Daisy Jones and The Six

I think you have to have faith in people before they earn it. Otherwise it’s not faith, right?

Taylor Jenkins Reid, Daisy Jones and The Six

Daisy Jones and The Six follows the rise and fall of a mythical band called The Six. The story takes on an interview format that involves all the prominent members of the band as well as a girl named Daisy Jones. The interview follows Daisy as she rises to prominence as an it-girl and stumbles into The Six. From then on, Daisy Jones and The Six are a force to be reckoned with. They quickly rise to the top, writing and recording albums that lead to their international stardom. But underneath the surface lies turmoil that threatens to tear the band apart. Presenting Daisy Jones and The Six: a band you will come to love and root for all the way to the end.

This is one of those books that makes you a fan of a band that never existed. For a solid thirty minutes after I finished the book, I was convinced that I had read the story of a band that I had just never heard of and scoured Spotify and Apple Music in an attempt to find any of their songs. It was only towards the end of those thirty minutes that I realized that I had fallen in love and nearly achieved groupie status towards a band that just didn’t exist. That’s how powerful Reid’s storytelling is.

The book follows all of the prominent members of the band: Billy, Graham, Eddie, Warren, Pete, and their manager Rod. Occasionally, there are statements from other prominent people in relation to the band, but each of these window-peepers are meant to corroborate a story. Then, there’s Daisy Jones. The strong point about this book is that when telling stories about Daisy’s time before she was in the band, the narration feels separate, so there’s no confusion. When Daisy is in the band, the narration incorporates her seamlessly into the story. I love this.

I also really loved how the story was told in hindsight, as older members of the band recount their stories. Any story told in hindsight is going to have mistellings and Reid was careful to account for that. Everyone’s memory is slightly different and accounts for their feelings during the event that they’re recounting. All of the songs have different meanings, which furthers a prominent theme that music takes on many different forms and meanings for different people.

Even though the structure of the story was considerably different than a typical novel, the interview structure still managed to highlight the tensions between the band members, especially Daisy and Billy. The other characters were appearing to look in on the band, following Billy’s lead. The only person that challenged Billy was Daisy. It was an interesting insight to the what must have been the inner workings of some bands that were so popular, during that time and even fifty years later. This was definitely a strong point for the book. While the reader is aware that there is someone documenting the story, it’s not made obvious until towards the end of the book where some clarifications are truly needed to fill in the years because of some missing characters of the story. I also liked the incorporation of Camila’s note to her and Billy’s daughters, which continued to provide hope for Daisy and Billy’s long rooted for romance.

Speaking of Daisy and Billy’s romance, this was done beautifully. Daisy and Billy don’t fall in love instantly, instead, they are constantly at each other’s throats because they both symbolize the opposite life for each other. Daisy is a high flying party girl who knows how to have fun; Billy is a father who once knew Daisy’s life but chose to leave it for his family. Daisy is careless Billy is steadfast, which is ultimately why they’re so drawn to each other. Love, in this novel, is described in very different terms. Camila and Billy’s relationship versus Billy and Daisy’s relationship are polar opposites but are characterized by having one thing in common: both girls love Billy and Billy loves both girls. The balance between these three people who all seem to love each other is done subtly which makes it hard to know who to root for in the end. Both girls are vastly different but equally strong in their own way.

This is one of those books that I am excited for the adaptation of because I want to hear the music brought to life. Reid incorporates the lyrics of all the mentioned songs so that the reader can feel what fans of the band felt when they listened to these songs as they walked along the sunset strip.