A review by znvisser
Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

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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