In the past decade, the popularity of the 1970s has taken over American pop culture. Love for artists such as Fleetwood Mac, Joni Mitchell and Carole King show just how iconic the decade was musically. Even fashion trends like bell bottoms and floral patterns are everywhere. With the reemerging love for this “groovy” decade, Taylor Jenkins Reid’s novel “Daisy Jones & The Six” creates a nostalgia for a life not lived, but one every reader will wish they could live. 

“Daisy Jones and the Six” is Reid’s seventh book and was a New York Times Best Seller. The book was released on March 5, 2019 and has grown in popularity the past year due to a TV series based on the novel to be released on Amazon. The show is in early stages of production and is working with Reese Witherspoon’s production company, Hello Sunshine.

Set up as a fictional series of interviews combined to tell one story, Reid tells the all-too-well-known story of a band in the late ‘70s whose rise to fame is filled with sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. The story begins in the late ‘60s with two separate settings. One follows Daisy Jones, a groupie emerging into the Los Angeles music scene. The other side accompanies the start of the band The Six, which was created by Billy Dunne. As both sides grow in the music industry, their paths cross when Teddy Price, The Six’s producer, combines the two to perform a new single, “Honeycomb,” and eventually an album together. The story follows the timeline of the band joining together, making their first album, “Aurora,” enduring their tour and dealing with their explosive fallout at a show in Chicago. 

While every character has definitive distinctions, Reid has a keen focus on assertive women. This is a common characteristic in her previous writing. Reid’s other books, “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” and “Malibu Rising,” both highlight strong and complicated female leads, and Daisy Jones provides the same candid protagonist.  

Throughout the story, Daisy struggles with her drug and alcohol addiction. Still she displays bonafide, heart-wrenching emotions in her music and dialogue. Daisy shares the conflicts most women face with men who overlook her and Billy who writes over her lyrics. Despite this struggle, she is characterized with a confidence that demands a spotlight. 

“I had absolutely no interest in being somebody else’s muse,” Daisy said in the book. “I am not a muse. I am the somebody. End of the f***ing story.” 

Camila Dunne, Billy’s wife, provides a contrasting view compared to Daisy’s. While she may not have been a working woman, Camila’s faith and expectations for Billy are admirable. Throughout the book, Daisy and Camila seem to be on opposing sides, but their demanding personalities show just how strong the two female leads are. Even Karen, the keyboardist for the band, exemplifies a hardworking woman who performs, dresses and carries herself for herself only. 

With women such as these, Reid proves to be a powerful writer who knows how to write a female lead because she knows the female experience. While many books written by men lose the grit their female characters should have, Reid does not shy away from the actuality of women in a male-based environment like the music industry. Seeing these characters react to their band members and producers displays the brutal reality female musicians face. 

Reid also illustrates such a genuine perspective on the band that the reader feels as if Daisy Jones and The Six were a classic band that parents teach their children about. 

With the book set up as a combination of interviews from members and those close to the band, readers see the character’s perspective of the events that occurred vividly. Each character can highlight what was important to them, their own opinions and their emotions instead of a general point of view from the narrator. This narrative style shows how sublime of a writer and storyteller Reid truly is. 

A unique part of the story is in the end, after the story concludes. Reid has written the lyrics to each song on the novel’s album “Aurora.” Reading these lyrics allow an even more profound connection between the songs and characters, one which most fictional books cannot do.

With the TV series in the works, a reader can look forward to fully immersing themselves in this band and their drama. They will also be able to finally hear Daisy and Billy perform together.

Reid provides a drama filled with tangible, honest characters whose conversations are just as emotional as the music they write. If one is looking for a book they can visualize themselves a part of, then “Daisy Jones & The Six” will fulfill their wish to be a fly on the wall for one of the biggest bands of all time. By the end, the reader will wish it were real so that they can be part of the band.

Edited by Elise Mulligan, emulligan@themaneater.com