REVIEW: Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

When it comes to fiction, Taylor Jenkins Reid has a winning formula that feels anything but formulaic. Pick a glamorous setting from the past, add some gossipy drama, throw in a cast of compelling characters, and you have yourself an amazing book. Enter Malibu Rising, Reid’s latest novel. From Hollywood of the ‘50s to the tumultuous music scene of the ‘70s, everything Reid touches seems to turn to gold and it’s because she’s a damn good storyteller. While nothing will ever topple Daisy Jones & The Six in my heart for sheer style and grit, Malibu Rising comes pretty close.

Taylor Jenkins Reid

Here’s why.

As you might expect, the events of this book unfold in Malibu, that golden strip of celebrity-studded American coastland that’s the stuff of holiday dreams. But this isn’t Malibu as you know it. Reid takes us back to the ‘80s, to a time when it was a sleepy little seaside town — and a surfer’s best kept secret. It’s here that we encounter the Riva children: Nina, Jay, Hud and Kit, the kids their superstar father, Mick Riva, forgot. (Yes that Mick Riva, one-time husband of Hollywood superstar Evelyn Hugo.)

After clawing their way up from nothing, the Rivas are finally on top of the world. Eldest daughter Nina is the hardworking model who sacrificed everything to keep her family afloat, Jay and Hud make up a surfer-photographer dream team, and Kit is the beloved baby of the family who’s determined to prove herself on the waves. Nina might be the lynchpin that holds them together, but they’re all keeping secrets from each other that could tear them apart forever. Naturally, it all comes to a head over one night at Nina’s annual end-of-summer party, a riot of booze and pills that’s fuel for the fire to come, in more ways than one.

Reid cut her teeth on romance and nostalgia in her previous books and she wields them again in this story that will break your heart even as you cheer for the underdogs. Like its immediate predecessors, Malibu Rising handles the alluring underbelly of fame and wealth with aplomb, and Reid transforms a sensational story into a drama with a very human heart. She is simply a master at creating complex and memorable characters. Her men are troubled and selfish, but often lovable; her women are resilient, hard as iron and just as magnetic. Reid isn’t one to let her female characters languish in their sorrows, and it’s always a thrill to watch them soar (I adored Nina).

Malibu Rising alternates between the perspectives of each Riva sibling, interspersed with flashbacks to their parents’ doomed romance, and they carry the novel to its riveting finish. Reid sets her characters up in this intricate world of emotional politics and family allegiances, before dousing it in gasoline and lighting a match. It’s not a mystery story, but you go into this book knowing that the night is going to end in flames one way or another and there’s a curious satisfaction to be found in seeing it all unfold on the page. It’s electrifying and oh so readable.

If, like me, you loved Daisy Jones & The Six and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Malibu Rising is a must-read for you. No question about it. Never before have I resented the end of my lunch break so much, because it meant that I had to stop reading this book and drag myself back to the real world. It really is that good.

—Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid (Penguin Books Australia) is out on 1 June.

Malibu Rising

by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Malibu - August, 1983.

It's the day of Nina Riva's annual end-of-summer party, and anticipation is at a fever pitch. Everyone wants to be around the famous Rivas - Nina, the talented surfer and supermodel; brothers Jay and Hud, one a championship surfer, the other a renowned photographer; and their adored baby sister, Kit. Together, the siblings are a source of fascination in Malibu and the world over - especially as the offspring of the legendary singer, Mick Riva. By midnight the party will be completely out of control. By morning, the Riva mansion will have gone up in flames...

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Olivia Fricot

Olivia Fricot (she/her) is Booktopia's Senior Content Producer and editor of the Booktopian blog. She has too many plants and not enough bookshelves, and you can usually find her reading, baking, or talking to said plants. She is pro-Oxford comma.

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