Book Review: Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Malibu Rising

by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Finished reading: 4/5/21

My rating: 3.5/5 stars

 

“It was as if June had given her a box—as if every parent gives their children a box—full of the things they carried. June had given her children this box packed to the brim with her own experiences, her own treasures and heartbreaks. Her own guilts and pleasures, triumphs and losses, values and biases, duties and sorrows. And Nina had been carrying around this box her whole life, feeling the full weight of it. But it was not, Nina saw just then, her job to carry the full box. Her job was to sort through the box. To decide what to keep, and to put the rest down. She had to choose what, of the things she inherited from the people who came before her, she wanted to bring forward. And what, of the past, she wanted to leave behind.”

 

Malibu Rising follows the story of famous surfer and model Nina Riva and her equally famous family. The story spans four decades from Nina's parents meeting in 1956 to Nina's crazy celebrity party of 1983, ultimately resulting in one of the infamous Malibu fires.

As someone who adored Taylor Jenkin Reid's previous work, Malibu Rising was my most anticipated release of 2021. And I have to say, this novel is vastly different from its sister novels set in the same universe. Whilst The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (TSHOEH) and Daisy Jones and the Six (DJATS) both take biographical approaches to the narrative, Malibu Rising is told from the perspective of an omniscient narrator and follows many characters. Although I enjoyed Reid's latest novel, and ate it up just as quickly as her previous two, I can't say I fell in love with it in the same way.

Malibu Rising lacked the vibrant atmosphere and setting of Reid's previous two novels. Sure, there were a lot of '80s references sprinkled throughout to remind me where I was. But I can't say the novel transported me in the way Reid had succeeded to do so before. I felt as though this novel easily could have taken place in present day or pretty much any other decade without making too many changes. The themes certainly relate to any generation and in that aspect are timeless. But I so wanted to be swept away and immersed to the time and place and I never truly arrived there.

I admired Reid's attempt to switch up the narration. It definitely stepped away from the biographical approach of marking out a celebrity's life by looking backwards with nostalgic goggles. Instead, 1983 was the new present day and Reid tells us the story in real time whilst also taking us back to the past to catch us up to speed on the family's history. This worked mostly alright but didn't blow me away. I really felt as though a more interesting story could have been told with Reid's signature biographical approach in this novel. Particularly as the ending already sets itself up to be the final pieces of a mystery. However, I understand that this is essentially the structure of both TSHOEH and DJATS. Therefore, I understand why Reid avoided this format to avoid repetition. But, in my opinion, I do not think that the alternative fully achieved what it set out to do and this left me a little disappointed. I suppose I was expecting something much bigger and more explosive and instead was delivered more of a soap opera.

For me, the plot had too much set up, too much backstory and too many pointless side characters that added nothing valuable to the plot. All of these things had me patiently waiting for some magnificent and wonderful payoff and this never came. The actual plot is relatively simple and the ending was good, but it just did not justify the need for so much unnecessary build up. I really felt as though the same story and ending could have been told in 200 pages without all the extra bits. The huge cast of characters felt unnecessarily overcrowded considering that a maximum of 10 characters were probably needed to tell this story. I understand that the party needed to feel crowded but I also didn't feel it was necessary to know each of the guest’s backstories and childhoods that led them to that party. It would have been interesting if they all tied into the plot but, alas, they did not.

Despite all this, I want to focus on what I loved, because I still thoroughly enjoyed this book and there are so many things that deserved to be praised. Firstly, I absolutely adored all the references to Reid's other novels. In particular, the fact that Nina's Dad Mick Rivas was one of Evelyn Hugo's husbands and also apparently appeared at one of Daisy Jones' parties (I don’t remember this myself but came across this link to DJATS online shortly after reading). It was really interesting to see this side character's story told in more detail and also to see the three books tied together. I also noticed smaller references like how Nina's first modelling shots were featured in Vivant magazine, the one Monique works for in TSHOEH. I'm sure there were many others I missed too. I thought this was utter genius and I am so excited to see how Reid may tie any potential future projects into this universe of celebrities that she has created so beautifully.

The themes in this novel were probably some of the most powerful themes explored among Reid's other work. The story of Nina's mother June and her determination to continue loving and forgiving despite being continually broken by the same man was utterly devastating and heart-breaking. I really liked the ending message that it is ok not to forgive people who have caused you so much pain and admired this strength in Nina and her emotional journey throughout the novel. I think it is so common in other novels to see characters forgiving others as the ultimate happy ending even when forgiveness is not always earned. I really enjoyed this portrayal of broken trust and its devastating effects.

I adored the family bond portrayed between the Riva siblings. It was so refreshing to read a book so focused not just on the tragedy of toxic families but also the love of a close-knit family. Reid wrote their story and each character with such care and compassion. It was a nice change to see Reid write a story centred on family love rather than primarily romantic love. I also liked that each character overcame their own individual struggles throughout the novel as well as their collective family struggles. In particular, I loved the youngest sibling, Kit. Her character reminded me a lot of Amy in Little Women, the youngest but the feistiest.

Reid's writing style was, as always, so easy to read but also so artful. One of my favourite moments is quoted above when she uses the metaphor of a box to describe family influences. This is something that must resonate with every single human being. The sentiment is so powerful and will always stick with me. It certainly helps us to put our hereditary baggage into perspective and learn how to process and live with it.

Overall, there was a lot I enjoyed in this novel, but as a complete package, it did not quite meet my expectations. That is not to say by any means it's a bad novel, but more to do with my personal taste as a reader. In terms of comparing to Reid's previous novels, DJATS is still my favourite, closely followed by TSHOEH and then Malibu Rising. I am so excited to see what Reid writes next and how she may choose to expand this universe further.