Daisy Jones And The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid Review

Hey ForeverBookers, 

HAPPY EASTER!! (I’m starting writing this review on Easter Sunday but will probably post it tomorrow (Monday). How are you all doing today? I hope you’re well and that you are having/had a nice Easter. It’s nice weather where I am so I’m happy. 

I’ve just finished “Daisy Jones And The Six” and oh my gosh, it was AMAZING and so much better than I thought it would be. I thought it would be a book just about a singer who joined a band but it really surprised me with the twists and turns that it took. It didn’t really have much plot. It’s definitely more of a character driven story.

5 FREAKING STARS!!!

The readathons that I read “Daisy Jones And The Six” for were: 

* The OWLS Magical Readathon - Muggle Studies - a contemporary. 

* Reading Rivalry - A book where I relate to the main character - I go into this down below, but Daisy often feels alone and so do I. I also LOVE singing and music (almost as much as reading) and I have loved it for almost all my life!

* Popsugar Reading Challenge, 2019 - A book about a hobby - Daisy Jones And The Six is about a band so there is singing involved. I class singing as a hobby :).

* Litwits - Book from my TBR pile - “Daisy Jones And The Six” had been on my TBR since it was released earlier in 2019. 

* Fiction Feud Society - CandyLand - Bottle Caps - 201-400 pages.

* The Spring-A-Thon - Read a book with Spring colours (yellow, blue, green, pink, purple) on the cover. The UK edition of “Daisy Jones And The Six” has all of these colours on it so it’s perfect. 

* The Sailor-Moon-A-Thon - Saturn - a standalone - I think I’ll be doing this for as long as it takes me to finish it, as I love Sailor Moon and I want to complete it! I have included my past reads for the month so look at those reviews if you want to see what I read for which character.

* I’m not taking part in Literary Love Affair this month because the criteria were too specific. 

“Daisy Jones And The Six” is a standalone novel, which I don’t normally like, as I’ve said before but this year I seem to be finding ones that I do actually like. The novel is told in interview format, which I knew before going in to it. I honestly thought that I would hate this writing style, as I didn’t think we’d get as much information or emotion, as we actually did. I also thought that there would be too many characters this way, but there weren’t. I thought the story would be very scattered in the interview format but was ordered and flowed well. What I’m trying to say is that I thought the author did a fantastic job of writing in a different style, while keeping the story flowing. 

This is an adult book that includes themes such as loss and depression, abuse, and abortion as well as talk of sex, drugs and of course, rock ‘n’ roll. I, therefore don’t there recommend this if you’re sensitive to any of the above issues or younger than 17 as I think it could be quite impressionable to young people. 

I own The Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo by the same author, which I am now sooooo excited to read! I think I'll read it in August for the NEWTS readathon, as I read "Daisy Jones And The Six" for my OWLS.

Spoilers Below...

We start with Daisy who is pretty much alone in the world. 

“But she has no one. No siblings, no extended family in Los Angeles. Two parents who are so into their own world that they are all but indifferent to her existence.”

These are the first real details we get about Daisy’s life. She doesn’t have anyone to rely on while growing up. She’s alone, which is a lot like me. This made me feel really sad for Daisy so I already had an emotional pull towards her. This continues on into the novel. I didn’t find it depressing, though because it’s kind of my situation. Daisy is trying to become a better person throughout the novel, too. Yes, she makes some mistakes but don’t we all? I related to Daisy in this way in particular. I think that was part of the reason as to why I LOVED “Daisy Jones And The Six” sooooo much, because I could quite easily relate and see myself, though not as badly in the main character. We’re told that Daisy is an “outgoing kid,” early on because she tries to make a birthday cake for the mailman. This, I believe is kind of a cry for help. Of course, the mailman is the wrong person to cry to about a personal issue, however so she just keeps her struggles hidden down, within herself.  

“I wanted to fit in with the groupies on the sidewalk, with their joints and their flasks and all of that.”

This is what Daisy wants out of life. All she wants is to fit in but she becomes the star that everybody wants to see and listen to. Will she be a star or will she realise there are more important things in life? You’ll have to read to find out.

Although “Daisy Jones And The Six” is about Daisy and maybe her rise to fame, it’s also about the band that she joins and the problems they face with her and without her as well as the events the band attend, such as concerts and gigs. Billy is the lead singer before Daisy comes along. He isn’t sure what to make of Daisy at first. Daisy, however, is sold on Billy’s voice. 

“I loved Billy’s voice. There was something so plaintive about it. So vulnerable. I thought, this is the voice of a man who’s seen things. I thought it was so evocative to sound broken the way he did. I didn’t have that.”

Daisy and Billy have a very strained relationship throughout “Daisy Jones And The Six.” They don’t get on at first. Daisy realises that she doesn’t have the emotion that Billy does, as evidenced by the above quote. I think this is what pulls Daisy towards Billy, at first. It’s as if Billy can’t stand to be near Daisy, as if she puts him off music, though. However, when they do finally get to know each other, they do develop a sort of friendship. For Daisy though, it’s more than a friendship, it’s infatuation.

“I ached for him to love me back.” is what Daisy thinks when she’s singing with Billy in the novel.

For Billy, though, he gets married to Camila, the love of his life before he meets Daisy. He even has a strained relationship with her. Billy has struggles of his own, such as addiction and substance abuse. If he had met Daisy first would he be happy and married to her instead? You’ll have to read to see what you think. This is sort of a love triangle throughout “Daisy Jones And The Six.” I didn’t hate it because I think the format of the book was skipping around characters so much, it was impossible to dislike any of the tropes the author used. She put a specific twist on this trope, which I enjoyed. 

Camila and Billy have three children, female twins and an older girl as well. There is a surprise that’s revealed at the end of “Daisy Jones And The Six” that I don’t want to spoil but it involves one of the daughters. It’s not fundamental to the plot but puts an interesting slant on the events that are reported by the various members of The Six and the others that are interviewed. 

The other significant characters are Graham and Karen. These two characters have a rough time of it too, as well as Daisy and Billy for other reasons. Graham and Karen have an on and off again relationship, throughout “Daisy Jones And The Six.” I actually liked Graham a lot more than his brother, Billy as he seemed far more stable and willing to be good. However, Karen annoyed me. It was as if she thought she was better than Graham (and everyone else), which I really don’t think is true. I thought Graham was far too good for Karen, and that she was very selfish towards him. It was as if everything to do with their relationship was on her terms only, which I don’t think is right! There’s an issue that appears late on in the book, which Karen thinks she should be in charge of, for example. I wouldn’t dream of dealing with this specific issue without my partner by my side, though. I get that this was a slightly different time, but really? Couldn’t Karen have at least considered Graham’s feelings too?

Daisy meets a young man, Niccolo, an Italian prince and just marries him straight off the bat because she’s famous and feels it’s her right. However when this doesn’t go well, she rescinds on the marriage and divorces him. This is only a very small part of “Daisy Jones And The Six,” so I consider it’s okay to write that it happens. 

“I knew, right then and there, that I needed to get away from this person. That I had to take care of myself. Because if I didn’t… 

         He wasn’t going to kill me but he would let me die.” 

This clearly shocks Daisy more than I think most things have shocked her in her life. That’s what makes her get a divorce. She doesn’t think that even she deserves to die, however depressed she might get in the novel. 

What did I like about “Daisy Jones And The Six?”

I loved the characters. They all had something different to add to the story. No one felt like they shouldn’t be there. There are characters that I haven’t mentioned, that are interviewed. They don’t play as big of a role as those I have mentioned but their views are still valid. 

I enjoyed the writing style, as I’ve already said above. It was neat and interestingly done. 

I thought the novel brought up some important topics in an easy to read way, such as drugs, mental abuse and abortion. 

What didn’t I like about “Daisy Jones And The Six?”

There wasn’t anything that I can really pinpoint that I didn’t like or think was valid to the story. 

Overall then, “Daisy Jones And The Six” was a ride, to say the least. I really enjoyed it and it was easy to get through! I highly recommend it for a dark contemporary standalone novel.  

Stand by for my next review, coming soon...