Daisy Jones & The Six: Reese's Book Club: A Novel

by Taylor Jenkins Reid

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • OVER TWO MILLION COPIES SOLD! 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, Malibu Rising, and Carrie Soto Is Back

REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK • NOW AN EMMY AWARD–NOMINATED ORIGINAL 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

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: 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.

• ISBN10: 1524798622
• ISBN13: 9781524798628
• Publish Date: 5 March 2019
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Random House USA Inc
• Imprint: Ballantine Books Inc.
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 368
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9781524798628

Reviews

[pamela]

While I enjoyed the way Taylor Jenkins Reid writes, and appreciated the interesting format, and depth of characters, Daisy Jones & The Six just didn't blow me away as much as I'd hoped it would. While the format went a long way to highlight performative memory bias, and the nature of unreliable narrators, it was still a story that's been told a thousand times and the narrative was one that's become so familiar as to border on clichéd. There's an absolute glut of drugged out rocker stories both in fiction and documentary, and it's a tale that's been done to death — Daisy Jones & The Six just didn't bring anything new to the table.

The real downfall of Daisy Jones & The Six for me though, was the fact that the format did a great job of building up the characters as people, but did little to build an actual story. It turned the old adage of "Show, don't tell" on it's head. This was 100% tell, with absolutely no show. And because of that, I wasn't drawn in to the story and ended up getting bored about half way through. But I kept going, because I assumed there'd be some pay off at the end with a climactic drama at their final concert. But that didn't happen. And then the mini-reveal at the end just felt tacked-on and meaningless. It wasn't something I was invested enough in to care about.

I know the world seems to be in love with this book, but I'm not one of them. It wasn't bad. It wasn't great. It was fine, and worth the read, but I just wasn't that invested.

[merryfaith]

4.5. I binged the audiobook in about a day. It's written in a "behind-the-music", interviews, investigative research sort of way, but actually listening to the characters and the interviews made it even more immersive to me. I'm sure it's great reading it as well, but this format just completely hooked me as an audiobook.

[zooloo1983]

I’m not going to talk about how I am late to the game reading this because it doesn’t need to be said, I have read it. Ok, I lie, I listened to it, I devoured it, I lived it!

I bought the book when it came out and I’ve been waiting for that moment when it was the right time to read it. I have heard all the praise, I did a bit of googling and I heard the best way to enjoy the book is by listening to the audiobook.

That audiobook! It’s pure genius and ecstasy to the ears!

You know the story, it’s a band in the 70s who have made it huge and they are telling the story, as they remember it, to what led them to their last ever gig in 1979. This is just immense.

Everything about the narration was spot on. I felt like they were real people being interviewed and everything they said sounded off the cuff and not that they were reading a book. The minutes where they had to add the laughter, the emotion, angry and then the moments where they struggled to speak, too choked up with emotion. My god, it got me and it broke me. The woman who played Daisy, my god her voice, it was perfection.

I didn’t want anyone to interrupt me when I was listening. I lost myself in that book, I was living the dream with the band. Everyone had their own demons, issues and quirks.

Daisy and Billy were battling demons, ones you knew were very real in that era. Making some poor life decisions as they try to muddle through. Daisy, yes she could be a bit of brat at times, but she was young, too young when exposed to the life but she grew up knowing her mind and what she wanted. Billy, he isn’t like the other men, well he is at the beginning but he met his love and he fought everything to keep hold of it. Yeah, he is a pain in the band, wants things his way but I admired him. Pair him and Daisy and the talent is off the wall but could also be explosive! Eddie, he was such an angry member of the band. Graham, Billy’s brother, struggles to understand a situation he does not want to be in. Karen, she was a woman, she knew her own mind and the rest of the supporting cast was superb. Camille, however, she just stole the show in her bits. She was a woman I could only dream of being like, such a beautiful soul. These were the main voices you hear, they told the story. I did love how everyone remembered things slightly different from each other. Like how they got their band name, what the lyrics mean in a song.

There were 2 endings I wanted but the one we got, well it was perfect. Made me sob. I had to go and sit in a room on my own for a few minutes to compose myself! Crazy I know but that’s how much the book affected me. I have a serious book hangover from this book, even once I have finished this review and my mind has cleared. I still won’t be over this book, no way.

[RoXXie]

Rezension | „Daisy Jones & The Six“ von Taylor Jenkins Reid
Durch die #NetGalleyDEChallenge2020 kam ich zu meinem Rezensionsexemplar von Daisy Jones & The Six von der Autorin Taylor Jenkins Reid und dann kam der liebe Nico aus dem Buchwinkel auf mich zu und fragte, ob wir nicht einen Buddy Read machen wollen. Gesagt, getan! Und wir beide hatten richtig viel Spaß mit dem Buch.

Billy: […] Daisy war ein Naturtalent. Wenn man gegen jemanden wie Daisy antritt, dann … Ja, das nervt. Aber wenn sie in deinem Team spielt … Wow! Ein echtes Kraftwerk.

- 'Daisy Jones & The Six' von Taylor Jenkins Reid


Rezension | Daisy Jones & The Six
Ich hatte bereits vor Daisy Jones & The Six diverse Biographien verschiedener Bands und Musiker gelesen. Doch diese Musiklegenden waren nie fiktiv, ergo war dieses Buch schon neues Terrain für mich. Der Interviewstil des Buches war daher nichts Ungewöhnliches für mich, doch anfangs hatte ich ein paar Schwierigkeiten die Bandmitglieder auseinander zu halten. Warum? Ganz einfach, bei realen Bands hat man immer ein Gesicht zum Namen der jeweiligen Musiker:Innen und da es sich bei Daisy Jones & The Six um eine fiktive Band handelt, war es eben nicht so leicht die Leute auseinander zu halten.

Das Nachtleben in Los Angeles
Die 70er Jahre müssen party-mäßig, wenn wir vom Drogenkonsum mal absehen, der Hammer auf dem Sunset Strip gewesen sein. Ich weiß nicht, wie oft ich schon vom Whisky a Go Go oder Rainbow Bar & Grill in realen Biographien gelesen habe. Aber jedes Mal weckten sie ein inneres Verlangen in mir, dass ich mir diese Locations irgendwann noch einmal ansehen muss und ich kann fühlen, dass ich mir diesen Traum auch definitiv erfüllen werde. Natürlich in der Hoffnung, dass diese dann auch noch existent sind.
Passend zur damaligen Zeit hat natürlich auch Daisy Jones ihre Jugend auf dem Sunset Strip verbracht. Die real getreue Darstellung, wie es damals war, hat mich anfangs und das gesamte Buch über, immer wieder glauben lassen, dass ich von echten Personen lesen. Damit hat die Autorin eine meisterhafte Arbeit hingelegt.

Daisy: […] Man brauch jemanden in seinem Leben, von dem man weiß, dass er einen niemals in die falsche Richtung lenken wird. Man muss nicht immer mit ihm einer Meinung sein. Hin und wieder kann dieser Jemand einem auch das Herz brechen. Aber man braucht mindestens eine solche Person, die einem immer die Wahrheit sagen wird. […]

- 'Daisy Jones & The Six' von Taylor Jenkins Reid

Das Bandleben und alles was dazu gehört
Alles, und ich meine wirklich alles, ist an dieser Story stimmig. Die unterschiedlichen Charaktere zeigen deutlich auf, dass Genie und Wahnsinn (wenn auch teils beeinflusst durch Drogen- und Alkoholkonsum) wirklich nahe beieinander liegen. Auch bei Daisy und Billy ist das nicht anders. Denn hier treffen zwei sehr talentierte Künstler aufeinander, die nicht mit, aber auch nicht ohne einander können. Diese Konstellation macht die gesamte Zweckbeziehung und die Intensität der Band aus, auch wenn man die restlichen Bandmitglieder nicht vergessen darf.
Denn alle haben irgendwie ihren Anteil, zum Erfolg und späteren Scheitern der Band, beigetragen. Sei es die Hassliebe zwischen Daisy und Billy, die Affäre zwischen Graham und Karen, die Gemütlichkeit von Warren und Pete oder der Egotrip von Eddie. All diese Beziehungen wirken so schlüssig und überzeugend, als ob ich direkt mit der Band überall unterwegs war. Die beschriebenen Gefühle und inneren Kämpfe, die alle Mitglieder, inklusive des Managers und Produzenten, zur Aussage gebracht haben, konnte ich nachempfinden.
Die künstlerischen Energien und Differenzen stehlen sich mit einer Dynamik ins Herz, dass mir fast schwindelig wurde. Ist es das Gefühl von Ruhm?

Billy: […] Alles, wofür Daisy brannte, dafür habe ich auch gebrannt. Alles, was ich an der Welt geliebt habe, hat auch Daisy an der Welt geliebt. Alles, womit ich zu kämpfen hatte, dagegen hat Daisy auch zu kämpfen. Wir waren zwei Hälften. Wir waren dieselbe Person. So wie einem das mit nur sehr wenigen anderen Menschen geht. Dass man gar nicht das Gefühl hat, seine Gedanken äußern zu müssen, weil man weiß, dass der andere sie längst denkt. Wie hätte ich mich im Umkreis von Daisy Jones aufhalten und nicht vollkommen fasziniert von ihr sein können? Mich nicht in sie verlieben? Das konnte ich nicht. […]

- 'Daisy Jones & The Six' von Taylor Jenkins Reid

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Fazit
Diese fiktive Bandbiografie kommt mit erschütternder Ehrlichkeit über Musik und Drogenkonsum, Liebe und Hass, um die Ecke und sie erwischt einen mit voller Breitseite. Ich konnte Daisy Jones & The Six nicht mehr aus der Hand legen. Eine klare Leseempfehlung kann ich hier nur aussprechen.

[ibeforem]

When the buzz started over this book, I didn't really think it was for me. But then a few of my friends raved about the audiobook and we decided to make it our audiobook book club pick for April and I dove in.

This is a situation where if I had read the book in text form, it would probably be 4-stars, but the audiobook production really pushes it over to 5-star territory. This is the story of a band called The Six, lead by Billy Dunne, and Daisy Jones, the talented but chaotic young woman who helps push the band to super-stardom. The story covers the beginnings of the band and of Daisy's career and goes through the break-up of the band a few years later. You get the points of view of Daisy and most of the band, as well as some peripheral characters, so you get to see the same situations from different angles. There's a lot of drug use and arguments and relationship strife, both romantic and otherwise, but there's also a lot here about art and making art and how people come together to make something beautiful and successful, sometimes in spite of themselves.

It's a multi-actor cast, which is helpful and adds a lot of character to the story. By halfway through I could generally tell who was talking just by the voice, but I did tend to get Warren and Graham confused. "Karen" is performed by Judy Greer, which is an absolute treat.

There is just one major problem with the audiobook. I WANT TO HEAR THE MUSIC! I really wish this album really existed so I could hear it. But it looks like Amazon is making a series out of this, and I will definitely be watching.

[Romance Schmomance]

When you read a book or listen, in this case, that's outside of your genre and it absolutely blows you away?! That's exactly what happened with Daisy Jones & The Six. I did not expect to like this one at all, but I loved every single minute of this audiobook.

I am so glad that I dove in and listened to the audio instead of reading. I'm a romance lover through and through, and I truly didn't think I would have enjoyed this if I chose to listen to the audio.

This story was absolutely everything, the author did a phenomenal job weaving Daisy and the band The Six's story all into one. With a full cast on the audiobook, you can't help but just be so enthralled with every character's story. The band history that Taylor Jenkins Reid comes up with for this book is absolutely insane and it constantly made me question if this was actually a true story. All the Stevie Nicks vibes and was like can it be? Nope, it's all fiction and that just makes TJR a mastermind in this genre.

To me, this story was absolutely memorable, it's just one of those that'll stick with you forever. I can't say that I loved these characters, but every single one of them had something to bring to the story. Highly recommend the audiobook for anyone that's been on the fence.CHECK OUT THE REST OF MY REVIEW | HERE

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[kalventure]

Creative and evocative, I enjoyed this look at a fictional rock group. But not as much as I thought I would have. The writing is beautiful and the way the "interviews" are pieced together to tell the story is clever, but the truth is that I wouldn't have finished this one had it not been for the amazing full-cast audiobook performance. The voice actors brought the story to life in a way that on the page alone wouldn't have really engaged me at all.

I especially loved the character of Karen and her strength to live her life as she wants to, not for anyone else or the expectations of society. I saw a lot of myself in her and that part of womanhood being... almost celebrated, is important.

Content warnings: alcohol and drug abuse (like, every drug imaginable), alcoholism and recovery, cheating

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[lindsey]

Before I even start this review, I just want to say that even though I just finished reading Daisy Jones & the Six, I want to immediately go and listen to the audiobook, which is something I've never done before. I may give it a little while and then go back and listen to the audiobook because even though I thoroughly enjoyed reading this, I think the audio version would be a completely different experience. If you're torn between whether to read or listen to it, go for the audiobook!

That being said, I really did enjoy this book. The characters were so well developed, the storyline was believable and perfectly paced, and though I was a little worried about the format, I quickly embraced it. It worked so well for the story.

The storyline was so believable that it was hard at times to remember that this was a fictional band. This is a book that I hope gets turned into a movie just so I can get my hands on a copy of the soundtrack. I wanted to hear these songs so badly, and while I was glad that the lyrics to all of them were included at the back of the book, hearing them would have been so much better!

Told through interview transcripts, Daisy Jones & the Six reveals the story of The Six's rise to fame after Daisy Jones joins the band and the subsequent problems that they all face. Weaving in between individual relationships within the band, and the relationship of the band as a whole, each character's story is so fleshed out that, again, it's hard to believe that this isn't a true story.

In short, I would highly recommend this book if you're a fan of well-told stories, interesting book formats, and '70s rock bands.

[alindstadtcorbeax]

Star Rating: —> 2 Stars
( Sept. 2020—just found myself thinking about this again and I think I was just afraid to go into the “under 3 star” territory. I feel awful for some reason, but this is my honest star rating after thinking deeply about it.

[Steph L]

Overall 5/5 stars. As a fan of music I was here for a story about a band and there adventurers. I enjoyed these characters mostly; I was well past halfway through the book before I started liking the main character Billy Dune. By the end of the book I saw where he was coming from more and I enjoyed him more as a character.

Style 4.5/5

I wanted to put a bit about the style of this book. I was not a fan of it, and by the middle of the book I felt like I was just pushing thorough some sections to get to get to the next part. This was a mere case of the style of this book didn't work for me, but I could not see this story being told any other way. The style didn't take away from my enjoyment of the plot or the characters.

Plot 5/5

This was a story that was drama on top of drama on top of more drama. For a story about a band I was expecting nothing less, so I knew going it that it would probably have a lot of drama found in it. Yes, the plot is dramatic but it's also a real story about what needs to be told about the music business. This was the highs and lows of band just as any band would have highs and lows. There is a twist near the end of the book that I was not expecting, but having seen the same thing in The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, I should have seen it coming.

Characters 5/5

These characters had so much going on in their lives, I thought they could all use a vacation. The characters are dramatic and I was very much here for the drama in them. I enjoyed the story that these characters told.

Writing 5/5

Taylor Jenkins Reid is a new favorite author of mine and it is because of the way that she writes her stories. Her books are a delight to read and I will definitely be reading more from her. The main thing I love about Taylor's writing is that she writes about these celebrities but they are real and they are relatable.

Pace 5/5

The pace of this story was excellent. The moments when the band was performing were fast paced as they should have been because it was a concert. The other moments were slow and dramatic just as they should have been because of how much was happening in the story.