Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

When a book comes out that EVERYONE is excited about, there is always a little trepidation involved when you finally decide to pick it up. I had been saving my copy of Daisy Jones & the Six for our weekend away at the end of February because I was just so excited to meet Daisy Jones and fall in love with her! In the back of my head though, I was a little worried. What if I didn't love her as much as everyone else did?

Instead of writing a review for Daisy Jones & the Six, I'm going to share with you my reading experience. Its the truest way I can think of to share with you my thoughts as I was reading (and the notes I made during my progress through the story).

First off, I had for some reason not realized this book was written entirely in an interview format. I'm not sure if it was just something other early readers weren't projecting at first or I just missed the memo, but when I first opened up the book I was surprised! And then immediately flipped through the book to see that, yes, this is how the entire story would go. With that knowledge in mind, I adjusted my expectation for how I was going to meet Daisy Jones herself. I'll admit, I was a little disappointed. I wanted know all about her and I immediately felt like this maybe wasn't going to be the case, at least in the way I was expecting.

The very first pages really did an amazing job setting up Daisy Jones as an iconic and memorable person in the story- quotes I was fast writing down as I read, making me even more excited to turn pages and learn more about her. Right off the bat I was loving the seventies vibe and having flashbacks to being little and listening to my dad's rock music on the weekends.

"I am not a muse. I am the somebody." p.16

As I was reading through the middle section of the book, I realized how much of this story wasn't just about Daisy Jones. I mean, it was. But it wasn't. It wasn't from her perspective or her memories alone, so of course we're meeting other members of the band or people relevant to the story and I just couldn't shake the feeling of being mildly disappointed. I blame this feeling entirely on a) not knowing and preparing myself ahead of time for the interview format of the book and b) reading Evelyn Hugo and really getting to know her character so well by that last page. I assumed this book would be similar. When I was about halfway through Daisy Jones, I realized I wasn't getting that feeling about her character and I honestly felt let down.

So, I took a break for a day. I put the book down and readjusted my thinking. It helped immensely and when I picked up the story again, I let it go! Yes, I wanted to know and love everything about Daisy Jones, but its okay that I wasn't. Doing so let the other characters shine and I ended up really loving Billy and Camila's relationship. Both characters in the story were so well written, approaching the question of whether a marriage and family can survive a rock band on the road, with all of its temptations. Their story pulled me in and kept me reading and I quickly realized a lot of the lines I was copying in to my book journal were from Camila or Billy about their love and perseverance. I wondered for a bit how my perspective of this book would have been different if I was reading it ten years ago, at age 24. Would I have fallen hard for Daisy Jones and idolized her strength? Would I have passed over Billy and Camila's story because I couldn't relate to it? Maybe. I love thinking about those kinds of things as I read!

"I think you have to have faith in people before they earn it. Otherwise it's not faith, right?" - Camila

"Life is about who is holding your hand and, I think, whose hand you commit to holding."- Camila

I enjoyed finally finding out why we were reading this interview, who was asking the questions and where the band went with the rest of the lives. It felt full circle in a lot of ways. I finished the book with a sense of fulfillment on that note. I feel strongly that this book is going to make an amazing tv show on Amazon. I can't wait to hear the music live! Its all I could think about during the song writing processes- I want to hear how this sounds all together. I also feel that Daisy Jones is just going to really shine on the screen, so much of her character is based in the way she presents herself on stage and off of it. How she handles herself around men and the power she gives off in those situations. I have a feeling I am going to fall in love with her more in that medium than I did in the book.

After really thinking about Daisy Jones & the Six, I can truly say I loved this book. Just not for the reasons I thought I would when I started reading it. And that is okay and probably one of the best things about reading! Each experience is totally unique and personal.