Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid is the multi-generational story of the Riva family and it culminates in one out of control party on the cliffs of Malibu.

I have enjoyed Taylor Jenkins Reid books before. I thought Daisy Jones was an absolute rollicking good time. I loved the exercise of attempting to cast The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. I have fond memories of One True Loves as an interesting solution to a thorny romance novel problem.  So I went into Malibu Rising with a fair amount of anticipation and excitement.

And it was fine.

Reid writes in an easy breezy kind of way that makes you want to just keep turning pages.  I think of her as similar to Jasmine Guillory in that way, but it the same way I think Guillory avoids hard topics in order to keep the lightness of her writing style, I think the same thing happens here. The chapters are brief and switch POV each time, so we never really get to spend much time with the characters. Because we only get brief windows into each character, we don't really get a good sense of who each person is and so everything just feels superficial. That superficiality is interesting because every scene is played up to 100% in pathos and drama, but it seemed more like watching a soap opera than reading about (fictional) real lives.

There are a lot of big topics touched on here - sexuality, intergenerational trauma and cycles of behavior, the price of fame, infidelity, drug use, poverty, self-discovery - but instead of focusing on ONE character or ONE theme, Reid just tries to touch a bit on too many and it all becomes water down and not deep enough.

And that's great. If you're looking for lighter fare, this may be just the thing for you. It's great to see Mick Riva appear (he's in Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones) and other characters repeating from the Reid world. It's also got a couple of examples of female friendship that I find startling sweet, which is something I also noted in Daisy Jones. I like that Reid understands the power of girl power and writes scenes that underline that importance in fun, important ways.  

This missed the mark for me a little bit, but I still appreciate Reid's style and overall tone. If I could write like this, with the sort of airiness that makes it look like writing a novel is easy, I would write all the novels, too.  3.5/5 stars

Line of note:

As she pulled out on the PCH, "Hungry  Heart" started playing through her speakers and Ashley felt just the tiniest bit of hope. Your whole world can be falling apart, she thought, but then Springsteen will start playing on the radio. (page 310)

Right? Springsteen IS the solution to so many problems.