least, he’s sympathetic. Oh but Daisy… I never warmed up to Daisy, I didn’t like her at the beginning and it didn’t get any better. I just didn’t care what happened to her, which is not very good considering she’s one of the two main protagonists. Daisy is so perfect, the idealised bad girl rock star, she made my teeth ache and provoked much eye-rolling. Otherworldly beautiful, supremely talented, men are instantaneously drawn to her, she’s seen as sweet and nice – not so much in my eyes, but what do I know; I wasn’t entranced by her blue eyes, her bewitching voice, etc. The most über rock chick ever. Sigh. I saw her as entitled, way too demanding when it was not her band to begin with; she just disrupted everything with nary a care in the world. Just as I was about to post my review, it occurred to me that the characters have no backstories, or so little I don’t remember them. Yet, we learn briefly how it went after the split.
One more thing, and this does not concern only Ms. Jenkins-Reid, but I do wish authors would refrain from “quoting” bits and pieces – in this case the “lyrics” to several songs which I didn’t bother reading – of the superlatively magnificent works of their fictional artistes. It just feels like the author is begging to be acknowledged as brilliant since he/she already described his/her own words as such; I think it’s awfully pretentious.
I didn’t like how the book was divided: I was reading on two different devices and it was difficult trying to find my place when I switched. The writing is good, there was a (thankfully) unexpected twist, but overall DAISY & THE SIX is pretty much what I expected, no more no less; it’s OK, but as far as fictional rock bands go, I’ll stick with Spinal Tap.
I listened to this book on audio, and not only was it a spell-binding story, but the 10 or so actors who portrayed the main characters were all so good. I felt like I was listening to an actual podcast documentary about a band that I almost remember from the 70s. Fascinating character development that really gets to the core of how our hearts work no matter how much we tell them to go in other directions. Highly recommend!
I’m sad that I’m done reading this book but now I know why I’ve seen nothing but rave reviews for it! The writing was mostly dialogue because of the interview format—and it was sooo good! It was funny and insightful but still felt like real people talking. And as far as the people go, I liked almost every character in the book even when they weren’t making good choices. And I thought it was so cool that the lyrics to all the songs were in the book, too!
This book reads like a VH1 Behind The Music special, but the story it tells is unputdownable. This writer is quickly becoming one of my favorite writers!
Rock and roll, love, the story of a band’s — and a woman’s — spectacular ascent and fall: what’s not to love? The way this was written, in an interview format, added so much to the story. Sometimes narrative pyrotechnics get in the way but in Daisy Jones & the Six, those pyrotechnics ignited book.