Review: Daisy Jones & The Six

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What makes “Daisy Jones and the Six” stand out is the way it is written. The author uses the gimmick of presenting this story as if it were a non-fiction book about a band, written entirely using strung together quotes from a variety of characters, from the band members to people the band interacted with. If you have ever watched VH1’s “Behind the Music”, this will seem very familiar. If you read “Live from New York”, it was written in much the same way. This book feels like those documentary takes on bands and a show. But the author has extended this made-up documentary into an interesting story, dropping some surprises into the story near the end, making you really want to finish the book to find out what happens to the band members. I found the story fun to listen to, and I could picture the band being part of the 70s band scene. The author even duplicated the typical discussion of song lyrics you hear and see in documentary sources on rock bands. This felt very realistic.

I listened to this on audio, and I believe that greatly increased my enjoyment of this book. Those snippets of quotes were often very short, a few words or a sentence by one character. The audiobook used different voice actors for each character, and it made them very distinctive. I can imagine if I were to have read the book, I would have had to work harder to recall each character by name, and I suspect that extra effort would have lessened my enjoyment. In addition, many of the narrators’ lines were very well acted, more emphatic and emotional than most audiobooks. The audiobook was very well done.


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