Malibu Rising BOOK REVIEW

• Date Published:
  2021
• Length:
  384 pages—Listening Time: 11 hours 5 minutes
• Genre:
  Historical Fiction
• Setting:
  August 27, 1983 with flashbacks from 1950s through 1970s; Malibu, Californi
• Awards
  Goodreads Choice Awards Winner Historical Fiction 2021; Distinctions
  Book of the Month Club Selection June 2021; LibraryReads Annual Voter Favorite – Hall of Fame June 2021; Read with Jenna 06/2021; King County Library System Best Books Fiction 2021; Indie Next List June 2021;Time Magazine's Best Books of the Year 2021
• Languages:
  Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Macedonian, Spanish, Swedish, Portuguese (Portugal)
• Sensitive Aspects:
  Alcoholism, alcohol and drug use/substance abuse, parental abandonment, cheating/infidelity, sexual content, sexual harassment, misogyny/sexism, assault/violence, death of a parent, divorce, grief, fire/destruction, gun use, abortion (mentioned), explicit language, sibling betrayal
• Movie
  The Malibu Rising adaptation is currently in development as a television series rather than a movie. Hulu originally optioned the rights, but the project shifted and is in the process of seeking a new distribution home.
• Recommended for Book Club:
  Yes

Let me paint you a picture. It's a sweltering August night in 1983. The Pacific is black and glittering, the air smells like salt and sunscreen and something dangerously close to poor decisions, and somewhere in Malibu, a legendary party is burning down—literally.

That's where Taylor Jenkins Reid drops you at the start of Malibu Rising, and honey, once she does, you are not leaving until the last ember goes cold.

This is the first of the Tides & Tales: Beach Reads Series and if you know anything about Readers With Wrinkles, you already know I don't do fluffy poolside nonsense. I do books that feel like the ocean—beautiful on the surface, with serious depth underneath. This one? It's both, and then some.

Here's the setup: four famous siblings, all stunning, all surfers, all haunted by the same ghost of a father—the legendary Mick Riva, a rock star with a voice like God and a conscience like a napkin. One night. One party. Everything is unraveling. And Reid weaves it all together with flashbacks that sweep you from the golden haze of 1950s celebrity romance all the way through the gritty glitter of the 1970s. If you have any weakness for that era of old Hollywood glamour — the sunglasses, the yacht parties, the tragically beautiful messes—this book will wreck you in the best possible way.

Because here's the thing, nobody tells you about the rich and famous: the lifestyle looks stunning from the outside and absolutely exhausting from the inside. Reid doesn't glamorize it. She excavates it.

This is a book about surfing, yes—and Reid writes the ocean with a reverence that'll make you feel the water. But it's really about what we inherit from our parents, what we survive, and what it costs us to finally put it down.

It's August 1983, and the Riva siblings are throwing the party of the year. Actually, scratch that — they're throwing the party of the decade. Every summer, Nina Riva opens the doors of her stunning Malibu beach house, and every summer, the who's who of California glamour shows up to see and be seen. Surfers, celebrities, photographers, and industry insiders all come for the music, the ocean air, and the particular thrill of being invited.

But this year, something feels different. This year, the party is going to burn.

Malibu Rising tells the story of a single legendary night—and the decades of family history that led up to it. Taylor Jenkins Reid masterfully moves back and forth in time, pulling the reader deep into the Riva family's origins long before that fateful August evening even begins.

At the heart of it all is Mick Riva — a charismatic, impossibly charming rock star who rose to fame in the 1950s and spent the following decades living like a man who believed the rules simply didn't apply to him. He's magnetic, reckless, and largely absent — the kind of father whose presence is somehow felt more powerfully in his disappearance than it ever was in person.

His four children—Nina, Jay, Hud, and Kit—grew up in the long shadow of his fame, raised primarily by their mother, June, on the shores of Malibu. All four became surfers, shaped by the ocean in ways their father never shaped them. Nina, the eldest, became something of a celebrity in her own right — a professional surfer and cover girl who quietly holds the entire family together while silently carrying more than her fair share of pain.

As the night of the party unfolds, long-buried secrets begin to surface. Old wounds crack open. Relationships are tested. And the carefully constructed lives the Riva siblings have built for themselves begin to unravel in ways none of them could have predicted — all while hundreds of oblivious guests dance on the patio outside.

Reid weaves the glittering, seductive world of mid-century celebrity culture throughout the novel—the glamour, the excess, the breathtaking coastline—while making it abundantly clear that behind every beautiful surface, there's usually a story that's far more complicated than it looks.

I know our community. I know you've read enough books to spot a good one from a mile away—and I wouldn't be putting this in front of you if I didn't genuinely believe it was worth your time. So let me tell you exactly why Malibu Rising is a perfect fit for us.

You grew up in the era that shaped this story

Reid pulls heavily from the glamour and culture of the 1950s through the 1970s—the music, the celebrity culture, and the California dream in full bloom. If that world feels familiar to you, this book is going to hit differently than it will for younger readers. You'll get it in ways others simply won't.

It's a family saga, and family sagas are our sweet spot

This isn't just a beach read with pretty scenery—it's a deeply layered story about parents, children, inherited pain, and the complicated love that holds families together even when everything else is falling apart. Sound familiar? That's because the best stories always do.

The female characters are extraordinary

Nina Riva is one of the most quietly powerful protagonists you'll encounter all year. She's strong, she's sacrificing, she's a little bit broken—and she never once asks for your sympathy, which somehow makes you root for her even harder.

It shows you that fame is never what it looks like from the outside

The Riva family has all the trappings of a charmed life—beauty, talent, celebrity connections, and a Malibu beach house to die for. And yet. Reid peels back every glamorous layer with precision and compassion, revealing the very real cost of growing up in a spotlight you never asked for.

The structure is clever without being exhausting

Reid tells this story across multiple timelines, moving between the wild party night of 1983 and decades of backstory. It sounds complicated, but it's actually a joy to read — each flashback feels like unwrapping a gift that explains exactly why the present is unfolding the way it is.

It's the perfect book club conversation starter

Parenting, legacy, identity, fame, forgiveness — there is a lot to explore here. Bring your coffee, bring your opinions, and maybe bring a little extra patience for the member who's going to defend Mick Riva. (There's always one.)

It's a page-turner that doesn't sacrifice depth

Some books make you choose between plot and meaning. Malibu Rising refuses to make that compromise. It moves fast, it keeps you hooked, and it still manages to say something real and lasting about what it means to be a family.

You deserve a book that feels like a vacation

The Malibu setting is so vividly written you can practically feel the sea breeze and smell the sunscreen. Sometimes the greatest luxury a book can offer is the feeling of being completely, blissfully transported—and this one delivers every single time.

Get Taylor Jenkins Reid Boks

Bookshop.org was created as a socially conscious alternative to Amazon, with the goal of helping local, independent bookstores thrive. This is why Readers With Wrinkles supports their efforts. Please join us in this effort by purchasing your next read here.

Purchase Taylor Jenkins Reid Books on Bookshop.org

If you loved Malibu Rising, you might enjoy these next books:

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
If Malibu Rising left you hungry for more Reid—and honestly, it will— go straight to this one. It's the rise and fall of a fictional 1970s rock band told entirely through oral history interviews, and it captures that same intoxicating blend of glamour, dysfunction, and heartbreak that Reid does better than almost anyone.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
An aging, reclusive Hollywood icon finally decides to tell her full story to an unknown journalist — and what a story it is. Spanning decades of old Hollywood excess, love affairs, and carefully constructed illusions, this is Reid at her absolute best. Fans of Malibu Rising's celebrity world will be completely hooked.

Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
Published in 1966, this is the original glittering-lives-gone-wrong novel—three women chasing fame, love, and success in the entertainment industry, only to discover that getting everything you want doesn't always look the way you imagined. If the 1950s–1970s celebrity world in Malibu Rising called to you, this is essential reading.

City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
Set in the dazzling, scandalous world of 1940s New York theater, this novel follows a young woman who tumbles headfirst into a life of sequins, showgirls, and complicated choices. It shares Malibu Rising's love of a bygone glamorous era and its unflinching honesty about the women who lived inside it.

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
Twin sisters grow up in a small Southern town and take entirely different paths—one staying close to her roots, one quietly reinventing herself in a white world. Like Malibu Rising, it's a multigenerational family story told across timelines, exploring identity, legacy, and the lives we choose versus the ones we inherit.

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
Beginning on a tiny Italian coastline in 1962 and sweeping all the way to present-day Hollywood, this novel is part love story, part showbiz satire, and entirely captivating. It has that same sun-soaked, glamorous-but-complicated energy as Malibu Rising, with a cast of characters you won't stop thinking about.

Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty
A seemingly perfect family begins to unravel when the matriarch suddenly disappears, sending her adult children spiraling into old resentments, buried secrets, and uncomfortable truths. If you loved the family dynamics and slow-burn tension of Malibu Rising, Moriarty delivers that in spades.

Summer of '69 by Elin Hilderbrand
Four siblings spend the summer of 1969 navigating love, war, heartbreak, and family drama against the backdrop of Martha's Vineyard and one of history's most iconic years. It has Malibu Rising's sun-drenched setting, its deep family bonds, and its gift for making a specific moment in time feel completely alive.