If you’re going to consume this book I highly recommend the audiobook with a full cast. It is absolutely fantastic and fits the oral history aspect of it well.

Many people will want to know how close it is to Daisy Jones and the Six and aside from it being about two musicians and having chapters that are oral histories, that’s about it. There are multiple hooks to the book and none are specifically romantic, which I would say is the primary hook for Daisy Jones.

This is a compiled (fictional) manuscript of a story that was to be published but never was, by the daughter of a musician who was killed at a famous event. An event that propelled Opal, a black woman who comes from gospel routes, and Nev,a somewhat quintessential English ex (punk) rocker, into global stardom.

Not only are you wondering what exactly happened to this musician, but you’re also getting Opal and Nev’s story form the perspective of a journalist who is unable to write a story that isn’t biased. Decompressing a key aspect of her identity via other people who are as unreliable narrators as she is.

It’s really, really good. It just works.

Sometimes it’ll have interview notes—the oral history aspect—other times it’ll be editor notes that are basically memoirs.

Together they make up a piece about racism, family drama, the music industry, internal biases, and the memoir aspects mixed in. It takes what worked about Daisy Jones and dials it into contemporary lit and something else that defies exact categorization.

Definitely read this book!