Written by award-winning author Taylor Jenkins Reid, “Daisy Jones and The Six” reads like a documentary-style novel that pulls you into the life of rock-n-roll, bouncing back and forth between the 70s and the present day.

Based on a fictional rock band, Jenkins-Reid set up an interview style with each character answering questions that give shape to the band’s rise and fall during the 1970s. It centers around rising star Daisy Jones joining ‘The Six’ -a band scaling the music industry- becoming legends for years to come. Readers observe each character’s point of view, but mostly Daisy’s and Billy’s (lead singer of ‘The Six’).

Published in 2019, “Daisy Jones and The Six” received love from readers everywhere. So much so that 4 years later on March 3rd, Prime Video released a series based on the book. The show and the book follow the same chronological order, starring Riley Keough, and Sam Claflin in the lead roles of Daisy and Billy.

“It read like a movie or television show with back in time, but also had this great documentary footage angle too,” Executive producer Reese Witherspoon told ‘Today’ in February 2023. “You got to see people talking about their life in a way that built this mystery.”

In March 2019 Witherspoon added the novel to her famous “Reese’s BookClub” list of books to read, and she loved it so much that her production company “Hello Sunshine” partnered with “Prime Video” to “help bring the story to the small screen.”

The show features songs from the fictional band’s album ‘Aurora,’ though the lyrics differ from the ones written in the book. Each episode in the show highlights a soundtrack-“made” by the characters- attached to it. One of my favorites ‘Honeycomb’ has a sweet, soft rhythm, and like most of the songs, Billy and Daisy sing the harmonies.

Unlike ‘Honeycomb’ ‘Regret Me’ consists of a more forceful beat and the tone is more powerful. In a way, these songs are on opposite spectrums. I was disappointed that the lyrics from the book changed when the real-life album released the same day as the streaming episodes. Each song mirrors how Daisy and the band’s lives develop and are a central part of the storyline. Daisy wrote the lyrics on a napkin in a diner after tension flared between her and Billy when they started writing songs together.

Three episodes aired on March 3rd, but more episodes drop on March 9th. 

Episodes 1 through 3 established the characters, their backstories, the plot, and how they grew as musicians, personally, and romantically. As each fifty-minute episode plays we get more conflict and depth to the story. For example, Billy Dune -lead singer of ‘The Six’- is an addict who missed his first child’s birth. The journalist and Billy have this conversation as he’s retelling the story: 

Dunn: “Same old tired rock and roll tale. Drinking, drugs, loneliness.” 

Interviewer: “Yeah, but that’s usually the end of the story. For you, it was just the beginning.” 

Billy and Daisy were not the only people in the novel going through personal problems. Band members would have issues with leadership positions, relationships, and feeling overlooked.  Eddie Roundtree who, in my opinion, was very prideful, felt his ideas weren’t being heard. Keyboard player Karen Sirko often felt judged because she was a woman who didn’t want “womanly things” like having a family or kids.

“Daisy Jones and The Six” resembles other rock and roll band biographies, but it feels more real, raw, and honest, even though it’s based on a fictional band.

It took me almost a year to finish reading the stand-alone novel. It wasn’t dull. It just felt a bit slow in the beginning. Once I got into the conflict of the story, it went by quickly. I read other books in between when I felt bored. 

I recommend “Daisy Jones and The Six” as a TV show and a novel. It invites you into the lives of rock stars and gives you an in-depth look into what they struggle with and how they succeed through it.