Daisy Jones Is Reopening the Breakup
The most tempting thing in the new Daisy Jones & The Six is not the fancy cover. The deluxe edition, published Tuesday, October 6, promises more of the ending: emails between Daisy and Camila, plus another Billy and Daisy phone-call transcript.
Taylor Jenkins Reid is also adding a letter to readers and images from her research notebook. Those are conventional collector's extras. The new exchanges are a different proposition for readers who have spent years making up their own minds about these people.
Do you really want another witness?
The novel presents its fictional rock band through an oral history. People remember things differently. They contradict one another. You get to decide whose account you believe, and how much self-interest you hear in the telling.
That uncertainty is a large part of the fun. Extra testimony might complicate it wonderfully. It might also answer a question you preferred to keep open. The promise of more pages gives returning readers a reason to be curious, but it does not establish that the original ending needed fixing. We have not reviewed the additions.
Read them as another witness. Keep your original impression in mind and ask whether the new exchanges actually change it. A deluxe edition can add to the argument without automatically getting the last word.
If you arrived through the Daisy Jones & the Six television series, the novel's format offers a useful change of distance. On screen, a look or a hesitation can seem to give someone away. On the page, you are stuck with what the characters choose to tell you. That leaves more work for your suspicions.
There is already an encore
Aurora, the album recorded for the television band, is another way back in. Amazon's cast interview describes the work of making a real record alongside the series. For someone who misses the band, that may be a more satisfying return than asking the characters to explain themselves again.
Newcomers should read the novel's original ending before turning to the bonus material. Sit with it for an evening. Then try the series or put on Aurora. If you still want those extra conversations, the deluxe edition will be waiting. There is no need to let a collector's edition set the pace of your first encounter.
