Booktube Book Review: Daisy Jones and the Six

March 21, 2019

Daisy Jones and the Six gives us a captivating look into a fictional music group in the late 1970s.

We get to know them in a series of Behind the Music-esque interviews, learning what brought them together. At the center of the group are Billy and Daisy, music-writing phenoms. While they make sweet, sweet music together, they couldn’t be more at odds, personally.

It makes for an explosive partnership. There’s always that threat of everything falling apart. But man, when they get in harmony, it’s magic. It reminds me of actual musical supergroups, my favorite being Blind Faith from the late 1960s. Steve Winwood, Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, Ric Grech…it was a union of greats. They came together to create one shining album, but that was it.

It’s like a supernova, flashing brightly and briefly, then gone.

Taylor Jenkins Reid is like a modern Edith Wharton in how she denies us our love stories. She seems to revel in putting these soul-deep connections together just long enough for them to find that recognition within one another, then finding heartbreaking ways to keep them apart.

It’s so deliciously horrible.

I found it hard to figure out my feelings on Camilla. Was she a strong woman or a doormat? I can easily argue it both ways And it was also hard to see the magnetic charm that Billy supposedly possessed. Billy has no charm. No real charisma. He has song-writing skills, but seems otherwise kind of whiney.

The real characters I liked following, the ones that Daisy Jones and the Six is not named for, are Karen and Graham. Ohhhhh, Wharton, I mean Reid, you’ve brought us such complex characters with those two.

Daisy Jones and the Six is a wonderful and unconventional book. I’d highly recommend the audiobook version – it’s a full cast recording and even includes the song, Honeycomb.

Daisy Jones and the Six
Taylor Jenkins Reid
Published March 2019
Ballantine Books

Daisy Jones and the Six gives us a captivating look into a fictional music group in the late 1970s.

It’s so deliciously horrible.

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