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A review by writervid
Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
5.0
5/5
I'm definitely not one for music history. I don't listen to Fleetwood Mac, and a lot of the rock I listen to is solely from my mother, who rocks out to Billy Joel whenever she can. So I was mildly surprised when this book took such a hold of me and didn't let go. I love The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo a lot, so less surprised, but even so.
I think what made this book for me was a) the character dynamics, and b) how we could see the band falling apart from the start. It would be impossible to go into a book like this without getting invested in the characters at all, and since we got to hear points of view from so many of them, it was easy to pick and choose who my favorites were, who I agreed with, who I disagreed with, etc. I find that so often with dynamic "chosen one" characters like Billy and Daisy, it's hard to have characters who seemingly bring them down to earth and don't view them as better than everyone else, but by giving us so many different POVs, I felt I was able to get a full view of each relationship and character, as well as every situation. It made the book so much more enticing and made me feel like an objective historian, as well as an observer. I know a few reviewers have complained about the format, but I loved it. The format works because you're in everyone's head at once, and if we had one character narrating this story of seven people the whole time, it wouldn't be a story of seven people, it would be a story about one. This was especially good because almost every narrator was unreliable at one point, so it allowed depth to the characters. It also made the feeling of fame early on in the story, which set the tone.
But because of those dynamics, we could see this band's problems from the start. The band breaking up didn't feel like an explosion, it felt like the breaking point to the tension in the novel, which helped Aurora stand out as a metaphor for the relationships in the band as well as between Billy and Daisy. There was tension present early on, and every decision felt character motivated, which created such a dynamic story. Did I particularly like any of the characters? One or two, but I was fascinated by the group of them. All their motivations intersected so well, but it was so clear that this couldn't continue for any of them, heightening the stakes all the time.
I loved this book. It was so hard to put down.
I'm definitely not one for music history. I don't listen to Fleetwood Mac, and a lot of the rock I listen to is solely from my mother, who rocks out to Billy Joel whenever she can. So I was mildly surprised when this book took such a hold of me and didn't let go. I love The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo a lot, so less surprised, but even so.
I think what made this book for me was a) the character dynamics, and b) how we could see the band falling apart from the start. It would be impossible to go into a book like this without getting invested in the characters at all, and since we got to hear points of view from so many of them, it was easy to pick and choose who my favorites were, who I agreed with, who I disagreed with, etc. I find that so often with dynamic "chosen one" characters like Billy and Daisy, it's hard to have characters who seemingly bring them down to earth and don't view them as better than everyone else, but by giving us so many different POVs, I felt I was able to get a full view of each relationship and character, as well as every situation. It made the book so much more enticing and made me feel like an objective historian, as well as an observer. I know a few reviewers have complained about the format, but I loved it. The format works because you're in everyone's head at once, and if we had one character narrating this story of seven people the whole time, it wouldn't be a story of seven people, it would be a story about one. This was especially good because almost every narrator was unreliable at one point, so it allowed depth to the characters. It also made the feeling of fame early on in the story, which set the tone.
But because of those dynamics, we could see this band's problems from the start. The band breaking up didn't feel like an explosion, it felt like the breaking point to the tension in the novel, which helped Aurora stand out as a metaphor for the relationships in the band as well as between Billy and Daisy. There was tension present early on, and every decision felt character motivated, which created such a dynamic story. Did I particularly like any of the characters? One or two, but I was fascinated by the group of them. All their motivations intersected so well, but it was so clear that this couldn't continue for any of them, heightening the stakes all the time.
I loved this book. It was so hard to put down.