Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Genres: Fiction
Goodreads
A gripping novel about the whirlwind rise of an iconic 1970s rock group and their beautiful lead singer, revealing the mystery behind their infamous break up.
Everyone knows Daisy Jones & The Six, but nobody knows the real reason why they 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.
Another band getting noticed is The Six, 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 the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.
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This. Was. So. Boring.
I’m sorry, I know I’m in the minority for this. I wanted to love it. I wanted to love it so much I pushed past the urge to DNF it after 3 hours into the audiobook. Alas, I’m just not rocking to the music (see what I did there 😉 ).
First of all, and the least egregious thing about this book, is that nothing happens. In fact, Daisy doesn’t even really play a big role for those first three hours. Hence me contemplating DNFing. I was sitting there, listening, wondering when the heck the titular character was actually going to do something of importance.
But even when she does finally enter the main storyline (if it could even be called that), still nothing happens. There are no major events. No dramatic downfall. It’s just a bunch of bland characters doing the most cliche rock n roll shit you can think of.
Speaking of those characters, I didn’t care about any of them. For a book with no plot, you’d expect to at least care a little bit about the characters. I mean, there’s entire cast of them. Yet, I found each one of them absolutely unbearable, and most of them even forgettable.
- Graham? He liked Karen, a lot. That is all I know about him.
- Karen? She was the least unbearable one, but I still found her so bland. Also felt like she was thrown in as a token independent woman type of character. Bleh.
- Eddie & Pete? Literally interchangeable to me. One was insignificant, one bitched a lot, but don’t remember which is which.
- Camila? She loved her family and had that super chill wife thing going on that also became annoying.
- Billy? Almost, ALMOST, as bad as Daisy.
And Daisy? Oh, she was absolutely god-awful. This is a bit spoiler-y, but I have to mention this because I feel like it really shows her character. View Spoiler »
In summary, you basically have to listen to a lot of bland characters whine and complain while nothing big happens until it turns into a bad romance with no satisfying result, then it ends. Ugh. Actually, if one of them would have died it would have made this more interesting.
The only reason I bumped this up to two stars is for the performance of the audiobook narration. The cast is probably the only reason I enjoyed how this story is told (it’s like a documentary style interview). Otherwise, this would have been a DNF or 1 star review.
16 Comments
I started this one very briefly, thought it was boring and never went on reading. I may try later or not.
Anne – Books of My Heart
I mean, if you’re asking me, don’t bother. If you thought it was boring in the beginning, it never picks up lol
I really enjoyed this one. I think a lot of it was nostalgic for me.
That’s wonderful! I’m actually bummed I didn’t like it. But I’m glad others do 🙂
Love it! I am one of the rare readers who didn’t click with this story either. But I have had the same experience with a few other TJR books. (I also didn’t love Evelyn Hugo.) I tried reading it and listening to Daisy, but I found it really bland, as well. I was totally bummed after all the hype. I did enjoy Carrie Soto, though! Happy reading!
Ah yes! Hello! Welcome to the elite, exclusive club lol I haven’t read other TJR books, but I will give others a try. I already own Evelyn Hugo, so I’ll probably give that one a shot. Eek. I’m nervous.
Sorry this one didn’t work for you. It’s one of my favorites but I definitely get that it’s not for everyone.
I think I would have enjoyed it more if I liked some of the characters lol I’ll still watch the show though. I think it could be done really well as a show because they have so much time to develop the characters.
Sorry this wasn’t a winner for you. I’ve heard the audiobook is a really excellent listen as well. I recently borrowed the book from the library after seeing all the hype about it and I really want to like it. Hopefully the hype isn’t too strong and ruins it for me.
Sorry to see you had a book you couldn’t get into. It seems like maybe you’ve had a few of those lately. But hey, you are good for pushing past the DNF urges! I tend to give in these days and DNF and move on. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this, it will make me think about whether I want to read it or not.
[…] Daisy Jones and the Six: I Ain’t Rockin’ To This One – REVIEW […]
I’ve read one book by her and didn’t like it at all. I’ve been hesitant to pick up anything by her since. I’m in the minority since everyone seems to love her. Sorry this didn’t work for you.
Which one did you read that you didn’t enjoy? I like to give authors 3 chances so I want to avoid that one lol
I didn’t read this one (it just didn’t seem like a “me” type of read) or anything by Taylor. However I think one of her other books is always adapted to release this year so I do plan to read it. 🙂 And I did see saw SO many loving on this one. Sorry it didn’t work for you. :/
So far I’m 2-0 with TJR lol Hopefully the next book by her is better!
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