Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid - review

---

Title: Malibu Rising

Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid

Genre: Historical Fiction

Pages: 369

My rating: ★★★☆☆

Other notable works by author: Daisy Jones & the Six; The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

---

Taylor Jenkins Reid is a very popular author in the bookiverse, and after being hugely let down by Daisy Jones & the Six, I was nervous to read this one, so my expectations were very low. To my great surprise, I actually enjoyed it quite a bit, and even admit to (almost) shedding a tear in some parts.

Set during the 80s in Malibu, with a cast chock-full of Hollywood stars and wannabes, the novel centres around the lives of the four Riva siblings. The story is told between two storylines: the story of how their parents met and their upbringing; and the story set on the day and eve of the famous Riva party, hosted every year and attended by basically everyone. The alternating chapters keeps a nice pace going throughout the novel, but I found myself enjoying the earlier storyline a lot more, as the contemporary-day one was a bit slower and also full of way too many characters, which could be confusing at times, and didn’t add too much to the story.

Out of the four siblings, Nina was focused on the most, but I felt she came off as too idealistic and bland as a character, with her main flaw being her extreme selflessness. The others felt a bit more balanced out and interesting, but with less screen time, so to speak. I also think the ending was a little too neat and wrapped up with a bow. Relationships are messier than that.

But, I will admit that the story of the four siblings’ upbringing lay close to my heart, and I cared much more about their struggles growing up than I did when they were grown. Their mother, June, had a heart-breaking storyline, and it was her who I felt for the most.

I’ve read other reviews where people hated this one compared to Daisy Jones, but maybe I liked this one better because I went in with no positive expectations, whereas I was extremely excited about Daisy.

Four stars for the growing up storyline, two for the party storyline - which adds up three stars altogether.