REVIEW: ‘Daisy Jones and the Six‘ by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Am I at least several years behind the rest of the bookish world in finally falling in love with TJR? Yes. Was it worth the wait? Oh, yes.
The hype for TLR and ‘Daisy Jones’ is big, and it’s all justified.
I was on the library waiting list for this audiobook for six months - this book isn’t just popular in the online book community, it’s everywhere. The audiobook was completely worth the wait as well; it’s like this book was written for the format. With a full cast reading the interview/documentary formatted novel, we got to hear from everyone involved and I was quickly taken back to the 70s and the heart of rock and roll.
Everybody knows Daisy Jones and the Six.
From the moment Daisy walked barefoot on to the stage at the Whisky, she and the band were a sensation. Their sound defined an era. Their albums were on every turntable. They sold out arenas from coast to coast.
This is the story of their incredible rise: the desire, the rivalry - and the music.
Then, on 12 July 1979, Daisy Jones and the Six split up.
Nobody knew why. Until now...
Boy, is this book a journey!
I have to admit that at first I wasn’t convinced. I was curious about how the band became famous and then what happened to them, but the characters aren’t immediately likeable or empathetic - I had to let them grow on me. They did, though.
I’m a big music fan and I love going to gigs (though not so much at the moment…), learning the secrets of big bands and getting a glimpse into what life on the road is actually like so ‘Daisy Jones and the Six’ was a perfect match for me in that respect. It felt like reading a superbly written extended magazine interview with a no-holds-barred approach where I slowly fell in love with this messed-up family without even realising it. Even though I listened to the audiobook in only two days…
“All I will say is that you show up for your friends on their hardest days. And you hold their hand through the roughest parts. Life is about who is holding your hand and, I think, whose hand you commit to holding.”
I don’t think I even really, truly realised how much I enjoyed the book or how involved I was until the last line of the novel made me tear up.
I immediately declared myself a TJR convert, and though I initially gave ‘Daisy Jones and the Six’ four stars on Goodreads, I honestly haven’t stop thinking about it since…
Are you a TJR fan? Have you read ‘Daisy Jones”?
Written by Sophie
