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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Well, I can say with utter certainty that Daisy Jones & The Six was my first literary surprise of 2019. I did not expect to love this book so much. In fact, I was almost certain that I was going to end up putting it down after a few pages. When it comes to Reid’s previous novels, like The Seven Husband’s of Evelyn Hugo, I fall into the unpopular category of the unimpressed. Even as I write that I feel a little bit of shame. Maybe I didn’t give Evelyn Hugo enough of a chance. Either way, I expected that Daisy Jones would be the same, but I was determined to try anyway.
I’m not going to do a recap of the story here – that’s what book jackets are for. What I will tell you is how interesting I found the narrative style, the way that the book reads like a memoir and documentary rolled into one. As I read “The Groupie Daisy Jones”, I found the constant interruption of various characters annoying, but by “It Girl” I was hooked. Reid wrote this story in such a remarkable way. It feels as if the characters are speaking directly to you, that they are telling you their story while looking you in the eyes. It feels intensely private and personal. The perspectives of the different characters at times can feel disjointed, but as the story unfolds you begin to see that the only way you can truly understand the whole story of Daisy Jones & The Six is through these different narratives. I do not believe that this book would have the same impact if it was only told from the perspectives of Daisy and Billy. Even if you threw Camila in every now and then, it still wouldn’t have been as powerful compared to the way the finished book reads. The dynamic of each individual contributes so much to the story. This isn’t a book that is just about the rise and fall of a band, it’s about the relationships we create, the things that we are willing to fight for -whether it be love, passion, respect, or recognition.
Reid masterfully nails the idiosyncrasies of each character – the bitterness of Eddie, the struggle within Billy, the self-destructiveness of Daisy, the push and pull between Karen and Graham. Even the nonchalant manner of Pete is conveyed through his lack of participation in the narration. There are very few authors that can do what Reid accomplished with the vast number of characters within this novel. Each of them have a distinct voice and view, enough so that I stopped reading who was speaking because I could tell just by how the words were written. There are very few books that have this kind of character development.
I will say that after I read the last page and closed the book, I sat and thought about the story for awhile. While the novel is titled Daisy Jones & The Six, the star (for me) was Camila. The unveiling of her character and strength was something that I did not expect. For most of the story, you think that Camila is unassuming – so much so that when Daisy first meets her, she doesn’t even mention her or the notice of her – which makes sense. Daisy is the star of every room. She is used to the attention on her and she undoubtedly shines bright even at her worst moments. But Camila. Camila is the constant. There’s a line in Audioslave’s song “I Am the Highway” that goes “I am not your rolling wheels/I am the highway/I am not your carpet ride/I am the sky”. This is Camila. She is the constant, not the fleeting. She is the steady hand, the comforting calm, the immovable presence that centers Billy. When Camila stated, “If I’ve given the impression that trust is easy – with your spouse, with your kids, with anybody you care about – if I’ve made it seem like it’s easy to do….then I’ve misspoken. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. But you have nothing without it. Nothing meaningful at all. That’s why I chose to do it. Over and over and over. Even when it bit me in the ass. And I will keep choosing it until the day I die” (215), I didn’t think I could love a character more – and that ending – THAT ENDING. Somehow I was able to hold tears back, but just barely.
For me, this book lives up to all the hype that it has generated and then some. Without a doubt, I will recommend Daisy Jones & The Six to every single person I know. Now excuse me while I revisit some of Reid’s earlier work, because I obviously was missing something!
With the first spoken words of the author’s note in the audible version of Daisy Jones and The Six, I wondered if I’d somehow never heard of this quintessential California band of the 1970s. But then Daisy herself began speaking, I recognized the actual voice of Jennifer Beals, and I congratulated the author on a job well-done. Apparently, I’m not the only one who has been fooled into thinking it might have been the real thing.
There are times when I love listening to a book and times when I loathe it: this was one of the times I loved it. Jennifer Beals, Pablo Schreiber, Ari Fliakos, Benjamin Bratt, Judy Greer. It’s a great cast and they do a wonderful job infusing the multiple point of view story with emotion, personality and pathos.
More: https://daeandwrite.wordpress.com/2019/07/04/daisy-jones-the-six-by-taylor-jenkins-reid/
It’s rare that I read a book that consumes me to the point where I can’t wait to get done with all the other crap on my plate (including editing a book of my own) just so I can read, but that’s exactly what happened while I listened to DAISY JONES & THE SIX. As a lover of 1970s rock music and a writer of rock star erotica, I picked it up, expecting to be entertained. What I got was so much more than a quick diversion. I got a story–a history about life, love, art, passion, and loss that dragged me kicking and screaming into its depths.
The personalities of the band members were unique and strong in their own ways. Control freak? Check. Broody artist? Check. Drug addicts? Check. Sex fiends? Check. Misunderstood poet? Check. Jealous, underrated musician? Check. They were all there, and I felt for every one of them on some level–their struggles, their triumphs, their crashes. I loved getting to know them through this interview-style format. The narration was positively superb, and I thought the way the voice actors performed like a round robin kind of deal worked perfectly.
The author made me feel like I was right there, at the height of the rock music scene in the 1970s. I smelled the pot and the sweat from the crowds at the concerts. I felt the music deep in my bones. I heard Daisy and Billy crooning with the kind of passion that only happens when the planets align just so. I could picture the drug-fueled parties trudging like juggernauts into daybreak, smashing shit up and not giving a damn about the cuts and bruises left in their wake. I ached with these bandmates, these lovers, these friends, these enemies as they gave and took from one another.
But the best part–the part that really stabbed me in the knackers–was the twist at the end. I thought I was hearing one story, but it turned out the hero was a completely different person than I expected. These rapid-fire, shot-to-the-gut plot twists in the final pages left me breathless and hurting and wishing for things that could never be.
All I can say is WOW.
I rarely rate books, but when I do, it’s because the story grabbed me in a way that few others have. Five glorious rock stars for this rockumentary-style book. Long live Daisy Jones & the Six.
A great book that reads as an interview with multiple people. I found the different perspectives of particular situations interesting. A very good, and quick read due to great writing.
I read this book in one day. I don’t often do that but I could not put it down. It’s so well written and the characters are so well-developed that I felt like I knew them. I laughed out loud with them and I cried and hurt with them. If you love 70’s rock and roll, you HAVE to read this book!
I came to this book after reading The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (Loved that book). I enjoyed Daisy Jones a great deal but not on the same level as Seven Husbands. The characters were well drawn and visual and it’s a very easy read.
I’m big on the fictive dream, where the author drops me into the story via the characters and I’m transported away. My world dissolves and I’m in the world the author created. Daisy Jones is written in a stylistic structure, it’s the way a journalist might write a story so it’s episodic with starts and stops and never drops me into that sought after, fictive dream. Also, there isn’t a stated conflict, I didn’t know where the book was going and in no way could predict what the story was about other than seven different point of views of their odyssey. It’s definitely an odyssey story. Don’t get me wrong, I did truly enjoy the trip this book took me on and I’m now officially a big fan of this author, I just would have preferred this story in a more standard structure, hence four stars instead of five. I have purchased all the books by this author and look forward to her future novels. I will still Highly recommend this book.
I highly recommend listening to this on audiobook. It was fantastic. Easily the best audiobook I’ve ever listened to.
I’m in the minority- I did not love this book. I was in high school during the 70s so I actually grew up in this era. I felt that the author tried to cram every stereotypical rock cliche in- drugs, groupies, trashing hotel rooms. Yes, all that happened but it has been overdone in every Woodstock hippie themed story. I tired of it about halfway through.
Why did Daisy Jones and the Six end up splitting up after their final concert in 1979? No one knew until these in-depth interviews spread light on the the 70’s music scene and the band’s rise and fall. This book is innovative! I loved how it’s written in an interview format. The story told through the eyes of the band members is compelling and highly entertaining.
I loved this book!!! I read it in a few days and it was great!!!!
I listened to the audio version, which was quite the production. As many narrators as there were characters. It was a little slow as first, but then picked up. It’s a good story with an interesting structure/way of telling it.
Listen to the audiobook – so well performed!
As much as I absolutely loved The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, I hesitated to pick up Daisy Jones & The Six. I adore old glamour Hollywood stories and secret romances, so Seven Husbands was an easy win with me (though so much else beside the plot made it exceptional), but I actively dislike rock-n’-roll, the 70s, and anything to do with the wild side of fame and fortune, which is the spine of this entire novel. This is exactly the type of book I would normally have 0% interest in. Still, I gave it chance – I love Jenkins Reid just that much – and I’m so glad I did. This book blew me away. It read like nonfiction, and not just because of the interview style it was told in. The voices were absurdly real, so tangible and alive and just jumping off the page that I had to resist Googling songs or people mentioned in the book to get a second look – I knew they weren’t real, but it was so easy to forget they weren’t with these characters roaring to life right there in front of you. Simply telling you what this book is about doesn’t do it any justice. The magic is in the reading of it, and I would dare you not to fall head over heels for the tumult and tension and utter beauty of this magnificent novel. Taylor Jenkins Reid has done it again.
This novel was so not what I expected, in the best way possible. The author’s choice to write this in an interview style was so effective and impactful.
All of the characters, especially the female characters, were so layered and actualized. They felt real to me, and I was wholly invested throughout the entire book. And the ending left me in tears. Good tears, but complicated-feeling tears.
This book is funny, interesting, poignant, and feels so real. It’s also an interesting examination of music in the 1970s, which I thought added to its overall appeal. A must-read.
Sex, Drugs and Rock’n’Roll! One of my tip reads for 2019. I didn’t want it to finish.
Took me back to my youth and delivered me unscathed to my present. An awesome read.
Best book I’ve read in a very long time! Told from unique points of view. Very original story!
get It
Boring
4.5/5
Okay, wow. This was my first Taylor Jenkins Reid novel and it did NOT disappoint. Daisy Jones and the Six is coming of age story about a girl named Daisy Jones who becomes a 60s and 70s rock legend. It’s also a story about addiction, family, friendship, love and of course, music. The book is told through an interview transcript between our interviewer and the members of Daisy Jones and the Six. At times it reads a bit like a game of telephone and even states at the very beginning that “sometimes accounts of the same event differ” and that “the truth often lies, unclaimed, in the middle.” This aspect of the book is probably my favorite. It makes for a cast of unreliable narrators and allows you to form your own opinion of the events that unfold and decide whether to take a side or come up with your own truth.
TJR’s ability to write an entire cast of characters who each have distinct voices and personalities is fantastic. It’s made even better if you listen to the audiobook (I did) which includes a full cast narration. My reason for leaving .5 stars off this rating is because I do think keeping track of all the characters was a little difficult at first. However, once I was able to distinguish each person’s voice, it was like listening to a documentary. As someone who loves classic rock, I feel like TJR really did her research when it came to a realistic portrayal of what life was like for people in a world-famous rock band. She captures the highs, the lows, and everything in between to create a story that feels so real that I found myself Googling to see if Daisy Jones and the Six were ever a real band or at least to see if they were inspired by any one band in particular.
If you’re a fan of classic rock, the movie Almost Famous, or just looking for something different to read, then I recommend picking this up. Daisy Jones and the Six 100% lived up to the hype and turned me onto a new author.