Family bonds, traumas and new beginnings
Plot:
Set primarily in 1983, this book follows the famous Riva siblings on the day of their annual end-of-summer party. The four Riva’s are the tossed aside children of famous singer Mick Riva who only cares about himself and his career. The children are famous in their own right: Nina, the oldest is a surfer and model, Jay and Hud - raised like twins, though they are half-siblings - a successful pro surfer and a well-known photographer, respectively, and Kit, the youngest on her way to being a champion surfer. As the day progresses into the chaos of an out-of-control party, tensions build as family loyalties are tested, secrets come out and their pasts come back to haunt them. That one night will test them as a family and as individuals and force them to choose what to keep from their family’s past and what to let go of for good.
Review:
This book was a grand slam for me in its entirety. I’m a sucker for books with storylines about family dynamics and this checked off every single box. I’ll admit I went into this book blind, all I knew was I loved the previous Taylor Jenkins Reid book I read and I have to say I was surprised with how drastically different this book was in all the best ways.
The epilogue pulls you in instantly, not only does it make you wonder how the great Malibu fire of 1983 will come into play throughout the story, but it also sets the tone for the chaos that is to come for each of the characters as the story and the fire unfolds.
Often when a story follows too many characters, things get confusing and storylines get lost in the shuffle, but Jenkins Reid expertly weaves the lives of the four Riva siblings, their two parents, and many more secondary characters together to create a seamlessly interconnected storyline. Readers are also given just enough backstory through flashback chapters to understand just how the parents’ past actions lead to the events unfolding in their children’s lives in present day, 1983.
There is a character for every reader to relate to which is a unique characteristic not present enough in other books. Nina struggles with an impending divorce and the pressure of parenting her three younger siblings since their parents absent most of their lives. Hud wrestles with a secret he’s keeping from his best friend and brother that will test the strength of their brotherhood while simultaneously reconciling how to not turn into their father. Jay faces the prospect of putting his heart on the line for the first time ever. And Kit struggles with her sexuality and with finding her place in this world while constantly in the shadow of her older siblings and famous father. And those are just the problems they expect to deal with - nothing can prepare them for their actions when they have to decide to embrace the patriarchy of their family or let him go for good.
This book expertly explores the trauma children have to endure at the hands of parents who fail to show up time and time again. It dives into how growing up in a household that only knows two parents with untreated mental health issues (depression and narcism) will have negative effects on the kids well into their adulthood.
Malibu Rising personifies the reality of money doesn’t buy happiness and that fame and fortune won’t mean anything if you don’t have people to share a life with. The Riva siblings get lucky in the sense that they had each other to lean on growing up, but that is not the case for a lot of other kids in similar situations.
The book goes on to tackle the pressures of familial responsibility and sacrifice in both a positive and negative way. Not enough and the Riva’s will all ended up alone and hurting, but too much and they risk losing themselves and forsaking their dreams at the expense of others. Jenkins Reid finds the perfectly snug place right in the middle of these two extremes as a place for the siblings to land that gives the reader a beautiful bittersweet ending.
Favorite Quote:
“Family histories repeat. Maybe our parents' lives are imprinted within us. Maybe the only fate there is, is the temptation of reliving their mistakes. Maybe, try as we might, we will never be able to outrun the blood that runs through our veins. Or - or maybe we are free the moment we are born. Maybe everything we’ve ever done is by our own hands.”