Malibu Rising – Taylor Jenkins Reid
100-Word (or Less) Synopsis: The four Riva siblings are celebrities in Malibu, thanks in part to their rock star father and individual careers, but mostly for their annual anything goes party. Over the course of 24 hours, we’ll learn how each sibling reacts to secrets, lies and new opportunities.
Expectation: Another character-driven crowd pleaser from Taylor Jenkins Reid (TJR).
Reality: A mostly solid endeavor that keeps you entertained, but outside of one character it doesn’t deliver the emotional depth of her previous work.
Recommended For: Fans of TJR, beach reads and Hollywood glamour.
Why I Read It: I’ve enjoyed two other TJR reads and with “Malibu” she makes it a hat trick.
My Take:
In a little over two years, Taylor Jenkins Reid has become my literary comfort food. And like diving into your favorite dish, sometimes it’s exceptional, while other times it is just right.
My third TJR read further cements her place as a consistent, compulsively entertaining writer who has a knack for immersing you in worlds so different from your own but rooting them in a humanity where you can connect with the champagne problems.
I was entertained throughout “Mailbu Rising,” even to the point I ignored a buddy read commitment because I didn’t want to stop listening long enough to let the others catch up.
By any other author this would’ve been a five-star read, but TJR is quickly becoming a G.O.A.T. in the adult historical fiction genre, which means she is held to a different standard.
So, in that respect, no matter how entertaining I found “Rising,” I cannot overlook the faults that made it not live up to the same five-star qualities of “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo,” one of my all-time favorite novels.
Continuing the long tradition single-day, epic party stories (think “Can’t Hardly Wait,” and “Superbad”), we follow the four Riva siblings — twenty-somethings Nina, Jay, Hud and Kit — preparing for their annual bash while unpacking current and past family drama.
The grown children of an aging rock star, the Riva’s appear to have it all — Nina with a successful modeling career, Jay, Hud and Kit all making literal waves in the world of professional surfing — but their family history is far more tragic.
Starting in 1983 but jumping back to the late 1950s as a way for us to learn more about how the Rivas arrived where they are today, the setup closely aligns to “Hugo,” but with the alternating POVs TJR used with great success in “Daisy Jones and the Six.”
TJR can weave us through time and characters like few writers can, and she excels at that balance again here, delivering one of the most engaging stories I’ve read this year, but it also fell short in a few places.
Mainly, Nina is the only interesting character, so when she’s not the focus, the book lost steam.
Her past and present story arc is the most compelling, and she is the emotional center of the story. While the other Riva siblings all get a chance to shine — and even their mother, June, is compelling during the 1950s-1970s chapters — none of their plots felt as fresh as Nina’s.
While the first half of the novel is solely about the Rivas and those in their immediate orbit, once the party begins we’re introduced to a bevy of characters that are only there to describe the chaos of the evening.
Sure, some of these people interact with the Riva siblings, but I couldn’t care much about these randoms knowing our time together was only going to span a few pages.
It almost seemed like TJR had a tight narrative for the Rivas, but was asked to make the book longer so the additional POVs were used for “E! True Hollywood Story” style gossip. It’s not bad per se, but it also felt disconnected from the first half.
Maybe some of these people will pop up in a future TJR read, since she appears to be building a full literary universe (à la Stephen King) as there were Easter eggs from her previous novels sprinkled throughout.
Had TJR focused solely on Nina — or even June — much in the way she did with Evelyn and Daisy, this would’ve earned that five-star distinction. Still, she stuck the landing with a decades in the making confrontation and a reclaiming of one’s power.
Narrated by audiobook all-star Julia Whelan, she gives each of the dozen or so characters a unique delivery that helps build distinction between the cast as it grows. But I’m noticing that she often voices male characters (in this instance Jay and Nina’s estranged husband) with the same gravely, masculine-tinged inflection. As soon as she spoke as Jay I thought of Jack from “The Four Winds.”
Minor criticisms aside, you can’t go wrong with the print or audio version of this sure to be bestseller.
Rating (story): 4/5 stars
Rating (narration): 4/5
Formats: Audiobook (library loan)
Dates read: July 6 - 13, 2021
Multi-tasking: Good to go, although near the end all the characters become difficult to keep track of if you’re not paying close attention.
