DAISY JONES & THE SIX BY TAYLOR JENKINS REID

DAISY JONES & THE SIX BY TAYLOR JENKINS REID

Daisy Jones & The Six – Taylor Jenkins Reid is a gripping novel about the whirlwind rise of an iconic 1970s rock group and their beautiful lead singer, revealing the mystery behind their infamous breakup.

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Synopsis:

Everyone knows Daisy Jones & The Six, but nobody knows the reason behind their split at the absolute height of their popularity . . . until now.

Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock and roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things.

Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she’s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road.

Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.

The making of that legend is chronicled in this riveting and unforgettable novel, written as an oral history of one of the biggest bands of the seventies. Taylor Jenkins Reid is a talented writer who takes her work to a new level with Daisy Jones & The Six, brilliantly capturing a place and time in an utterly distinctive voice.

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My thoughts

DAISY JONES & THE SIX BY TAYLOR JENKINS REID

Even though I own the hardcover, I chose to listen to the audiobook. The format the book is written in – interview style – comes best across in audiobook form.

The fictional author of the book interviews the band, manager, friends, Rolling Stone journalist and anyone else who was close to the band at the time of their success. As a result the audiobook has probably more than 15 different narrators. I must admit I was fascinated by it from the very first minute.

I’m not much of a music lover. I enjoy music but I’m not as into it as many others, but what I love is hearing and reading about the time of rock ‘n’ roll, drugs, festivals, and groupies. Because it was such a different time. Moreover Aids wasn’t an issue during the 70s and these artists just enjoyed life and music. And you know there will be drama, that’s just given with so many artists in one spot.

So, if you love music, and I’ll pick a rockstar romance any day, this book is the motherlode.

When I read rockstar romances, some authors barely touch on the topic of lyric writing. Or the craziness of artists, their demands, fights within the band, groupies, journalists and media, and everything else that is part of being a successful and international renowned band. They romanticize it to a point where it doesn’t feel interesting at all anymore. I miss the tantalizing, or just plain shocking parts of the music industry.

I felt like the book had it all.

The ups and downs. Unrequited love, as well as personal failures and struggles. The dynamic and hierarchy within in a band. The process of lyric writing. She pretty much covered the bad, the good and the ugly.

Now, back to the audiobook. Some of the narrators are known actors (Jennifer Beals, Benjamin Bratt, Judy Greer, Pablo Schreiber) and it shows in the quality of the narration. The pauses, sighs, and nuances made this audiobook a contender for an Oscar (if the audiobook world has an award it deserves it). I was blown away by it.

Daisy Jones & The Six is an A Reese’s Book Club pick. But since I don’t read books chosen by bookclubs it barely made a blip on my radar. But after I didn’t manage to read The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo last year – I thought I’ll take a chance on Daisy Jones & The Six and boy was I lucky.

This book will be one I’ll  recommend to anyone that will listen to me. Obviously it won’t be for everyone. But audiobook lovers, you might be surprised by how much you’ll love it.

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DAISY JONES & THE SIX BY TAYLOR JENKINS REID