Lust, Drugs, and Rock & Roll
Hello everyone! I’ve been racing to get a book done, a chapter closed, or a poem scribbled so that I could share it with you, but while juggling a new schedule and a lot more reading for work, it’s taken me a month to get typing and posting. Outside of my assigned books, I was looking for something easy and quick that I could dip in and out of, and so I picked up Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid, one of Booktok’s darlings. I expected it to be an easy YA novel, probably about a female enigma, and something that I could sink my teeth into.
I wasn’t exactly wrong, but the format was really fresh, and I can’t remember the last time I read about this time period and/or this trope of characters. It was good escapist fiction with a je ne sais quoi about it, and if you’re looking for something easy, it’s worth picking up.
Daisy Jones & The Six is formatted like an oral history of a famous band in the ’70s. Each of the band members is interviewed about how the band got together and how they broke up. Daisy Jones is a manic-pixie-dream-girl presenting woman, who runs away from home and immerses herself in the groupie lifestyle, while The Six forms as two brothers, Graham and Billy, turn their lonely childhood into powerful songs. When their producers push Daisy and The Six together, she and Billy find a heated and passionate partnership, fraught with drugs, addiction, and things unsaid.
There isn’t much plot in this book, instead, its focus is on the way the relationships in the band shift across their time, instead of on their concerts and experiences, it focuses on the character’s emotions as they struggle with fame, addiction, love, yearning, and passion for music. Although there is a lot of richness in the story, There were some moments where I wish Taylor Jenkins Reid had gone a little deeper into the wealth of situations she had created, and sometimes the tension and yearning felt like it didn’t pay off. Ultimately, I felt like it was a satisfying story and an interesting snapshot, and was happy to pick up something that moved smoothly and quickly.
This novel made me want to join a band, wear extreme outfits, and jump in a pool. It also made me think about love (are you surprised?), and specifically the way we make choices and build our lives around chosen family. If you are looking for a fictional companion for The Beatles Get Back documentary, an easy and musical escape, or a YA crossover with sexual tension and rock & roll, this is worth checking out.
Here’s a playlist to inspire some rock and roll vibes:
