Malibu Rising
"Malibu: August 1983. It's the day of Nina Riva's annual end-of-the-summer party, and anticipation is at a fever pitch. Everyone wants to be around the famous Rivas: Nina, the talented surfer 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-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 the music will play, and the loves and secrets that shaped this family's generations will all come rising to the surface."
Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid is as rich a story as her other works. She excels in colorful, scandalous world-building that bases the characters on those plagued with the hardships of fame. The socially elite are an enigma to most people, but Reid always manages to give her characters a beautiful and complicated tale. This work is no different.
I had heard that this novel isn't as renowned as Daisy Jones and the Six or The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, but I would profoundly disagree. That's the thing about writing characters inspired by the rich and famous; there are several genres of people to choose from. Several different flavors of legendary personhood to choose from. This chose the genre of Malibu, California. Seemingly stereotypical, and not at all an interview piece (as the previous works were).
In this novel we are blessed with first-person omniscient of an entire family. A mother smitten over a clinically narcissistic musician. Her children left to pick up the pieces of themselves amidst her alcoholism and emotional absenteeism, all the while riding their father's legendary name to a place where they can also know success. They have to, for their own survival after both of their parents had abandoned them.
This was a hard one to read for me, as it is the first book I read after my mother passed away. I was just beginning to read it, literally flipping to the very first page when I got the call that my mother had passed away in her sleep. Reading a story of fellow abandoned children, fighting with what tools they were given to make it in the world. Much like myself, they did make it.
They grew to know success in their own individual ways. They threw their lavish summer party with all the biggest named in all the big industry names, and it was an utter disaster.
Characters were linked to one another in unexpected ways, the night took many a twist and turn, and not one of the Riva children were to be the same afterwards.
Without spoiling too much of the story, this one is definitely worth the read. It is much more than a glamorous tale of fame and fortune. It runs deeper than that and becomes a story of self-discovery, finding your footing in the face of unexpected events, and facing your trauma head-on at full force.
I look forward to reading Carrie Soto Is Back and following the story further.