Pages: 365
Published: 27th May 2021
Genre: General Fiction
Content warnings: Drug use, strong sexual references, alcohol dependency
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 Hudson, 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.
But before that first spark in the early hours before dawn, the alcohol will flow, the music will play, and the loves and secrets that shaped this family’s generations will all come bubbling to the surface.
Malibu Rising is a story about one unforgettable night in the life of a family: the night they each have to choose what they will keep from the people who made them . . . and what they will leave behind.
Take a dysfunctional celebrity family where parents are habitually absent and marriages take place on a whim, and put them in a house along an exclusive, mega-rich stretch of California coastline. Throw in a countless number of equally rich friends and associates, plus innumerable amounts of alcohol, drugs and goodness knows what else on their way through the various stages of misadventure, to the extent where it all gets out of hand amid several revelations. That is basically this book in a nutshell.
To describe it in such simple terms however, would do a disservice to the amount of thought that goes into the character development. It may on the surface be something quite frivolous that will immerse you in a kind of summery escapism, but there are some heavy topics at play here and as always, Taylor Jenkins Reid hits many of the right notes when capturing the very real complexity of her fictional creations as well as their human weaknesses.
The opening sets everything up by making perfectly clear that by the end, all hell is going to break loose and a fire will be ignited across the decidedly flammable surroundings of Malibu, which means there is a sense of build-up right from the start. In suitable fashion, the story is merely sparking into life to begin with before the action gradually escalates until it all – quite literally – bursts into flames.
Initially there are two timelines; one that takes place during the day of the Riva summer party in 1983 and slowly ticks through hour by hour, and another that begins in the late 1950s and charts the lives of the Riva family up until that point. To be honest, the past timeline was much more engaging as it told a more powerful and multi-dimensional story. It was only when they merged just over halfway through that it became easier to connect with the characters and their situations as they are in the later narrative.
It is clear that the four Riva children have lived strange and unstable existences, and much of the plot is spent exploring these dynamics. They find themselves entangled in complex, often ill-fated relationships, and are used to having to forge their own way, with a deceased mother and a rock star father who is both everywhere and nowhere as far as they are concerned.
A lot of the storytelling here is based around Mick Riva’s eschewing of parental responsibilities and the emotional consequences that has had on his children. Even if the excesses of his celebrity lifestyle will not be relatable to most readers, a lot of the feelings expressed by his children will be, especially the pent-up resentment shown by Kit.
In many ways, they have not really grown up yet. Jay sometimes comes across as immature and Hudson makes mistakes despite having good intentions, while Kit is still unsure of the person she wants to be. The one exception is Nina, who is ultra practical and essentially has to take charge of everything until her somewhat unwilling modelling career and marriage to Brandon, which goes on to have echoes of what happened between her parents.
The story of June was quite sad, and like some of the sections involving the Riva children it featured some wonderful passages with lines that really strike a chord. Meanwhile, for a moment later on it seemed like it could turn into the seven wives of Mick Riva, who is an extreme case of someone with very little regard for fidelity and personal responsibility, but many of his actions have real foundations. The fascinating part was how he explained this behaviour towards the end, which gave his character some serious depth.
Of course, these Taylor Jenkins Reid books all take place in the same world, so there is plenty of crossover to be found here. Mick Riva himself is the chief example of that and one of his briefer marriages certainly sounded a trifle familiar; and there is also an introduction for Carrie Soto, who for now at least seems a very intimidating person to be around.
So a lot of the story is actually quite deep, but there is no doubt that it is also about a party that gets increasingly out of hand. And trust me, it really does. As people show up out of the blue to cause a scene, fights break out, and the possibility that Mick Riva fathered another child becomes more likely, you truly cannot help yourself from laughing at times as the chaos is turned up to the maximum.
Just when you think the party cannot get any more crazy, it does. The sheer nonsense of it makes it incredibly fun to read. Indeed, some it really was silly, such as the exchange between Tarine and the police officer and the whole idea of Nina just going to Portugal with hardly a second thought, but by that stage it is long past the point where you can take all these events too seriously.
Overall, this is an entertaining read that contains a huge amount of family drama, both irreverent and impactful. The plot revolves around the party and the more outlandish side of celebrity culture, but there are a host of more down to earth themes at its heart which are embodied by the main characters and their traits. It is far from a classic, but it keeps you turning the pages and you cannot help enjoying it.
I would say what makes this book good is that is entertaining to read. It is a little lacking at times with regards to plot, but there are some powerful moments there too.
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐.5
Stephen Reads Books 