Reviews with content warning for Pedophilia - 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.

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bekkah_co's review against another edition

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emotional fast-paced

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

3.0

I do understand why this book is loved. I can get behind the premise, but for me, I walked away frustrated at the messy characters and frustrated at the style. There is something incredibly human about the characters but they fell flat and too shallow to really connect to. Daisy Jones, the Six, and Camila just feel like a hypothetical "This is probably what rock stars are like". I struggled to understand the motivations of the characters (despite the fact their motivations are often literally spelt out).

The style does not really lend to scene setting well. With the whole text being formatted as an interview, it is very painfully unimaginative. It's hard to picture the spaces that the characters are inhabiting and how they physically interact with each other. In school we all hear the notion of "show, not tell" when we start writing. Given the nature of this novel, it was all tell and no show. I want to experience the sensations the band experienced, not have them told to me on the page as dialogue jumps between one white man to the next.

Due to the style, the characters seems to blend together. The men, in particular, really became a blob of amorphous white-male-rock-star-from-the-70s. I think the only one who really broke free from this was Billy. Billy was such a fascinating, frustrating character. I wish that Billy would have kept the boundaries he set up throughout the book. The whole emotional affair between Daisy and Billy was infuriating. The fact Camila ultimately just watched is even more so. Billy, throughout the novel, goes on about how much he loves Camila but then he continues to have an emotional affair/cheats on her.

Billy Dunne and Daisy Jones are both insufferable. Daisy Jones is a typical Mary Sue character that has everything handed to her because of how hot and how talented she is. Daisy Jones was a victim. There are notions of her hanging around and having sex with older men. TJR tries to balance the notion that she slept her way to the top as sexual liberation, but no, Daisy is just a victim. She gets hooked on drugs and alcohol and that becomes the rest of her personality. She has no awareness of her actions and the chaos she is causing. Billy is just as bad. Sure, he gets clean for his family, but as the novel progresses it is very clear that his family is not his priority.

I am someone who does tend to really appreciate adherence to near historical accuracy, but there were times that I wish TJR would have taken some liberties with this being a fiction book. Karen, who was one of my favorite characters, really got the short end of the stick. There was an opportunity there to platform the rather open, pro-choice movements that was occurring during the 70s. The fact that Graham said what he said really took me off guard. We see their relationship grow but then it shatters with a choice that Karen needed to make for herself and that there was an absolute refusal for an actual adult conversation. Let this text breathe. It's okay to write a pro-choice man in the 70s.

Overall, it's a fine read. What is described is written well, but the book was lack a lot for me.

ALSO: What the hell was up with that email? Why would someone include that in an interview that is going to be released to the public about their father and the woman he cheated on your mom with. I don't care that your mom is dead. It is weird as hell that after all this time, Daisy still occupies this much of Camila's and Billy's relationship with each other and their family.

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cowardthedog18's review

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing sad fast-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

Daisy Jones and The Six is a great example why the 1980’s-1990’s was the best time and worse time for Bands. It takes you into a world of friendships, Brotherhood, situationships, and relationships. And made the book about love, family and addiction. Perfection at its finest.

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danicoretrashhh's review

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dark emotional inspiring 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

*spoilers ahead*
i loved this book so much:) i didn't expect for it to be written in the interview style format, but that made it so much more raw and real. the story was so unpredictable, i was on my toes the entire time because i just *knew* that daisy and billy were gonna get together. but they didn't. i loved how complex billy was in that way. when he finally came to terms with himself about how he felt for daisy, that didn't change much. he still wanted to be with his wife, he still wanted his family. he still loved his wife more than anything even though she wasn't who he loved most in that moment.
i don't want to give too much away, but i loved this book for everything that it was. i loved all of the feminist/girlboss anecdotes from daisy, karen, and even camila. even though the three of them had different views on what they wanted to do in life and ended up doing much different things in life, they still held the core value of "i should be able to do what i want and what makes me happy, even if it doesn't seem like the right thing for you". and i loved how the three of them supported each other.
i wholeheartedly recommend reading "daisy jones & the six". it's my second taylor jenkins reid book (after "the seven husbands of evelyn hugo") and i was worried that after reading tshoeh, another book by her might not live up to what tshoeh was. but i was wrong, this book is a different type of monster. plus, mick riva was mentioned in the book. which means that evelyn hugo exists in the same universe as daisy jones & the six. which means that theres a slight chance that they could have maybe been in the same places.

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scmiller's review

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring reflective sad 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

4.0

4.1/10

Enjoyed the narrative technique of the novel — characters recounting events in an interview, engaging in dialogue with the interviewer.

I was impressed with how Jenkins Reid’s wrote her characters’ dialogue so conversationally. It was convincing and effortless.

I liked the stark discrepancies and contradictions between characters when recounting events. They were all unreliable in that way and I like how the story leaves the truth unclear.

I have a love/hate relationship with novels that are about music. It’s the same dissatisfaction I feel when watching cooking shows. You can describe it and show it to me all you want but it’s not in my mouth.

I consumed this novel via audiobook and really loved that there was a full cast. It was like I was listening to a play on the radio. It was so emotive and artistically done. Arguably one of the best audiobook narrations I’ve heard.

I found the ending of the band sudden. We all knew it was coming but yet I still found the way it was written anticlimactic and incomplete somehow, and not in a satisfying literary way.

I found the attempt at actually writing the band’s hit song “Honeycomb” and playing it at the end of the audiobook embarrassing??? You can’t write a novel and paint a picture about how extraordinary and talented and huge this band was and then expose my ears to whatever that was and expect me to say, yes, people definitely would have gone crazy over this song. It was cringey.

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