Review: Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

 

I wasn't sure I would like this book at first.

Four famous siblings - Nina, Jay, Hud, and Kit - come together for their family's epic, annual end of summer blowout party with all of Hollywood in attendance; however, this year each of the siblings secrets come to light as the party grows out of control.

In the beginning it seemed like this was going to be a pretentious book about beautiful people surfing.  I was about to give up reading when roughly a quarter of the way through I realized that was not the case.

Grounding the siblings present by slowly diving into their family's past really helped me empathize with each of them.  The characters became more nuanced and I invested myself deeper into each one of their stories.

I really enjoyed the shifting perspective between each of the siblings.  I liked being able to get into all of their heads and see the story from different angles.  I also appreciated the writing style, it was a quick and easy read but felt full of context.

By the end, each storylines ending felt complete as well as earned and appropriate.  I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this novel.  It could have gone wrong in so many ways but it avoided all the potential cliche pitfalls.

If you haven't read it yet I would recommend you give it a try.