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A review by book_concierge
Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
3.0
Book on CD performed by a full cast.
3***
A book within a book, that purportedly tells the story of a famous rock band of the 1970s, told in an unusual format – an “oral history” novel.
It’s a love story, a history of the 1970s rock scene, a coming of age story, and a story of how addiction steals the best parts of our lives. I really didn’t like the main characters. The format Reid chose to use – a faux oral history – had me cringing with all the back-biting and whining. One person doesn’t like another, or is jealous of another, or is mad at another … over and over again. And as for plot … it just didn’t seem to be going anywhere, or at least not anywhere I wanted to go.
And then I got to those last 20 pages and my breath was taken away. I LOVED the ending of this book! It was headed for a 2-star rating and those last twenty pages earned it an entire additional star.
I was glad I was listening to the audio because the few times I chose to read parts of the text, well, the format just didn’t quite work for me on the page. But as an audio, it was great.
The audio is performed by a full cast: Jennifer Beals, Benjamin Bratt, Ari Flakos, Judy Greer, January LaVoy, Robinne Lee, Pablo Schreiber, and Julia Whelan, with Sara Arrington, Fred Berman, Arthur Bishop, Jonathan Davis, Holter Graham, Peter Larkin, Henry Leyva, P.J. Ochlan, Robert Petkoff, Alex Jenkins Reid, Brendan Wayne, Nancy Wu, and Oliver Wyman. I have no idea who reads which part, though I’m assuming Beals voices Daisy, and Bratt voices Billy. Regardless, this was a brilliant way to perform this audiobook. I felt many times as if I were watching a documentary about the band (or at least listening to it). 4 stars for the audio performance. My only quibble is that the last track is supposedly one of the key songs, but – at least on the copy I had from the library – it was purely instrumental, with no vocals. I had hoped to hear the full song performed. The text version, on the other hand, included all the lyrics to the band’s hit album.
3***
A book within a book, that purportedly tells the story of a famous rock band of the 1970s, told in an unusual format – an “oral history” novel.
It’s a love story, a history of the 1970s rock scene, a coming of age story, and a story of how addiction steals the best parts of our lives. I really didn’t like the main characters. The format Reid chose to use – a faux oral history – had me cringing with all the back-biting and whining. One person doesn’t like another, or is jealous of another, or is mad at another … over and over again. And as for plot … it just didn’t seem to be going anywhere, or at least not anywhere I wanted to go.
And then I got to those last 20 pages and my breath was taken away. I LOVED the ending of this book! It was headed for a 2-star rating and those last twenty pages earned it an entire additional star.
I was glad I was listening to the audio because the few times I chose to read parts of the text, well, the format just didn’t quite work for me on the page. But as an audio, it was great.
The audio is performed by a full cast: Jennifer Beals, Benjamin Bratt, Ari Flakos, Judy Greer, January LaVoy, Robinne Lee, Pablo Schreiber, and Julia Whelan, with Sara Arrington, Fred Berman, Arthur Bishop, Jonathan Davis, Holter Graham, Peter Larkin, Henry Leyva, P.J. Ochlan, Robert Petkoff, Alex Jenkins Reid, Brendan Wayne, Nancy Wu, and Oliver Wyman. I have no idea who reads which part, though I’m assuming Beals voices Daisy, and Bratt voices Billy. Regardless, this was a brilliant way to perform this audiobook. I felt many times as if I were watching a documentary about the band (or at least listening to it). 4 stars for the audio performance. My only quibble is that the last track is supposedly one of the key songs, but – at least on the copy I had from the library – it was purely instrumental, with no vocals. I had hoped to hear the full song performed. The text version, on the other hand, included all the lyrics to the band’s hit album.