Daisy Jones and the Six

Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
Genre: Contemporary Fiction (1970's - USA)
Type: Trade Paperback
Pages: 368
Source: Local Public Library
Publisher: Doubleday Canada
First Published: March 5, 2019
Opening Lines: "Daisy Jones was born in 1951 and grew up in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles, California. The daughter of Frank Jones, the well-known British painter, and Jeanne LeFevre, a French model, Daisy started to make a name for herself in the late sixties as a young teenager on the Sunset Strip."

Book Description by GoodReads: Everyone knows Daisy Jones and 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 and 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 and The Six, brilliantly capturing a place and time in an utterly distinctive voice.

My Rating: 4 stars

My Review: Author Taylor Jenkins Reid came on my radar two years ago with her previous book, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (which I LOOOOVED) so I had pretty high expectations for this book. With Daisy Jones and the Six, Jenkins Reid once again delves into complex human relationships and the price of fame, but this time opted to use a different format and era. Set in the 1970's and written as a rockumentary, this story is unique, impressive and will make you want to put on some Fleetwood Mac as you dive into a story about fame, sex, drugs and rock n' roll.

I'll admit that I was initially surprised by the documentary feel of this book but ultimately, I loved it. Through this format, the band mates and those around them, retell how they met, became a band and includes the many ups and downs, personally and professionally, that ensued as this 1970's rock band rose to fame. This method was so well done that I initially questioned (and even Googled) if Daisy Jones and the Six was a real band that Jenkins Reid herself had interviewed. Can you tell I'm not well-versed on 1970's rock bands? For the love of Led Zeppelin!

Jenkins Reid describes the era, through the experiences of the band mates, and doesn't hold back on the darker aspects of the time. While the issues raised are somewhat predictable (the ubiquitous sex, drugs and rock n' roll), I still found the story and the complicated lives of the two main characters, Daisy and Billy, compelling. I also enjoyed the inclusion of strong female characters and the underlying sisterhood vibe that is interspersed within the main story.

While different from her previous bestseller, Jenkins Reid continues to show her readers that she isn't afraid to tackle big emotions as it pertains to fame and complicated personal lives. Daisy Jones and the Six gives readers a roadie's eye view of the band's rise, dissolution and aftermath of their break up and it's one hell of a roller coaster of a ride.

Note: Fans wanting a little more Daisy Jones and the Six after they've finished the book, can find a Daisy Jones mix on Spotify which the author has put together and can look forward to the TV series that Reece Witherspoon is producing for Amazon!