Daisy Jones and the Six Book Review
Daisy Jones and Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
*This review contains spoilers*
Content Warning
This review discusses drug and alcohol abuse and abortion.
Introduction
I'll preface this review by admitting freely, first hand, that I absolutely loved this novel. I had heard good things about it before I started it, but Taylor Jenkins Reid managed to exceed all my expectations. This book was so different from anything I've ever read, and it was done so remarkably well.
Summary & Review
The style that Daisy Jones & the Six is written in definitely takes some getting used to when you first start reading. It's not a traditionally written novel, with the narration of actions and the protagonists' thoughts, nor with dialogue written in quotations. Instead, the novel feels almost like it's written as a play, only without the stage directions. It is entirely written with the name of the character, followed by a colon and their dialogue, with no narration used to describe the setting or actions. Reid relies entirely on the characters themselves to set the scene for the reader in their recollection of events and places. It looks like it's the transcript of a documentary, cutting from one person's statement to the next, scene by scene, spliced together to create a story. The thing is, this style of writing the novel works. The lack of narration never leaves me with "empty room syndrome" while reading. I can still picture every scene as it is happening in vivid detail, complete to the seventies rock n roll vibe that Reid perfectly captured. Reading it was like actually watching a documentary playing in my mind as I read it. There were honestly points in the story where I forgot that I wasn't reading a biographical on a real band, and that this was a work of fiction!
The characters in this book were also richly developed, if albeit not completely likable. For the most part, I found the story's protagonists, Daisy Jones and Billy Dunne, to be rather insufferable. I wasn't exactly rooting for either of them most of the story (except rooting for Daisy to get sober), and I certainly wasn't rooting for them to end up together (I mean seriously, he didn't even want to let her write any songs for their joint album). Although with the way that Reid crafts these characters, I do believe that was the point. It's apparent right from the start that the fictitious and titular band, Daisy Jones & the Six, didn't last. So the buildup of Billy's character--completely with his controlling, obsessive nature--lays the groundwork for the band's eventual downfall. With how well Reid developed the arrogant and self-possessed Billy, it was easy to understand why Billy's fellow bandmate, Eddie Loving, found it difficult to get along with him. Although to be fair, I found Eddie rather unlikable himself too. However, all these characters--Billy, Daisy, Eddie-- were unlikable in the best sort of way, because while I mostly disliked them as people, I found them so incredibly compelling as characters to read about, and their flaws were central to creating the story's conflicts.
The character of Daisy Jones herself wasn't quite as insufferable as Billy or Eddie, I will admit, but she definitely had her spoiled, bratty, diva moments that kept me hoping someone would put her in her place eventually. Despite not being what I would consider likable though, Reid excels in still managing to make Daisy sympathetic. She has a really terrible backstory. Her parents didn't care about her, she got involved in the party scene and all the vices that come with it when she was only fourteen. By the time Daisy joined The Six, in her early twenties, she had a severe drug and alcohol addiction, and she was wrestling with some serious mental health struggles.
With a character in such a dark spot as Daisy, Reid manages to do something rare and remarkable with her in the realm of literature. She never makes Daisy the stereotypical damsel in distress. She's not some saintly heroine who suffers unjustly despite her unyielding goodness. Reid isn't sugarcoating the reality of where Daisy is as a result of her tragic backstory. She didn't miraculously rise above the hardship in an absolutely unrealistic way like a Mary Sue would. Daisy's kind of a mess, and she's mean, and petty, and spoiled too, and rightfully so, given everything that she's been through. Daisy doesn't really know anything else at that point in her life. It's complex, gritty, and realistic. On top of all that realism, the other thing that makes it so well written is that Daisy isn't waiting around for someone to come along and help her clean up her act. Though she might try and hide or deny it, deep down, Daisy knows what her life has become and who she's become as a result of that. And in the end, she's the one who makes the decision to pick up the pieces and put herself back together.
I love that.
As the story was progressing and it was obvious that romantic feelings had developed between Daisy and Billy, I was worried that Billy was just going to come along and teach Daisy everything she needed to know about sobriety--as Billy had already struggled to get himself clean earlier in the novel, before Daisy's joining the band. I didn't feel like that was the type of story I wanted to read. It didn't feel realistic either, since Daisy wasn't at a point yet in the story where she even wanted to be sober. The last thing I wanted for her character's arc was for Billy and all his arrogance to come along and be the knight in shining armor who teaches Daisy to be better. She comes to that decision on her own, and it's fantastic.
The relationship between Billy and his wife Camila was an interesting one to read about as well. Camila was aware that her husband regularly cheated on her during his first tour with the band. She knew he had feelings for Daisy as well, and yet she decided to stay with him and to have more children with him. She simply seemed to accept that Billy's infidelity (emotionally, even when it stopped being physical) was just part of who he was. It's hard for me to wrap my head around how she could make this decision. But don't get me wrong, I don't think it's a flaw in the storytelling. Quite the opposite--I think it's a strength! It makes Camila quite a unique character, and I think it makes her stronger too. In all the pain she endured with Billy's infidelity and his struggle to get sober, she remained resilient for the sake of their daughter and the family they were building. It certainly didn't make me like Billy as a character any more, as I just kept waiting for him to realize how much he didn't deserve his wife and how much he took his family for granted. However, it made me absolutely adore Camila.
I can see how this characterization of Camila might make some readers feel that she was less of a feminist character. One might interpret her as being the dutiful wife who stayed with her unfaithful, deplorable husband without a second thought. I disagree. I think she's so much more complicated than this. She was furious when she found out about Billy's infidelity and immediately questioned if she thought he'd ever find a woman better than her. Camila knew her own worth. The decision that she made to stay with him was multifaceted. In some ways, it was out of sympathy, because she saw how Billy struggled with sobriety for her sake, so she was willing to give him a second chance. In a stronger way, I believe, it was about her daughter Julia (who she was pregnant with at the time she found out about Billy). Camila didn't want her daughter to grow up in a split household with an alcoholic father, so she did her best to put her family back together and support Billy's recovery for the sake of Julia. While it's not the decision that most people would make in this situation (I think especially not in the 2020s), there is a certain strength to that choice. She put her daughter's future above her own immediate hurt feelings. Not only is Camila a better wife than Billy deserves, but she's an extraordinary mother for that decision alone. And it makes her character such an interesting one to discuss and dissect. Reid also doesn't shy away from the implications that Camila wasn't perfect in their marriage either, with some implications that she had a tryst with an old friend. Billy accepted it, and they moved on. Unconventional, certainly, and highly interesting to read about and interpret.
There is another relationship in the novel that I found more compelling to read about than Billy's relationship with Daisy, and just as highly interesting as his relationship with Camila. Karen and Graham. Looking back on how their relationship was conceived from the start, I understand that it was doomed from the start. It was puppy love to Graham and just plain fun for Karen. That didn't stop it from being absolutely devastating when these two couldn't work it out and even go back to being friends by the end.
Oh, and there was that whole pregnancy thing.
Ultimately, Karen gets pregnant with Graham's baby, but since she's not interested in having a real relationship with him or ever having children, she decides to get an abortion. Graham, however, wanted Karen to keep the baby and was devastated when she didn't.
I know that "surprise pregnancy" is a trope that a lot of readers hate. I don't. Actually, I don't hate any individual tropes specifically. I am firmly of the belief that a trope is only as good as the writer's ability to develop it. I think Taylor Jenkins Reid handled this particular trope very well and incorporated it into the themes of this novel spectacularly. This probably comes from the fact that it was written by a woman, and woman writers tend to handle women's issues in their work with much more grace than male writers often do, and so I enjoyed watching her explore a woman’s right to choose whether or not she keeps a pregnancy. That being said, Reid didn't ignore Graham's reaction to it. She let all of his raw emotions come through just as well as Karen's, and that's why it worked so well. Even though I was in support of Karen’s choice, I still felt like I understood what Graham was going through.
The impact of Karen's decision to terminate her pregnancy also helps to reinforce some of the other characters' personalities, not just Karen's and Graham's. On top of their own visceral reactions, we also get to see Camila's unwavering support of her friend's decision, which reflects on the already established prominence of Camila's loyalty to those she loves. It's interesting to see that the fierceness of her loyalty doesn't only extend to her husband, but it applies to her best friend too. It also creates an interesting juxtaposition of these two female characters. Camila made many decisions for the sake of having a healthy, happy, conventionally nuclear family, but on the other hand, Karen never intended to have, nor would she ever, go on to have children, and she never regretted that choice. Despite being polar opposites in this regard, the two of them are best friends who support each other in all these choices. It's a great way, on Reid's part, of showing how women are multifaceted and don't always have the same goals and aspirations in life, but that all women's aspirations are valid, no matter how "conventional" they may or may not be.
The impact of the abortion also highlights the toxicity in the relationship between Billy and Graham, who are brothers. Graham goes to Billy when he is clearly physically very distressed about the situation, and Billy doesn't even seem to notice that anything is off with his brother. Graham flat out tells Billy that he needs to talk about something, yet Billy blows him off because he's so absorbed in his own problems. It reinforces what we already know about Billy, which is that his world revolves around himself and his idea of his perfect family, and nothing else ever seems to come first to him--not even his brother in a moment of crisis.
The only major criticism I have of this absolutely amazing novel would be the ending. It wasn't bad by any means; endings are often my least favorite part of any story. I did enjoy the revelation that the person who had been creating the fictional documentary was Billy and Camila's daughter Julia, all grown up. However, I was kind of disappointed with the sudden reveal that Camila died of cancer before the completion of the documentary, and that she had left behind instructions for her children to give their father Daisy Jone's number. The line "they at least owe me a song" was iconic, and a great ending line, but this entire plot point wasn't built to at all. I think this could've been steadily built towards in the last few chapters instead of coming randomly at the end, just to give it more of an emotional impact on the reader.
I did ultimately like where Daisy ended up. We find out that she did eventually get sober, and she adopted children of her own. I like the fact that she adopted them because it adds to the feminist idea that Reid had already explored through Camila and Karen that women's varying choices about whether or not they want "conventional" families are all valid.
Final Thoughts
The novel earns a 5 out of 5 stars from me. Nearly perfect, thoroughly enjoyable, with complex characters, and a well-done feminist angle. This book is easily a new favorite of mine, and I'll probably read it again sometime.
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