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A review by baebushka
Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
This is one of those books where I feel like people have seen a completely different piece of writing than me... and, truthfully, it did not live up to the hype. I blame mainly TikTok for it.
I got over the characters all being assholes – I'm an asshole stan, if anything – but that still did not help me raise above my distaste for them. Let's take them in order: Daisy Jones is a Mary Sue; whatever other people work for their entire lives, she is good at naturally and whatever flaws she has they're written off as 'but that's just Daisy for ya!' and no one holds anything against her. Billy Dunne is a complex character and while I started the book wishing I would love him, I hated him more and more each time; when he stopped "cheating" on Camille with random groupies, he found Daisy and continued to cheat on his wife emotionally for the entirety of the book. Graham Dunne is a pro-lifer and defended his brother's cheating repeatedly. Warren Rhodes has no personality, he's just there to wash off any other character's sins. Karen Sirko was probably the most interesting character and she still covered Billy's cheating from Camilla – whom she called her friend. Eddie Loving made the most sense to me and I'm 99% sure it's because we both hated Billy. Camilla Dunne... truly, I want to like her; but she tolerated Billy's cheating and "rock star" lifestyle a bit too much for my taste.
This book deals with alcohol abuse, drug abuse, and a poor life style – yet, not for a second does it affect any of the character's memories? They all seem to have perfect memories of what went down, even when Daisy SPECIFICALLY says she was high out of her mind. These subjects were treated lightly and from a distant place – addiction should not be treated as such, in my opinion.
Let's move on to the promise of the book: what happened after that Chicago concert that dispelled the band? Nothing major. The only major thing I can point out is the split between Karen and Graham, but the rest? What, Daisy realising she has to get clean? Billy almost relapsing? The two of them realising that they were almost in love with each other? Whatever scandal I imagined this book was going to set me up for, I didn't think it delivered.
FINALLY, and what irked me most, was the god-fucking-awful Taylor Jenkins Reid plot twist. I read The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo prior to this and didn't enjoy the plot twist about Monique, but this? GOD! Reading that Julia is the one conducting the interview... was that necessary? And after that, you find out Camilla leaves her an email, asking her DAUGHTER to send her FATHER to hook up with Daisy? No. Absolutely not.
Reading that instantly made me forget that this book was basically a bunch of Tumblr quotes with context built around them.
I got over the characters all being assholes – I'm an asshole stan, if anything – but that still did not help me raise above my distaste for them. Let's take them in order: Daisy Jones is a Mary Sue; whatever other people work for their entire lives, she is good at naturally and whatever flaws she has they're written off as 'but that's just Daisy for ya!' and no one holds anything against her. Billy Dunne is a complex character and while I started the book wishing I would love him, I hated him more and more each time; when he stopped "cheating" on Camille with random groupies, he found Daisy and continued to cheat on his wife emotionally for the entirety of the book. Graham Dunne is a pro-lifer and defended his brother's cheating repeatedly. Warren Rhodes has no personality, he's just there to wash off any other character's sins. Karen Sirko was probably the most interesting character and she still covered Billy's cheating from Camilla – whom she called her friend. Eddie Loving made the most sense to me and I'm 99% sure it's because we both hated Billy. Camilla Dunne... truly, I want to like her; but she tolerated Billy's cheating and "rock star" lifestyle a bit too much for my taste.
This book deals with alcohol abuse, drug abuse, and a poor life style – yet, not for a second does it affect any of the character's memories? They all seem to have perfect memories of what went down, even when Daisy SPECIFICALLY says she was high out of her mind. These subjects were treated lightly and from a distant place – addiction should not be treated as such, in my opinion.
Let's move on to the promise of the book: what happened after that Chicago concert that dispelled the band? Nothing major. The only major thing I can point out is the split between Karen and Graham, but the rest? What, Daisy realising she has to get clean? Billy almost relapsing? The two of them realising that they were almost in love with each other? Whatever scandal I imagined this book was going to set me up for, I didn't think it delivered.
FINALLY, and what irked me most, was the god-fucking-awful Taylor Jenkins Reid plot twist. I read The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo prior to this and didn't enjoy the plot twist about Monique, but this? GOD! Reading that Julia is the one conducting the interview... was that necessary? And after that, you find out Camilla leaves her an email, asking her DAUGHTER to send her FATHER to hook up with Daisy? No. Absolutely not.
Reading that instantly made me forget that this book was basically a bunch of Tumblr quotes with context built around them.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Eating disorder
Minor: Body shaming, Cancer, Death, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting