Hello everyone!
I am back with another review, Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Thanks so much to Penguin Random House Canada for sending me a copy of this book for an honest review, as always, all opinions are my own.
This book follows Daisy Jones and the Six, a fictional 1970's rock band. Told through a collection of oral history interviews woven together, the 'author' pieces together the story of how the band came to be one of the greatest hits of its time, and, ultimately, its demise. I don't really want to say too much more than that because I don't want to give anything away.
First off, I absolutely LOVED the way Reid wrote this book. There's an 'author's note' at the beginning of the book which made me think that maybe this was a real account, not a fiction novel, and while, alas, it was a novel, I still really enjoyed the way that Reid wrote it to feel like more of a historical piece. It was a really interesting style of writing and one that I haven't really come across a lot in my reading.
The story itself was about as wild and crazy as you would imagine the story of a rock band would be. There was drama, drugs, angst, 70s-era sexism - you name it, this book had it. I really appreciated that Reid was aware of some of the larger social issues happening throughout history at the time frame of this book. Since it's historical fiction, it makes sense to include some major historical events that happened alongside this book. One of the original band members ended up being drafted to fight in the Vietnam war, which made sense since that part of the book was happening at that period in time. Small details like this really showed how well thought out this book is.
Reid's writing really shines, as to be expected, in this book. She is able to weave a powerful, interesting tale that carefully walks the line between the extremes of rock and roll life and the nostalgic way many of the characters remember it. I really loved the different perspectives the story had, not just from the main characters, but from other members of the band, managers, spouses, even the hotel concierge. I think it's part of the uniqueness of this book, but I really loved it.
My only complaint with this book would have to be the ending - I just felt like we were building to something greater than what we got. It wasn't a bad ending by any means, but I was just hoping for a bit more. I thought that the addition of the identity of the interviewer/author was a fun twist at the end and it made me happy to see how they were connected to the story, but I just wish there was a bit more there.
Overall, not quite as riveting as The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, but I still read it in one sitting.