Title: Daisy Jones & The Six
Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
Genre: Historical Fiction
Format: Audiobook
Narrated By: Julia Whelan & Full Cast
Length: 9 hours, 3 minutes
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Publish Date: March 5, 2019
Setting: Los Angeles, CA

Drugs, Death, Childbirth, Abortion,
Emotional Abuse, Physical Abuse,
Drug Abuse, Near Overdose,
Swearing

Latinx

I finally got to this one after months of saying I was going to listen to it! Well, it doesn’t help that there’s always a hold on this book and there’s always multiple holds on this book so I was waiting for months to listen to it. But it’s finally out of the way and I can say that I listened to two TJR books this year! The two that were recommended to me! Also, thank you so much to Hannah for buddy reading this one with me. I think it helped me get through it better.

• Well everyone keeps saying that the audiobook has a better experience so I’m waiting for this damn audiobook.
• **quickly Googles to make sure this isn’t a real band**
• Ohhhhh…. the band is The Six, and Daisy Jones is a solo artist. Well I was confused
• I feel like this could be made into a mockumentary
• Do I even like rock enough to listen to a mockumentary on a “famous” rock band? I’ll try it

Women serve as muses/objects for men and get absolutely no credit for their inspiration

There’s a part in the story where Daisy Jones is talking about how she gave this one dude in a different band a super awesome lyric that he ends up wanting to use in his song. She goes “what the hell makes you think that I won’t use it in my own song?” or something like that, and dude I felt that. Of course the jerk uses it in his song and that’s what ends up making the song like super popular and better that what he initially thought of, and of course he never credited Daisy for her part in what she wrote – even if it was just on the fly in a diner or something. Still. What the hell was that?

The need for a *real* connection

Daisy was doped up so much in her early years because she never had a good relationship with really anyone. Especially not her parents, and if you don’t count how she was with Simone – and seriously good on Simone for trying to be the best friend she could be to Daisy – she really didn’t have anyone in her life. She did drugs so she could numb that part out of her life, so she didn’t have to show how much she was hurting. If that worked or not, not really sure. I can’t spoil it, but you tell me what you think.

Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll

• Drugs was a huge thing back in the 70s, so of course it wasn’t seen as a big deal that pretty much everyone was doing some sort of drugs all the time. Or a combination of drugs.
• Rockstars wanted to get laid. Nothing wrong with that.
• This world was crazy, and the more popular that The Six got, the crazier it was for them. Same with Daisy, but she was always living a crazy life, because of the drugs.

Addiction

Both Daisy and Billy suffered from addiction. I mean, Billy had to go to rehab in order to stop doing drugs – thank gosh – but then he turned his addictive personality into his music, and the band. He wouldn’t allow anyone else but Teddy to have any sort of control over the music, the words, the composition, etc. Teddy wasn’t even a physical part of the band, but he was the only person that Billy would allow to make a decision that would directly impact the band. The rest of the time, Billy basically led the band like a dictatorship, and sometimes I think he did that because he needed to feel like he had some part of his life in control. He could control the music because he wouldn’t allow anyone else to have a voice. It was sad, really.

I honestly don’t think any of them really grew up as adults during this time period. It wasn’t until after the events of the book that there was development, and does that even really count if we don’t see it?

But really, does it count?

I think the person that had the most change by the time the book was over was Daisy, and that was really only explained at the end when the band members – and others that were a part of the interview – said what they were doing since the 70s. Everyone for the most part was living a life that they wanted to live, and I feel like they were pretty happy with where they were at right now, but since the main point of this novel was to get an inside story of what happened during that specific time period, we didn’t really see a “growth” per se.

Honestly? I don’t think I really felt anything while I was reading this. Nothing that made me stop and process what just happened or anything like that. Nothing that made me have to stop what I was listening to and write it down so I could remember. I just felt like I was listening to a podcast about a rock band from the 70s.

I mean I laughed when people like Warren, Graham or Eddie would say something sarcastic or whatever. I absolutely loved Karen and Simone. But to say that I felt something specific during this experience? I can’t say I did.

So the prose made sense because it was an interview setting. There’s really no need for them to get super descriptive on the setting or anything when they are talking about something that happened years ago. Plus if they remembered everything vividly and accurately, I may or may not call bullshit because they were not always in the right mindset during that time of their life. So taking that into consideration, the prose was okay.

I personally felt like the Aurora chapter was way too long. I get that that was the main part that people wanted to know about since it was Daisy and The Six actually working on an album together, and clearly a lot of the drama happened during that time. But I feel like it was too much. Not really sure why, and I wasn’t bored or anything but it was just really long compared to the other chapters that I felt like some other parts or people didn’t have as much of the spotlight in the book.

Plot was pretty good too. I mean I wish that they were real because their story sounded somewhat interesting. Kind of wish Simone was real so I could listen to her music, for the most part. And also look for their concerts on YouTube or something. So the plot was enjoyable. I think it would make a cool TV series, or a mockumentary on MTV or something.

• Did Camila not have some form of agency because she chose to be a mother?

Honestly, I don’t agree with that. I think her choice to be a mother to her children, support her husband’s career and his path to stay sober was agency. Nothing is wrong with being a mother. Nothing is wrong with wanting to stay at home with the children. I feel like it was her choice because she even said that she wanted to make sure that she took care of her family. If that’s what she meant by that, then that’s her taking control of her life, her family’s life, and doing what she wanted to do. You know?

I get where it seems like Camila didn’t get enough page time because she wasn’t always with the band and she was more in the background. I get that. I wish I got to see more of Camila too, until the ending and I’m like geez.

Part of the ending felt cheap to me. I felt like that’s where it was going to lead based on how certain characters were speaking. But I feel like it was just thrown in there haphazardly. All that build up and to have that be the reason why the “band broke up”? It was an okay reason, but not compelling enough for me to be happy with this mockumentary in its entirety.

The saving grace for me was that they did a full cast for this audiobook. It wouldn’t have worked out the way it did if they kept it to three people or something. So I’m glad they were able to do a full cast. That made the experience somewhat unique and entertaining for me enough that I was able to get through it.

It’s like the more I sat down to think about it, the more I just wasn’t into it. Not sure what happened, but it wasn’t a terrible book. The audiobook was amazing though. I know I said that, but I highly recommend listening to it.

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