Key Differences Between Book and Show
The show de-emphasizes Daisy's addiction to play up the love triangle angle.
Daisy is seen drinking and popping pills throughout the show, but the depths of her addiction go largely unexplored.
In the book, Daisy begins using drugs at a very young age. She is depicted as kind and passionate, but also unstable, self-destructive, and impulsive; it's clear that Billy's complex feelings about Daisy are as much about her addiction, if not more so, than they are about his attraction to her.
"Look, Daisy was barefoot when it was cold, wearing jackets when it was hot, sweating no matter the temperature," Billy says in chapter seven, during their first tour together. "She never thought before she spoke. She seemed sort of manic and half-delusional sometimes."
"She was a drug addict," he continued. "The type of addict that thinks that other people don't know she's using, which is maybe the worst type of addict of all. There was no way — no matter what was happening, even if I wanted to — that I could let myself be around Daisy Jones."
Later, Billy finds Daisy inebriated at the hotel pool, a scene that's depicted in episode six. He watches her walk on broken glass without even feeling it.
In the book, this scene makes it clear clear that Daisy scares Billy — not because he's tempted to cheat on his wife, but because he's tempted to relapse.
"I couldn't stay because when I looked at Daisy, wet and bleeding and out of it and half-near falling down, I did not think, 'Thank God I stopped using,'" he reflects. "I thought, 'She knows how to have fun.'"
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