Daisy Jones and the Six

Happy March, friends! I’ve had a pretty boring month, but somehow have had barely any time to read. Even so, I’m up to 12 books read so far this year! One of which is our March book pick, Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I chose this one because the TV show came out this month and I hadn’t read the book yet. Also, it’s now my second time reviewing an author twice, which still feels strange to me. To accompany this month’s review, I’ve chosen to make a Daisy cocktail. This one’s a bit boring for the pun, but I like when the name works perfectly too.

Daisy Recipe

2oz Vodka

1oz Lemon Juice

0.5oz Simple Syrup

0.5oz Raspberry Simple Syrup

2oz Prosecco*

1 Lemon Wheel

~3 Raspberries

*This is an optional ingredient.

Before making this cocktail, you’ll need to make raspberry simple syrup, which is actually super easy. First, make regular simple syrup (equal parts sugar and hot water and stir until the sugar dissolves) then muddle in a handful of fresh raspberries. You could also use raspberry juice, but this is more fun. Once you’re ready, add vodka, lemon juice, and both simple syrups to a cocktail shaker filled with ice and shake. Then, strain into a goblet (I used a red wine glass) filled with crushed ice. Next, top with Prosecco, garnish with lemon and raspberries, and enjoy!

This drink was so good! It’s sweet, but not too sweet, and has a nice tartness from the lemon juice. I added Prosecco as my special ingredient this week. Champagne is Daisy’s signature drink throughout the novel, so I knew I wanted to add that in immediately. I chose Prosecco over Champagne just because it’s cheaper, but truly any sparkling wine is fine. I was so happy with this addition. It added some fizziness, diluted the sweetness just a tiny bit, and paired really nicely with all the other ingredients. Honestly, it felt like the perfect match for this drink and I will definitely be making this one during the summer!

Daisy Jones and the Six Synopsis

(from book cover)

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 ’n’ 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.

Also getting noticed is The Six, a band 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 that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.

Review

“I had absolutely no interest in being somebody else’s muse. I am not a muse. I am the somebody.”

Y’all, it almost happened again. Daisy Jones and the Six was SO close to being a 5-star review! I was honestly really surprised that I enjoyed this novel so much. The only other TJR novel I’ve read was The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, which I reviewed in October. And I liked that one, but I wasn’t in love with it, and I had quite a few complaints. So, I went into Daisy Jones expecting the same kind of feelings. But I was happily surprised! So, let’s get into it.

First and foremost, I loved the characters. Camila is the love of my life. She wasn’t even the main character and somehow she’s the character that jumped out the most to me. Maybe because I related to her more than Daisy? But, honestly, I think she was just a perfect character. All of the characters were great, but Camila, Daisy, and Billy definitely stood out the most, the latter of which for obvious reasons as the main characters. The three of them are definitely the most fully realized characters. They jump off the page, feel new and special, and are memorable.

However, the side characters were also fully fleshed out with their own unique personalities. But while every character did have a unique personality, they didn’t all necessarily have different voices. I found on a few occasions I had to go back and check which character was talking because some of them sound so similar it could be any number of characters. This wasn’t a huge negative for me since each paragraph is titled with the speaker in bold, so most the time you see it right away. But it was a bit frustrating when I was really getting into the story to have to go back and see who was speaking sometimes.

Moving on from the characters, the writing was fantastic. Reid was a good author when she wrote Evelyn Hugo, but she has definitely come into her own since then. Her writing feels more nuanced and sophisticated, and it just really shines in this novel. And even though Evelyn Hugo was also an oral history it read more like an autobiography. Whereas with Daisy Jones it is fully an oral history and I think that style perfectly matches Reid’s writing style. She’s able to tell this clear, detailed story with just memories and it works so well. And as a quick note, some of you may remember when I reviewed The Final Revival of Opal and Nev, which was also an oral history about a band. So, I wanted to add that Daisy Jones is definitely the stronger and better novel, but they are quite different in style and feel.

Again, my biggest complaint about the writing would be the characters’ voices. My only other complaint about the writing, and the novel as a whole, is also very minor. There were quite a few times that Reid opted to not use contractions like don’t or can’t and instead wrote out do not or cannot. This wasn’t the end of the world, but for me it just seemed like the characters who were speaking wouldn’t necessarily be so formal. In some cases, it made complete sense to not use the contractions given what they were talking about. But in others, it made the writing and the character speaking sound stilted, and it brought me out of the novel quite a bit. Again, this isn’t a huge complaint but these two things combined did bring down my rating that half point.

My sweet friend, Seph, also just read Daisy Jones and the Six, so I asked her if she had any comments she wanted me to add. She didn’t have much to say, but I really appreciated and agreed with her feelings that TJR does the work for her books. Reid clearly did extensive research for this novel and it paid off in making this book stand out. She wanted 70s rock’n’roll and she gave 70s rock’n’roll so thoroughly that it really did feel like Daisy Jones and the Six could have been a real band. The way she’s able to pull you into the story and immerse you so deeply in the world that you feel like you could google the band and find out they were real is amazing.

Beyond that, the way she used the characters telling their own experiences was perfect. It felt like reading something someone had actually experienced. It was exactly how someone would tell the story and it was truly perfect. Also, I am a huge Fleetwood Mac fan (I mean who isn’t though?) and Reid clearly pulled a lot of inspiration from them, which I appreciated and loved. So, thanks Seph for adding your love of TJR’s research skills to the review!

Overall, I was unexpectedly delighted with this novel. Daisy Jones and the Six was genuinely close to being perfect. It’s well written, the writing style perfectly matched the story, and the characters drew me in and had me feeling for them. I debated giving this one another 5 stars, but those two negatives held me back even though they really weren’t huge complaints. So, I absolutely recommend this book! And I will be devouring the show as soon as they’re all released. Also, I do definitely recommend this month’s cocktail for an easy and delicious sunny day drink.

My Rating

Thanks for reading! And, if you read the book or try the cocktail let me know in a comment or on Instagram. Also, if you haven’t yet read my previous reviews, I recommend reading The Seven and Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and The Final Corpse Revival of Opal and Nev if you liked this one!

Teghann

If you enjoyed this review please like or comment. Also, if you’d like to be notified of new posts subscribe below. Or, to be a bigger part of the community head to @bartenderwithabook on Instagram!