Reivew + The Greatest Hits of Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

12:23 AM

What do you mean? Daisy Jones isn't REAL?

"...it should also be noted that, on matters both big and small, sometimes accounts of the same event differ. The truth often lies, unclaimed, in the middle." 


FAVOURITE QUOTES
from Daisy Jones & the Six:

"Some people just don't threaten each other. And other people threaten everything about each other." 

"I don't believe in soul mates anymore and I'm not looking for anything. But if I did believe in them, I'd believe your soul mate was somebody who had all the things you didn't, that needed all the things you had. Not somebody who's suffering from all the same stuff you are." 

"It's so strange, how someone's silence, someone's insistence that something isn't happening can be so suffocating. But it can be. And suffocating is exactly the word, too. You feel like you can't breathe." 

"History is what you did, not what you almost did, not what you thought about doing."

"People like it when you make them sad, I think. But people hate it when you leave them sad. Great albums have to be roller coasters that end on top. You gotta leave people with a little bit of hope."

"You have to have one person in your life that you know would never do anything to steer you wrong. They may disagree with you. They could even break your heart, from time to time. But you have to have that one person, at least, who you know will always tell you the truth." 

"I wish someone had told me that love isn't torture. Because I thought love was this thing that was supposed to tear you in two and leave you heartbroken and make your heart race in the worst way. I thought love was bombs and tears and blood. I did not know that it was supposed to make you lighter, not heavier. I didn't know it was supposed to be the kind of work that makes you softer. I thought love was war. I didn't know it was supposed to... I didn't know it was supposed to be peace."

"Passion is... it's fire. And fire is great, man. But we're made of water. Water is how we keep living. Water is what we need to survive."

"At some point, you have to recognize that you have no control over anybody and you have to step back and be ready to catch them when they fall and that's all you can do. It's like throwing yourself to sea. Or, maybe not that. Maybe it's more like throwing someone you love out to sea and then praying they float on their own, knowing they might well drown and you'll have to watch."

 Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid 
Rating: ★★★★★

It's been a while since I've felt so deeply about a standalone release. At least, ah, the ones that weren't thrillers. Or fantasy. This book, though? Something about it hit me straight away and I'm going to just guess that there's no turning back from Daisy Jones & the Six. After checking it out from the library early last week, I've already read it twice. I may make it a third time before returning it.

Rereading a book back to back is not something I typically do. Maybe once every year or so?

Looking back, the last times I did that were probably with The Girls by Emma Cline, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid and Bucky F*cking Dent by David Duchovny.

To say that Taylor Jenkins Reid has a way with words would not be saying enough. Although I've only read two of her releases--Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones--I feel like she's just enchanted me completely. Slick, cutting and incredibly complex is all that comes to mind when discussing her writing or her characters.

What made Daisy Jones & the Six stick out to me was likely the elements of music. The seventies are one of my favourite eras musically speaking and the Fleetwood Mac vibes of the band at the center of this book brought me such a rush. Further, Taylor Jenkins Reid told us so much in such a small and unique format--I found myself thinking I was listening to transcripts, I found myself forgetting that this was fiction and that I couldn't open up iTunes and play Aurora at the highest volume.

This was a book about music and people and the complexities of life. As a musician myself, I saw so much of me in their passion for their art. I saw some of my flaws in them. I saw flaws that I wasn't at all familiar with, things I'd never experienced, but still felt for the characters. 

Truly, I was blown away with how much of an emotional kick in the gut Daisy Jones & the Six gave me. I really can't describe it, but this book? This book is it for me. I'm in awe over how real it feels, how easy it was to taste the music without ever hearing it. When I closed the book for the first time, my face was red with emotion, and I asked my friend, "Is it possible to miss a fictional band?"

(She laughed and said of course it was.)

We read books to feel something. I felt it all during Daisy Jones & the Six. I felt it all and now, I can't shake them from my head. And really, my review was so close to being short: "Oh, fuck, I love this story with my whole heart."

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