Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Release Date: March 5, 2019
Read from: 2/9/20 - 2/11/20
Format: Print (Owned - BOTM March choice, 2019 Book of the Year)
My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Goodreads Rating: 4.21 stars
3.5 stars.
That’s about all I can say right now. I did have feelings from this story and the fact that this oral history format could bring that out is saying something. But this story had so much more in it that I just don’t feel was released with this format. There were parts that I felt like I could get so much more emotional if there was more description to really bring those feelings out of me.
Daisy Jones & The Six is a story about a fictional band that was basically the best in the world in the late 70's. In an oral history format, we "listen" to the band members and those important to them, tell us the story of how the band rose to the top. We hear how their personal lives unravel at the same time. The publishers really love the idea of mentioning non stop that this story embodies everything that the rock and roll world was during this era. All about sex and drugs. While drugs definitely were at the forefront of this story (because we all know they definitely were a huge factor in the lives of all our best known rock legends), sex really wasn't. I mean it's mentioned. Two characters are hooking up basically the entire time, and of course it's happening, but it definitely didn't drive the story and I was good with that.
There is a lot of conflict between the band members in various ways. People thinking they're more important than others, drug addiction, cheating, the hookups, creative conflict between the song writers. We all know the band breaks up in the end, but the wild lives of rock stars bring a lot to the table, so what exactly caused the end? A lot is involved. Love is a big part of the story too, and I found myself rooting for characters to find their happiness, and feeling it in my heart if they didn't. I went back and forth liking and disliking some of the main characters. Then on the side there's a few supporting characters that really remain static the whole time, but sometimes those are needed, otherwise there's just too much going on to follow.
The ending was overall believable, but when I went back and thought about it, I didn’t entirely believe one of the member’s reason for leaving the band. It just didn’t seem realistic that that member would give up their dream all because of that. Otherwise, it all made sense to me. And I could really feel all of their emotional turmoil, and understand their struggles with their issues. Whether it be relationships, fighting for their dreams, or trying to deal with drug issues, I was rooting for them all through that.
The ending culminated in most of the feelings I felt. For the first 100pgs I was considering stopping this book and waiting for my audio book hold to come in because I have heard the audio book is great. But today, on a day off, I read the remaining 200+ pages basically in one sitting, and all that time to really delve into it made me feel the build up to the climax and then the gentle let down as it all unraveled in a mildly painful way. But like I said in the beginning, the oral history format that we had to read really left me wanting for more. The entire time I was thinking that if I was watching and listening to this, how much emotion really could be coming out of it. Or, if it was even written in regular prose, with much more description to really dig into our hearts. I boosted my Goodreads rating to 4 stars just because it did leave me with the feels when I finished it, and I really needed my time to settle into that. But much of the book just left me wanting for so much more, and the beginning 100pgs really were rough. The story was there. It had the ability to be amazing, it really did. It just felt short enough with me to leave me disappointed in the end. It got SO CLOSE with me, but just didn't hit the mark. I definitely will be revisiting this story as soon as that audio book hold comes in. I am still wanting more, and maybe hearing the story instead of reading it this time will help give me that. (LOL that for the first time I'm sitting here after reading a book thinking maybe the print format actually took away from it and that the audio format would be better! Haha. First time for everything.)
P.S. there is a TV show being based off of this via Reese Witherspoons Hello Sunshine. I can not wait for that! Just don’t know yet when it will be released.
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