Malibu Rising: luxurious & cathartic

Luxurious. Malibu Rising is a story based on the most deluxe party in a century, involving an affluent group of people surfing on top of the rest of the world. This party is so richly and decadently portrayed; everyone is there for something or someone, with their personal share of regrets and highs, and the party gradually rises in intensity, until it erupts out of control.

Cathartic. The story has shreds and pieces of storylines, and each problem each person faces is disappointing and unsolvable. A million unspeakable emotions and roller coaster rides. Multiply that by all of the individual relationships between a dozen people. The actions of one person send a bursting cascading effect to many. It becomes a complicated story, precariously overlaid like a leaning Jenga tower.

And so when everything burns, as readers we expect it. We welcome it.

From the first page, Taylor Jenkins Reid tells us that Malibu is destined to burn. There have always been fires on California’s west coast, and the speaker says that there will be always more. It’s a cycle, a metaphor. Of complicated, serpentine family problems, repeating in essence but differing in shape, that are intertwined. On the brink of tipping points, yearning for a spark for their release and permanent dissolution through destruction.

A well-crafted slow burn. Malibu Rising has an element of calmness, and a calculated buildup of problematic characters that beckon true-to-life figures we’ve glimpsed in other works, or have met or conversed with, in our own lives.