Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

163 reviews

pageafter_paige's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book REALLY surprised me since the plot didn’t really sound like something I’d love. I was pretty sure going into it that this book that it just wasn’t going to be for me be I was quickly captivated by literally every character. They all had such strong clear voices and identities even through the interview style of writing. This book was devastating in a way I wasn’t expecting. I went in this book thinking it was a cute romance but I got a raw book about every emotion out there. I used to study addictions counseling so this book felt really personal and I felt my heart break many times. By the end of it I was in tears and I can’t remember the last time a book made me cry. Just so beautiful. There’s nothing I didn’t like about this book and not one thing I would change. I was halfway through the book before I realized it’s a fake band (I didn’t read the back I just trusted the hype lmao)

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Violence, Alcohol, Cursing, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Grief, Abandonment, Death, Emotional abuse, Abortion, Addiction, Blood, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts

rosenau's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Alcohol, Addiction, and Drug use

Moderate: Vomit, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Cursing, Abortion, Death, and Death of parent

Minor: Abandonment, Sexual content, and Cancer

znvisser's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

After reading the Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo in about 24 hours, I remember looking into this one but deciding not to pick it up. Several reviewers said the format made the story feel cold and distant, and I was afraid I would feel the same. Now that the series trailer came out, I decided to give it a try after all, because I'd rather read it before watching. And luckily, the format actually did work for me! And once again I flew through the pages, which might settle Taylor Jenkins Reid’s status as a genius for me.

I love myself some layered relationships and perspective switches and this book excelled at that: the transcripts were basically up-tempo perspective switches and some immediate contradictions between characters made me laugh out loud. However, these contradictions mostly seemed small and in that way I think the concept was slightly underutilized: globally their recollections don't differ that much and it surprised me that all this time later, such a large group of people who in the most part barely kept in touch have held on to such similar narratives of their time together. This was further emphasized by the amount of detail and still lively emotions seeping through the memories of the many events - a whole 40 years later. This bit felt slightly unrealistic to me and additionally, I would think that period had given everyone some time for more reflection (not just Camila), but it did help the story along so in the end it didn't bother me that much. 

Being in a band is in many ways a fragile thing, with all the egos and relationships between all members in different compositions. I really felt the author did a great job portraying that realistically. Added to this, it made much sense how there wasn't just one thing that eventually teared the band apart but there being an accumulation of all the complex relationships, mutual treatment and ever-growing emotions which where either more or less unspoken. In the end this is a bittersweet story and I love it for that. Personally, I didn't really care much for any of the men in the story

or the reveal of the author, which didn’t really add anything relevant?

but all the more for the women, especially Camila. And now I‘ m curious to find out if the mini series can compete!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, Drug use, Alcohol, Addiction, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, and Death

Minor: Abandonment and Infidelity

hiddeninfantasy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pregnancy, Blood, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Drug use, Abortion, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Death of parent, Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Misogyny, Sexism, and Sexual content

shaylee_n_20's review against another edition

inspiring reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Drug use, Abandonment, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Abortion and Pregnancy

Minor: Chronic illness, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, and Suicidal thoughts

vrhayes08's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Drug abuse, Alcohol, Addiction, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Abandonment, Death, and Infidelity

Minor: Chronic illness, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Emotional abuse, Eating disorder, Sexual content, Pregnancy, and Misogyny

anitaforthewin's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The book absolutely wrecked me again and I’m ready for the Amazon prime series to do the same. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Addiction

Moderate: Death and Death of parent

Minor: Abortion, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

jomarie's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

We love broken & beautiful people. 🎤 

While I didn’t know much about this book going into it, I had high expectations based on what I had heard about the story. 

Since the book is set up to be a biography of the band, I guess it explains why it took a minute to focus on Billy and Daisy’s upbringing. However, I don’t feel like the story really started until 120 pages into the book. Once it did, I loved playing with the tension between Daisy & Billy. I thought their working relationship was fascinating & honestly kind of cheapened when the romance element was introduced.

Seeing their process of building out the album was cool, though I sort of wish the lyrics were included in the story & not just the back of the book so we could see exactly what they were talking about. In fact, I wish the format was played with a little more. It was certainly interesting to have it laid out as a series of interview transcripts. Perhaps that’s why I heard so many people say it worked well as an audiobook. As a print format, the style lacked the detail that would be included in an actual biography of a band like photos, articles, & the song lyrics I mentioned before.

As for the characters, my opinions of them shifted throughout the book, which is good so no one was just one thing to me. Daisy was tragic & beautiful and Billy was just tragic. I don’t feel like he got an actual win throughout the whole book. As the story progressed, I felt more invested in Karen & Graham. Then, the ending twist didn’t quite land for me as much as it could have & I think it’s because it’s such an easy edit in my mind that I’m annoyed it was written how it was.

Overall, I think this was not the best medium to tell the story the way it was. I’m curious to see how the upcoming TV show might do it differently & if the story hits a little harder for me then. If you like TJR or the OG rock scene, I can see someone enjoying this, but for me, it just wasn’t a hit.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Alcohol, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Abortion, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Eating disorder

Minor: Abandonment and Infidelity

glass123banan's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Drug abuse, Alcohol, Addiction, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Pregnancy, Abandonment, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Abortion, Death, and Death of parent

loinereads's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

This book was an extremely easy read.
The characters were lovable, the way of writing had you jump right into their lives. It was very easy to picture this band in the seventies, at the peak of their career since the story was written through verbatim. 

I have to admit this got me confused, I thought the author’s note at the beginning meant that the band was real, turns out they’re not but this interview-like fiction really allowed the book to have some depths and truth. 

As always, I adore Taylor Jenkins Reid’s novels. They always tell beautiful stories with an excellent and very easy writing. 

The only reason why I might not give 5 stars is because I don’t think this is the kind of story that will make me think a lot or reflect very much on serious subjects — even though some topics like sex and drug abuse were very serious and gave a very grave dimension to the novel, they’re not subjects that alter my perspective ultimately. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Blood, Alcoholism, and Addiction

Moderate: Abandonment