Audio Review: ‘Daisy Jones & The Six’

2019 can just end now, because no other book will match up to Daisy Jones & The Six.

If you only listen to one audiobook ever in your life, please let it be this one.

Oh, and if you were considering buying that concert ticket but were unsure about it? Buy the damn ticket. Go to the concert. Even if you’re going alone. Go.

Title: Daisy Jones & The Six
Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
Series: Standalone
Rating: 5/5 stars

Goodreads Summary

Likes
Mark my words, this will be one of my favorite books of 2019, possibly of all time. Please listen to this as an audiobook – it has a full cast of voices. The way this story is narrated is like a VH1 Behind The Music type documentary, with each person telling their side of the same story and how everything leads up to the current moment. Hearing everyone speak their parts, to laugh or to cry, really brought this story to life for me.

This is the story of how Daisy Jones & The Six came to fame. If you love music, if you love music of the sixties and seventies, or if you just love music history – this is for you. I honestly can’t believe this is FICTION, because it feels SO REAL.

I went into this book knowing almost nothing about it. I had heard some talk about it, but seeing as I frequent the YA book circle more than the adult circle, this book wasn’t that hyped up for me. And I’m really glad about that. Going in knowing nothing, not knowing what anyone else thought – I fell head over heels in LOVE with Daisy Jones and this story.

This books is everything. Everything I could have wanted. It was beautiful and lyrical (pun intended) and heartbreaking and sex and drugs and everything rock ‘n’ roll.

It was women doing what they want and not taking any shit from any man. I want to be both Daisy Jones and Karen Karen (keyboardist of The Six). They are women who were ahead of their time. Something that happens with Karen later in the story really resonates with me and I applaud her for standing up for herself and doing what she wants, not what society thinks she should do – in the seventies, this was a new concept. It has made me think about my own life and how I don’t want to conform to the mold given to women either – married, kids, house with a white picket fence. In 2019, we don’t have to. In 1979, it was a lot harder.

There’s a lot more I could say about the characters in this novel, but I think you should hear them out and judge them for yourself.

One of the neat things about this book is at the end, Daisy Jones & The Six’s album lyrics are included! How amazing and unique is that?! (If only we had the music and vocals to go along with them…)

I love hearing about how music was born and how a musician ended up where they did. What they did to get there, what life was like, how times were so different than they are now.

I listened to/read Bruce Springteen’s autobiography, Born To Run, back in 2017, and Daisy Jone & The Six reminded me a lot of that – except, of course, Springsteen is a real person. (Highly recommend that as well! It was fascinating!)

There is nothing like being at an actual concert, but this book and its descriptions came pretty close. I live at concerts. I work a second part-time at a music venue just because I love concerts so much. This book make me feel what it might have been like to be at shows in the seventies before cell phones. When people still held up lighters. The vibes. It’s…unlike anything else.

Dislikes
My only dislike is that this is FICTION and this isn’t a real band with real music! (There is a Spotify playlist of influences, which is helpful, check it out!) But I’m offended I can’t listen to The Six.

The audiobook actually has music for Honeycomb, one of The Six’s songs, at the end of it – but no lyrics. And I am SO saddened by this. There is honestly not a single thing I disliked about this book – it was everything I expected a fictional “music documentary” book to be and exceeded my expectations. I can definitely see how this book may not be for everyone though, it is an unusual format and an unusual story. But give it a try, you may find yourself enjoying it.

Audiobook Thoughts
If you only listen to one audiobook ever in life, please let it be this one. I like a lot of audiobooks. I love a lot of audiobooks. But this one blew me out of the water. A full cast for narration is always a win in my book, but this one took it to a whole new level. I loved the emotions the narrators put in the voices, especially Daisy and Billy, who this story truly centered around.

Recommend?
I highly recommend this book and I need about 10 copies of it now, no joke. If you’re a fan of music, this is for you. I consider myself a huge music fan, mostly of 2000’s emo-punk-rock and rock music. The sixties/seventies aren’t even my specialty, but I got wild Fleetwood Mac mixed with Bruce Springsteen vibes and I was living for it.

Have you read Daisy Jones & The Six? What did you think? Are there any other books like this “music history” style I should read? I plan to read Taylor Jenkins Reid’s other novels now, I’m in LOVE!

~Missy

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