Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - Daisy Jones & The Six

The story is written as excerpts of interviews from multiple viewpoints. I think this is a fun and unique way to tell the story of all the characters from their own perspectives. The reader can see right away where the story changes based on each person's experience.

There are so many characters involved in this novel, but they are all so distinctly different from one another, you have no problem keeping them straight. Warren is the comic hero of the story. With all the dark themes, his character lightens the mood.

I started flipping to the back of the book where the lyrics of the songs are printed. Each time they mention a new song, I go back and read the lyrics. I think it helps create a better understanding of Billy and Daisy's actual feelings and emotions.

I absolutely loved reading this book. It was fun and uplifting while also being dark and self-reflecting. I hate this feeling I have connecting with Simone. It makes me sad on a personal level, but I think that's why her quotes stick with me so much.

Check the TWs if you have concerns, but I definitely-100%-recommend this book.

Content Warnings

bgirl_jazz's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny sad tense 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

5.0

Really well written, incredibly compelling. Especially a great audiobook read because of the star power behind the readers for each character!

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linneak's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring 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

4.5

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jamiejanae_6's review against another edition

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adventurous reflective sad tense fast-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

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mymylight52's review

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emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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paulwesterberg's review

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adventurous hopeful reflective fast-paced

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

1.75

Simone: . . . This was a girl that hadn't ever released a single piece of work. No album, no single. But she was in the magazines in photos with rock stars. Everybody loved her.

the oral history genre is really difficult even for historians to master. and the key part of building an oral history is to accrue hours and hours and hours of content, and then to go back and slash through it all; kill your darlings. you can’t necessarily do that with a fiction novel, without maybe feeling like you’re wasting a whole lot of time.

daisy jones & the six fell flat for me in large part because of how dishonest i perceived it to be to the craft of oral history. none of the conflicts felt real, few of the characters felt real, everything felt so contained in a way that real life rarely is. it feels unfair to critique a work of fiction for feeling like exactly that, but it was incredibly difficult for me to suspend my disbelief and read this as an oral history. but that's the challenge you take on by choosing such a distinct format for your story. i think i could've enjoyed this novel a lot more if it didn't mimic the oral history.

furthermore, moving beyond the key fact that none of the characters felt like real people—or, worse, like cardboard cutouts of real life musicians—taylor jenkins reid's greatest weakness as an author to me has always been her pacing. i noticed it in the seven husbands of evelyn hugo, and oh boy, did i notice it here; it was grotesque, at times. it's much harder to cover up any flaws in your pacing when your book is so hinged on its organization.

for billy to have his drug issues and then sober up so quickly was incredibly frustrating to me. it felt like there were no stakes every time he discussed his fear of relapse, because we barely got to see him at his lowest in the first place. we were constantly being told he was a “reformed” man, but it felt like he never even had anything to reform from. and for daisy to have constantly been portrayed as perfect, save for her drug issues—eye roll. being constantly told that your main character is just effortlessly amazing is grating. and this is such a minor, technical complaint—but for reid to portray her as an almost textbook heroin addict, and just be too afraid for her perfect main character to actually be a heroin addict is also infuriating.

unfortunately, this book just wasn't it for me. i didn't like daisy, and the way i was told so many times that i should; i didn't like billy, and how he felt entirely one dimensional; in fact, i only liked karen, and sometimes eddie, i think. and if there was supposed to be a plot twist, color me unimpressed—an oral history is not necessarily a plot-oriented form for telling your story, is all i have to say on that front.

sigh. i wonder if the series is any better.

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