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  • Writer's pictureShruti Sahai

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid


“Just because it is in Malibu's nature to burn, so was it in one particular person's nature to set fire and walk away.”


Malibu Rising was exactly what I needed to get out of my reading funk. I was instantly absorbed in the lives of this dysfunctional family. Now, there are enough books we have read or movies we have watched about flawed and broken families; What makes this one different is Reid’s writing. Her ability to perfectly weave together different storylines and characters through the years. I have only read Daisy Jones and The Six & The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Jenkins. Malibu Rising has a sense of the same familiarity, which I loved as much as I did before. Before we get soaked in the waves the Riva siblings were making (in the ocean and out), we get a glimpse of how it all began.


June was swept off her feet by Mick Riva's charm before he became one of the biggest rockstars of his time; When all they wanted was to have family and live in a house with two sinks. The dream quickly started showing its withered lines & cracks as Mick’s career starts picking up in the late 50s and as June got busy with Nina, Jay and Hud. She stood still in the centre of the storm that arose every time Mick left them for months or years together. Regardless of what the tabloids wrote about Mick's digressions, she always opened the door for him when he came back to her. Until one day, he doesn't. The lingering pain was gradually tearing her apart, piece by piece. Clear enough even to her now youngest child, Kit, to notice her mother fading away in front of her.


“How were you supposed to change - in ways both big and small - when your family was always there to remind you of exactly the person you apparently signed an ironclad contract to be?”


Nina, being the oldest, became the caregiver of the family at 16. Making sure there was food on the table and a roof over their heads. No matter how hard it got, they always had each other and their surfboards. Standing tall on those waves changed their lives, in some way or the other; it earned them an income and the fame that came along. This was also the time when the tradition of the annual Riva part had begun. That over the years dragged in the rich and the famous.


August 1983, all four of them are caught up in their new lives, dealing with new kinds of heartbreaks and secrets. And just like that, it is that time of the year again. The cleaners are setting up the house. Caterers are bringing out the food and drinks. The party beings, the usual flock of guests start pouring in, some expected and some not. There are more than 200 people here, glass shattering, trays of powdered lines circulating, people asleep in the pool, the chandelier has become a swing. In the middle of this cacophony, the Riva siblings find themselves confronted with the reality of some unexpected truths they did not see coming or the flames that the party ended in.


“There was finally enough air within her for a fire to ignite.”

Reid’s characters are so well defined and portrayed that they almost feel real. You cannot help but empathise with them. I could not peel myself away from this book in these last two days. I admired how Nina and June’s characters were rendered with resilience and pure selflessness while deep down conflicted by their misery. I am sure I am not the only one hoping to see these characters come to life on screen!




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