REVIEW: Daisy Jones & The Six

“Music is never about music. If it was, we’d be writing songs about guitars. But we don’t. We write songs about women.”

Why Did I Read This Book?

I hate to admit it but the reason I pick the majority of books I read is because I want to see what all the hype is about. I’ve seen Daisy Jones & The Six floating around my social media feeds, so when I found this gorgeous copy in my local supermarket, I just had to have it.

What Did I Think?

Earlier this year I read a book called Queenie and I thought it the best book I had read in a long time. Yet nothing prepared me for how much I would fall in love with this book and every single one of its characters. I was so heartbroken to find out that they aren’t a real band because I tell you what, if they were, after this whole coronavirus lockdown is over, the first thing I would do would be to fly to America and buy a ticket to watch this band live. 

I got real Fleetwood Mac/Stevie Nicks/Florence Welch/A Star Is Born vibes from this book and it was so beautifully written, how could I not fall in love with it. The song that Daisy and Billy sing together reminds me so much of the song that Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper sing in A Star Is Born. We all know the one…

What made this book so unique is that when you’re reading it, you feel like you’re watching a documentary on how the band rose to fame, with all the characters getting their own say on events that happened. I like how every character remembers things slightly different to each other, making you giggle when you read each account. 

I want to be Daisy Jones. There I said it. The way she is depicted in the novel is so enchanting, no wonder everyone loved her. I love how everyone who meets her is completely astonished by her natural raw talent. I love her dress sense and I can really get behind the whole ‘no bra’ thing too.

“I had absolutely no interest in being somebody else’s muse. I am not a muse. I am the somebody. End of fucking story.”

Yet she has to fight for the right to be seen and heard. When she gets her first record deal she has to sing the songs they want her to sing, behave how they want her to behave and dress how they tell her. Could you imagine? Being so unique and beautiful in your own way and then having to change all of that just to get your music seen and heard by the public? 

What is so harrowing about Daisy’s story is that it is tainted by her drug and alcohol addiction. Yeah OK, it was that time when everyone who was everyone was doing drugs, even more so if you are in a successful band, but no one really tries to help Daisy. Their manager is often questioning whether he should have done more to help her, but I guess she had to make that decision on her own. I felt sorry for her. It broke my heart that she came from a family that couldn’t give a shit about her, and she just dated and slept with men who she didn’t love because she didn’t know anything else. Perhaps Daisy’s story is the most upsetting out of them all and is testament to the fact that fame is not everything. 

Love is a well-discussed topic throughout the book and Taylor Jenkins Reid offers some really honest and genuine dialogues regarding the different experiences of love that each character goes through. Some definitely resonated with me, whereas some definitely emphasised how each character felt. 

“I used to think soul mates were two of the same. I used to think I was supposed to look for somebody that was like me. I don’t believe in soul mates anymore and I’m not looking for anything. But if I did believe in them, I’d believe your soul mate was somebody who had all the things you didn’t, that needed all the things you had. Not somebody who’s suffering from the same stuff you are.”

I couldn’t believe that this band wasn’t real and when I found this out, all I could think about was how much hard work, dedication and sleepless nights must have gone into the making of this book. Obviously writing a novel is never going to be easy and I celebrate ANYONE who does, but to write a book the way Daisy Jones & The Six is written and to make us believe that this band is so real, Taylor Jenkins Reid must be so, so proud of the work of art she has produced. 

I loved this book with all my heart and to be honest, not a day goes by since reading this where I don’t think about the story and the characters. I can no longer listen to Fleetwood Mac without picturing this band. And the fact that the song lyrics to all their songs are at the back of the book, it just adds the icing to the top of the cake!

Thank you, Taylor Jenkins Reid. 

“I wish someone had told me that love isn’t torture. Because I thought love was this thing that was supposed to tear you in two and leave you heartbroken and make your heart race in the worst way. I thought love was bombs and tears and blood. I did not know that it was supposed to make you lighter, not heavier. I didn’t know it was supposed to take only the kind of work that makes you softer. I thought love was war. I didn’t know it was supposed to… I didn’t know it was supposed to be peace.”

Advertisement