For years I’ve been ignoring rave reviews and marketing of Taylor Jenkins Reid 70’s rock and roll drama book, Daisy Jones and The Six. It wasn’t until Amazon Prime released the teaser trailer to the series that my interest peaked. I was watching Riley Keough as the character Daisy Jones, writhe around the stage, body slicked in sweat a la Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac and singing into the mic next to Billy Dunne, when I realized I need to read this book.
When I purchased the book I thought I’d be able to put it down after a few chapters. But once I took a bite of the juicy apple I was hooked. Not only was I hooked to the story line, the characters, the plot and side stories, I was hooked to what I thought I heard was music. Anthems that Reid wrote for the novel such as Honeycomb and Regret Me, I swore I heard play loud in the night muffling out my husband, Gary, snores.
Taylor Jenkins Reid genius idea of writing the story as a documentary interview made it seem even more real. It has been stated that the book was inspired by Reids upbringing of watching Fleetwood Mac on the bunny eared antenna television of the 70’s and 80’s. Brilliant! Write what you know, write what you love.
Now if you are expecting romance between the two main characters, you will be waiting like all of us who have read the book before you because this isn’t about love or only the two main characters. It is more about loving yourself, finding yourself, and grounding yourself. Getting one out of the pit of despair, resisting temptation whether it is another person or the last drop of liquor at the bottom of a bourbon glass, making choices on a future that you are unsure of and knowing that the choice you will make will be better or for worse all around. This is about a group of people taking that wave of questionability and riding it without knowing the answers.
And through it all you will be swept up on California beaches, hotels, well known music venues on the strip, festivals, and you will even smell the honeycomb that is hidden along a private jewel of beach. Your imagination will take you on the same trip as the group.
Daisy Jones and The Six will easily be a book that will become a dog eared copy on your bookshelf or the most read on your iPad or Kindle. I highly recommend it. And while you’re purchasing the book I strongly suggest downloading Fleetwood Mac as an accompaniment. Now I hear you chiding why not download the soundtrack to the streaming series on Amazon. I’ll explain my reasoning on my series review.
