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bookishkale's review
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-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
4.5
I listened to the audiobook which is the way this book should be consumed. It was so fun! Made the book so much more lively. The book handles a lot of heavy topics, which I appreciated. It was heavy at times, but I felt the humor off balanced it enough.
This book is so dense, so it feels like everything is a spoiler, so just in case:
I was happy that Daisy and Billy didn’t do anything more than almost kiss. I really loved Camilla, and I didn’t want her to get hurt. Her death at the end of the book is heartbreaking, and I’m a bit eh at the idea of Billy getting with Daisy, but felt at peace with it being open ended. The side characters were the best part. Some of them were fustrating and rude, and other were so lovely and wonderful! I forget so many names but I truly loved those characters.
Loved that the book handles abortion, and the difference between Camilla and Karen and that they both had the chance to choose. I was listening to this on the way home from my honeymoon just after the overturn of Roe V. Wade was announced, and my husband and I were hit hard by this part. Made me cry. I wish Graham and Karen got together in the end, but I understand who they both are as people and why it wouldn’t work.
Daisy is one of my favorite characters because of how the book treats her, the back and forth is so interesting and real. She’s not perfect by any means and you get annoyed and frustrated with her, but you do with everyone! I love that the characters aren’t perfect. Her ending was amazing, everyone’s ending worked well. Simone was just a fantastic foil to Daisy.
THE ONLY THING I DIDN’T LIKE WAS THE PLOT TWIST. Billy and Camilla’s daughter being the narrator is just weird to me, I can see passed it, but I would not want to hear about all the dirty secrets my parents have. However, I’m glad Billy and Camilla raised her right, to see people at their best, even when they are telling you their worst.<\spoiler>
Well worth the listen.
This book is so dense, so it feels like everything is a spoiler, so just in case:
Loved that the book handles abortion, and the difference between Camilla and Karen and that they both had the chance to choose. I was listening to this on the way home from my honeymoon just after the overturn of Roe V. Wade was announced, and my husband and I were hit hard by this part. Made me cry. I wish Graham and Karen got together in the end, but I understand who they both are as people and why it wouldn’t work.
Daisy is one of my favorite characters because of how the book treats her, the back and forth is so interesting and real. She’s not perfect by any means and you get annoyed and frustrated with her, but you do with everyone! I love that the characters aren’t perfect. Her ending was amazing, everyone’s ending worked well. Simone was just a fantastic foil to Daisy.
THE ONLY THING I DIDN’T LIKE WAS THE PLOT TWIST. Billy and Camilla’s daughter being the narrator is just weird to me, I can see passed it, but I would not want to hear about all the dirty secrets my parents have. However, I’m glad Billy and Camilla raised her right, to see people at their best, even when they are telling you their worst.<\spoiler>
Well worth the listen.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Toxic friendship, Sexism, Addiction, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, and Vomit
jennyvlaar's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Drug use, Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Mental illness, and Infidelity
Moderate: Pregnancy, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Misogyny
jessicaludden's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
“The truth often lies, unclaimed, in the middle.”
Taylor Jenkins Reid is a genius for this one. There are so many things I loved about this book. I loved all the characters. Every single one of them were so well developed and super complex, except for Warren and Pete, but we love Warren regardless. I loved the relationships and the themes of love and memory.
I loved Karen. I loved how observant she was. There were always little things she was bringing to attention. I loved how she knew what she wanted and wasn’t going to change her mind about it, even if it did break Graham’s heart. I really liked her and Graham’s relationship and I’m sad it had to end the way it did, but it was for the best. There was no way they were gonna be able to be together when their desires were completely different.
I LOVED the women in this story. I’ve already mentioned that I loved Karen, but I also love the differences that are highlighted between the women and that they’re all amazing for it. Karen doesn’t want kids. Camila’s always wanted kids. Daisy feels like she won’t be good enough to have kids. Daisy dresses in more revealing clothes because that’s what makes her comfortable. Karen dresses more conservatively because that’s what makes her feel comfortable in the industry.
I especially loved how the situation with Billy, Daisy, and Camila was handled. Their relationships were so complex. Billy and Daisy have this great amount of trust between them. They have so much love for each other and both have the same priority of keeping their family together that they allow each other to have secrets. They trust each other enough to not have to know every single detail. They trust each other enough to take care of it and they accept that love comes with its heartbreak. Billy and Daisy’s relationship is described as being magnetic and electric. They’re each other’s halves. They both understand each other in a way no one else does because they go through the same struggles and they love the same things. They talk to each other through their music and sometimes that means hating each other. I loved the ending between Daisy and Camila. Throughout the book Camila shows so much poise when it comes to Daisy and Billy that makes you respect her so much. She recognizes the love that they have for each other, but she’s also not willing to give up the life she has and wants. She’s not angry even though it’s understandable if she was. She doesn’t want Daisy or Billy to be broken over this, so she asks Daisy to leave the band in order to save herself. It’s such a strong scene.
The descriptions in this book were SO good, which I think is really hard to do with the format. Everything from the live performances, to the album photo shoot, to Daisy’s loneliness, to Billy’s addiction, to Camila’s advice, to the song lyrics themselves. All of it made the story come to life. It felt like I was hearing them tell the story to me and sing the songs to me themselves.
I loved the oral history interview style of writing. Getting the narration of the story from so many different people was so entertaining. One of the many themes of this book is the idea of memory and perspective and how, because we’re human, what we remember isn’t necessarily always the truth. There were so many times where the band members said something that directly contradicted what someone else said had happened. Then you also have to take into account the fact that Daisy was on drugs for most of the story. Her recollection of events is very different from other characters. Then you have to think about bias and the image that characters have of themselves. It makes you wonder whose version of the story should I be trusting? How do I know what actually happened? And the answer is you don’t.
Favorite Quotes:
“If the rest of the world was silver, Daisy was gold.”
“I am not a muse. I am the somebody. End of fucking story.”
“I used to say I was born broken. She was born whole.”
“She said, ‘Did you get a record contract, yes or no?’ I said, ‘Will you marry me, yes or no?’”
“That’s what I loved about her. She was no wallflower. You just had to be paying attention to see it.”
“It did have that kind of feeling… you know you’re in a time of your life you’ll remember forever.”
“You’ve taken a big, black, bold line and you’ve made it a little bit gray. And now every time you cross it again, it just gets grayer and grayer until one day you look around and you think, There was a line here once, I think.”
“It didn’t seem right to me that his weakest self got to decide how my life was going to turn out, what my family was going to look like. I got to decide what.”
“He said to start thinking of what I’d need to do to believe my daughter was proud of me.”
“Something tells me men don’t do that same thing. When they are standing there, threatening a woman, I doubt they count every wrong step they made to become the asshole they are. But they should.”
“It was like I wanted to talk to him about him.”
“They each seemed like they thought the other one was the only person in the room. Like we were watching two people who didn’t realize thousands of people were watching them.”
“The Chosen one’s never know they are chosen. They think everyone gets a gold carpet rolled out for them.”
“I run hot and I always have. I am not going to sit around sweating my ass off just so men can feel more comfortable. It’s not my responsibility to not turn them on. It’s their responsibility to not be an asshole.”
“I think I’ve rolled my eyes about five thousand more times in my life just on account of Billy Dunne.”
“It’s like some of us are chasing after our nightmares the way other people chase dreams.”
“I was paying the price for the parts of himself that he didn’t like.”
“Some people just don’t threaten each other. And other people threaten everything about each other. Just the way it is.”
“What I realized, eventually was that Daisy’s all about effortlessness. And this had to be a song that sounded like it hurt to sing, like it was taking all the effort in her body.”
“And Daisy didn’t actually have confidence. She was always good. Confidence is being okay being bad, not being okay being good.”
“That’s it. Just two bitches playing rock ‘n’ roll.”
“Everybody wants somebody to hold up the right mirror.”
“I wouldn’t have come up with something like that. Which is what we all want from art, isn’t it? When someone pms down something that feels like it lives inside us? Takes a piece of your heart out and shows it to you? It’s like they are introducing you to a part of yourself. And that’s what Daisy did, with that song. At least for me.”
“But the only reason people thought I had everything is because I had all the things you can see. I had none of the things you can’t.”
“Billy and Daisy together was like tending a little fire. Good if controlled. Just keep the kerosene away from it and we’ll all be fine.”
“She was dangerous. And I knew that. But I don’t think I could recognize that the safer she felt to me, the more dangerous she was.”
“…it scared me that the only thing between this moment of calm and the biggest tragedy of my life was me choosing not to do it.”
“When you find that rare person who really knows who you are and they still don’t love you… I was burning.”
“History is what you did, not what you almost did, not what you thought about doing. And I was proud of what I did.”
“Songs are about how it felt, not the facts. Self-expression is about what it feels to live, not whether you had the right to claim any emotion at any time.”
“I’m saying that when you really love someone, sometimes the things they need may hurt you, and some people are worth hurting for.”
“Love is forgiveness and patience and faith and every once in a while, it’s a gut punch.”
“I trust you so much I can tolerate you having secrets.”
“That’s me. And no matter where we are, no matter what time of day it is, the world is dark and we are two blinking lights. Flashing at the same time. Neither one of us flashing alone.”
“Acceptance is a powerful drug.”
“Handsome men that tell you what you want to hear are almost always liars.”
“I always felt like Billy Dunne’s little brother. And that was when it occurred to me that he probably never defined himself as Graham Dunne’s older brother. Would never have thought to.”
“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 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 be peace.”
“I met Niccolo and I went, Oh, okay, got it. This guy’s a con artist.”
“The subtext—for her body, in that image—it’s self-possession. The subtext is ‘I do what I want.’”
“Everything that made Daisy burn, made me burn. Everything I loved about the world, Daisy loved about the world. Everything I struggled with, Daisy struggled with. We were two halves. We were the same. In that way that you’re only the same with a few other people. In that way that you don’t even feel like you have to say your own thoughts because you know the other person is already thinking them. How could I be around Daisy Jones and not be mesmerized by her? Not fall in love with her? I couldn’t. I just couldn’t.”
“Passion is… it’s fire. And fire is great, man. But we’re made out of water. Water is how we keep living. Water is what we need to survive. My family was my water. I picked water. Ink pick water every time. And I wanted Daisy to find her water. Because I couldn’t be it.”
“I think I’m pretending to be conflicted so that everybody feels better.”
“Life is about who is holding your hand and, I think, whose hand you commit to holding.”
“So I guess what I’m saying is, when we started singing ‘Honeycomb,’ I either knew I was losing her or I didn’t. And I either knew I’d loved her if I didn’t. And I either appreciated her, for all she was in that moment… or maybe I didn’t.”
“I fell in love with the wrong guy who was exactly the right guy.”
“It just became so perfectly clear to me that I had been holding on tightly to the possibility. The possibility of Daisy.”
“I said, ‘You don’t understand me. You expect me to be someone I’m not.’ And Graham said, ‘You never loved me the way I loved you.’ And both of those things were true.”
“Because I loved her with all of my fucking soul. To this day, there is a piece of me that still loves her. And there is a piece of me that will never forgive her.”
“I decided I don’t need perfect love and I don’t need a perfect husband and I don’t need perfect kids and a perfect life and all that. I want mine. I want my love, my husband, my kids, my life.”
“The two do you think you’re lost souls, but you’re what everybody is looking for.”
“Camila Dunne thought I was worth saving.”
“I may not have known your mother very well. But I promise you, I loved her very much.”
Taylor Jenkins Reid is a genius for this one. There are so many things I loved about this book. I loved all the characters. Every single one of them were so well developed and super complex, except for Warren and Pete, but we love Warren regardless. I loved the relationships and the themes of love and memory.
I loved Karen. I loved how observant she was. There were always little things she was bringing to attention. I loved how she knew what she wanted and wasn’t going to change her mind about it, even if it did break Graham’s heart. I really liked her and Graham’s relationship and I’m sad it had to end the way it did, but it was for the best. There was no way they were gonna be able to be together when their desires were completely different.
I LOVED the women in this story. I’ve already mentioned that I loved Karen, but I also love the differences that are highlighted between the women and that they’re all amazing for it. Karen doesn’t want kids. Camila’s always wanted kids. Daisy feels like she won’t be good enough to have kids. Daisy dresses in more revealing clothes because that’s what makes her comfortable. Karen dresses more conservatively because that’s what makes her feel comfortable in the industry.
I especially loved how the situation with Billy, Daisy, and Camila was handled. Their relationships were so complex. Billy and Daisy have this great amount of trust between them. They have so much love for each other and both have the same priority of keeping their family together that they allow each other to have secrets. They trust each other enough to not have to know every single detail. They trust each other enough to take care of it and they accept that love comes with its heartbreak. Billy and Daisy’s relationship is described as being magnetic and electric. They’re each other’s halves. They both understand each other in a way no one else does because they go through the same struggles and they love the same things. They talk to each other through their music and sometimes that means hating each other. I loved the ending between Daisy and Camila. Throughout the book Camila shows so much poise when it comes to Daisy and Billy that makes you respect her so much. She recognizes the love that they have for each other, but she’s also not willing to give up the life she has and wants. She’s not angry even though it’s understandable if she was. She doesn’t want Daisy or Billy to be broken over this, so she asks Daisy to leave the band in order to save herself. It’s such a strong scene.
The descriptions in this book were SO good, which I think is really hard to do with the format. Everything from the live performances, to the album photo shoot, to Daisy’s loneliness, to Billy’s addiction, to Camila’s advice, to the song lyrics themselves. All of it made the story come to life. It felt like I was hearing them tell the story to me and sing the songs to me themselves.
I loved the oral history interview style of writing. Getting the narration of the story from so many different people was so entertaining. One of the many themes of this book is the idea of memory and perspective and how, because we’re human, what we remember isn’t necessarily always the truth. There were so many times where the band members said something that directly contradicted what someone else said had happened. Then you also have to take into account the fact that Daisy was on drugs for most of the story. Her recollection of events is very different from other characters. Then you have to think about bias and the image that characters have of themselves. It makes you wonder whose version of the story should I be trusting? How do I know what actually happened? And the answer is you don’t.
Favorite Quotes:
“If the rest of the world was silver, Daisy was gold.”
“I am not a muse. I am the somebody. End of fucking story.”
“I used to say I was born broken. She was born whole.”
“She said, ‘Did you get a record contract, yes or no?’ I said, ‘Will you marry me, yes or no?’”
“That’s what I loved about her. She was no wallflower. You just had to be paying attention to see it.”
“It did have that kind of feeling… you know you’re in a time of your life you’ll remember forever.”
“You’ve taken a big, black, bold line and you’ve made it a little bit gray. And now every time you cross it again, it just gets grayer and grayer until one day you look around and you think, There was a line here once, I think.”
“It didn’t seem right to me that his weakest self got to decide how my life was going to turn out, what my family was going to look like. I got to decide what.”
“He said to start thinking of what I’d need to do to believe my daughter was proud of me.”
“Something tells me men don’t do that same thing. When they are standing there, threatening a woman, I doubt they count every wrong step they made to become the asshole they are. But they should.”
“It was like I wanted to talk to him about him.”
“They each seemed like they thought the other one was the only person in the room. Like we were watching two people who didn’t realize thousands of people were watching them.”
“The Chosen one’s never know they are chosen. They think everyone gets a gold carpet rolled out for them.”
“I run hot and I always have. I am not going to sit around sweating my ass off just so men can feel more comfortable. It’s not my responsibility to not turn them on. It’s their responsibility to not be an asshole.”
“I think I’ve rolled my eyes about five thousand more times in my life just on account of Billy Dunne.”
“It’s like some of us are chasing after our nightmares the way other people chase dreams.”
“I was paying the price for the parts of himself that he didn’t like.”
“Some people just don’t threaten each other. And other people threaten everything about each other. Just the way it is.”
“What I realized, eventually was that Daisy’s all about effortlessness. And this had to be a song that sounded like it hurt to sing, like it was taking all the effort in her body.”
“And Daisy didn’t actually have confidence. She was always good. Confidence is being okay being bad, not being okay being good.”
“That’s it. Just two bitches playing rock ‘n’ roll.”
“Everybody wants somebody to hold up the right mirror.”
“I wouldn’t have come up with something like that. Which is what we all want from art, isn’t it? When someone pms down something that feels like it lives inside us? Takes a piece of your heart out and shows it to you? It’s like they are introducing you to a part of yourself. And that’s what Daisy did, with that song. At least for me.”
“But the only reason people thought I had everything is because I had all the things you can see. I had none of the things you can’t.”
“Billy and Daisy together was like tending a little fire. Good if controlled. Just keep the kerosene away from it and we’ll all be fine.”
“She was dangerous. And I knew that. But I don’t think I could recognize that the safer she felt to me, the more dangerous she was.”
“…it scared me that the only thing between this moment of calm and the biggest tragedy of my life was me choosing not to do it.”
“When you find that rare person who really knows who you are and they still don’t love you… I was burning.”
“History is what you did, not what you almost did, not what you thought about doing. And I was proud of what I did.”
“Songs are about how it felt, not the facts. Self-expression is about what it feels to live, not whether you had the right to claim any emotion at any time.”
“I’m saying that when you really love someone, sometimes the things they need may hurt you, and some people are worth hurting for.”
“Love is forgiveness and patience and faith and every once in a while, it’s a gut punch.”
“I trust you so much I can tolerate you having secrets.”
“That’s me. And no matter where we are, no matter what time of day it is, the world is dark and we are two blinking lights. Flashing at the same time. Neither one of us flashing alone.”
“Acceptance is a powerful drug.”
“Handsome men that tell you what you want to hear are almost always liars.”
“I always felt like Billy Dunne’s little brother. And that was when it occurred to me that he probably never defined himself as Graham Dunne’s older brother. Would never have thought to.”
“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 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 be peace.”
“I met Niccolo and I went, Oh, okay, got it. This guy’s a con artist.”
“The subtext—for her body, in that image—it’s self-possession. The subtext is ‘I do what I want.’”
“Everything that made Daisy burn, made me burn. Everything I loved about the world, Daisy loved about the world. Everything I struggled with, Daisy struggled with. We were two halves. We were the same. In that way that you’re only the same with a few other people. In that way that you don’t even feel like you have to say your own thoughts because you know the other person is already thinking them. How could I be around Daisy Jones and not be mesmerized by her? Not fall in love with her? I couldn’t. I just couldn’t.”
“Passion is… it’s fire. And fire is great, man. But we’re made out of water. Water is how we keep living. Water is what we need to survive. My family was my water. I picked water. Ink pick water every time. And I wanted Daisy to find her water. Because I couldn’t be it.”
“I think I’m pretending to be conflicted so that everybody feels better.”
“Life is about who is holding your hand and, I think, whose hand you commit to holding.”
“So I guess what I’m saying is, when we started singing ‘Honeycomb,’ I either knew I was losing her or I didn’t. And I either knew I’d loved her if I didn’t. And I either appreciated her, for all she was in that moment… or maybe I didn’t.”
“I fell in love with the wrong guy who was exactly the right guy.”
“It just became so perfectly clear to me that I had been holding on tightly to the possibility. The possibility of Daisy.”
“I said, ‘You don’t understand me. You expect me to be someone I’m not.’ And Graham said, ‘You never loved me the way I loved you.’ And both of those things were true.”
“Because I loved her with all of my fucking soul. To this day, there is a piece of me that still loves her. And there is a piece of me that will never forgive her.”
“I decided I don’t need perfect love and I don’t need a perfect husband and I don’t need perfect kids and a perfect life and all that. I want mine. I want my love, my husband, my kids, my life.”
“The two do you think you’re lost souls, but you’re what everybody is looking for.”
“Camila Dunne thought I was worth saving.”
“I may not have known your mother very well. But I promise you, I loved her very much.”
Content Warnings
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Abortion, Drug abuse, Infidelity, and Sexual harassment
katmahalia's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
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
4.75
Wow. I really wasn’t expecting this book. It was beautiful and heartbreaking. The writing was like a masterclass in dialogue, and the character development, both good and bad, was subtle but profound. I’m really awestruck by this book. And I’m so happy I listened to the audiobook. Often times I feel that an audiobook can only be as good as the physics copy, and usually makes up for in ease of use what it falls short of in quality. However, I don’t think I would have enjoyed the story the same way had I read it on the page. The use of a cast with different voices but such raw emotional voice acting really made this book shine. Of course, when dialogue is written as well and as realistically as Reid writes, it’s hard to imagine an audiobook like this falling short.
And the story was really stunning. My favourite love stories are the ones that never happen. They are heartbreaking in their incomplete state, but leave no cliffs to hang from.
Anyway, in other words, I loved this book. What a privilege to have gotten to read it.
And the story was really stunning. My favourite love stories are the ones that never happen. They are heartbreaking in their incomplete state, but leave no cliffs to hang from.
Anyway, in other words, I loved this book. What a privilege to have gotten to read it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism, Abortion, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Grief, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Death of parent, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexism, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Medical content, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Self harm, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, and Dysphoria
eligru's review
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Drug use, Sexual harassment, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Abortion, Blood, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, Vomit, Infidelity, and Mental illness
Minor: War and Sexism
kaboom2016's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse
Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment
thevieira's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
well, taylor jenkins reid did it again. that woman has me in the palm of her hand.
just absolutely fucking amazing and groundbreaking. i kept forgetting i wasn't actually reading a book about a real band in the 70's - from the characters to the stories, to the lyrics and to the pain and passion... this was so well researched and written. it didn't feel like just any other historical fiction; it felt like a real story about a real band in a time when sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll were the only things keeping people alive.
- i HIGHLY suggest people listen to the audiobook. i have a physical copy and read it while listening to the narrators' performances (all of them were fucking fantastic) and it really enhanced the wonderful experience this book offers.
just absolutely fucking amazing and groundbreaking. i kept forgetting i wasn't actually reading a book about a real band in the 70's - from the characters to the stories, to the lyrics and to the pain and passion... this was so well researched and written. it didn't feel like just any other historical fiction; it felt like a real story about a real band in a time when sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll were the only things keeping people alive.
- i HIGHLY suggest people listen to the audiobook. i have a physical copy and read it while listening to the narrators' performances (all of them were fucking fantastic) and it really enhanced the wonderful experience this book offers.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Abortion, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Cursing, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Misogyny, Terminal illness, and Toxic friendship
kie777's review against another edition
dark
emotional
inspiring
lighthearted
tense
medium-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? It's complicated
4.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Abortion
Minor: Chronic illness, Death, Grief, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, and Sexual harassment
lachicaderojo's review against another edition
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
⭐4'25/5⭐
Es el primer libro que leo de la autora y me ha gustado muchísimo. Al principio tenía miedo porque al ser en formato entrevista, que hubiera tantos personajes y con mi memoria horrible, sentía que iba a desconectar fácilmente. Pero no fue el caso.
Es una lectura ágil, sencilla y directa. Y lo que más me ha gustado es que realmente me he creído que era una banda que había existido. De hecho, he buscado información sobre Daisy, sobre la banda y sobre la famosa portada del disco que tanto se ama en el libro.
He sentido que los personajes no están hechos para sentirse identificadx, sino para demostrarte lo reales que son, como cualquier ser humano, con sus cagadas y sus virtudes. La ambientación creo que está increíblemente lograda, incluso cuando no contextualiza apenas. Simplemente los personajes son el contexto.
Y que las drogas sean un pilar fundamental de la historia, para mí, hace más creíble a la banda y a su existencia en la década de los 70. Sin ser yo nada de eso, me he sentido en una especie de 'confort place'.
Dejándome los dientes largos para leer 'Los siete maridos de Evelyn Hugo'.
Es el primer libro que leo de la autora y me ha gustado muchísimo. Al principio tenía miedo porque al ser en formato entrevista, que hubiera tantos personajes y con mi memoria horrible, sentía que iba a desconectar fácilmente. Pero no fue el caso.
Es una lectura ágil, sencilla y directa. Y lo que más me ha gustado es que realmente me he creído que era una banda que había existido. De hecho, he buscado información sobre Daisy, sobre la banda y sobre la famosa portada del disco que tanto se ama en el libro.
He sentido que los personajes no están hechos para sentirse identificadx, sino para demostrarte lo reales que son, como cualquier ser humano, con sus cagadas y sus virtudes. La ambientación creo que está increíblemente lograda, incluso cuando no contextualiza apenas. Simplemente los personajes son el contexto.
Y que las drogas sean un pilar fundamental de la historia, para mí, hace más creíble a la banda y a su existencia en la década de los 70. Sin ser yo nada de eso, me he sentido en una especie de 'confort place'.
Dejándome los dientes largos para leer 'Los siete maridos de Evelyn Hugo'.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Abortion, Addiction, Alcohol, Drug abuse, and Drug use
Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual harassment
lunarhokaye's review against another edition
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
on a reread, Im not as taken by this book as I was before. I love full cast novels and will recommend them to anyone, but I have feelings.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Addiction, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Alcohol, and Drug use
Moderate: Sexual harassment, Abortion, and Sexual assault
Minor: Death