I first saw Daisy Jones & The Six recommended by Elaine Lui of LaineyGossip a few months ago. I’ve picked up several books from Lainey’s recommendations and enjoyed most of them. Daisy Jones & The Six was no exception.
Daisy Jones & The Six was one of those books I found myself mentally casting as I was reading it. The supporting cast came together in my head pretty quickly but the leads were a bit harder. Daisy and Billy ended up as sort of amalgamations of various actors. The format of the book lends itself to visualizing the various characters and the story through the familiar lens of a Behind the Music type story. It also helps that each character is distinct, their personalities shown through their own words and the stories of the other characters.
The book is pretty narrowly focused on the members of the band and their interactions with each other in a short time frame. Billy and Daisy are on a collision course from the beginning and they are clearly the main story. However, I found some of the supporting characters more compelling. For example, keyboardist Karen’s struggle to balance her ambition and the sexism she experienced could be a full story on its own. Or why Simone, Daisy’s best friend, became so devoted to Daisy and how she maintained that devotion through her own career. Simone was a disco queen in New York in the ’70’s- lady would no doubt have some stories to tell besides those of her crazy friend Daisy.
The ending of the book- no spoilers- made me rethink parts of the story and question the reliability of the narrators. They are obviously unreliable from the beginning and the fictional interviewer takes pains to point out the discrepancies and flaws in their individual memories. But the ending lets the reader know that even the degree to which they are unreliable could be in question. We all tell stories about ourselves and the people in our lives and the further we are removed from those stories, the easier it is to smooth the edges and maker ourselves more of a hero than we really were.