Not for the first time will Malibu go up in flames.
For several years, Nina Riva has been hosting a massive end-of-the-summer party. What started out as an intimate familial celebration between Nina and her younger siblings, Jay, Hud, and Kit, has morphed into a wildly rowdy- and just plain wild- social gathering. Anybody who's anybody attends and anybody who wants to become somebody does their best to get an invite.Just like previous years, alcohol is chugged like its going out of style, drugs are passed around like candy, and lustful couples indulge in their basest desires. Unlike previous years, though, each Riva sibling has been hiding something: Nina hates her modeling job, but can't find it in herself to quit, Jay's competitive surfing career may have to come to an abrupt end, Hud's secret relationship may come between him and his beloved brother, and Kit's lack of romantic partners may have something to do with more than how she presents herself.
As the party slowly grows out of control, the secrets this close-knit group of siblings have kept will come to light. And as if their bond won't be tested enough, the one person they never thought they'd see again makes their grand return.
Malibu Rising is a 2021 historical novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid. The novel's main plot, the one focusing on the Riva siblings, takes place in the 80s and is squarely set on the day of the party, while the secondary plot focuses on their parents, how they met, what their relationship was like, and how it affected their children. The first part of the novel shows the buildup to the party with snippets of the Riva history interjected throughout, and the second part shows the party in full.
This novel includes examples of:
- The Alcoholic: Sometime after Mick leaves June and her children for the second time, June begins relying on alcohol to get through the day. It starts off slowly, but gets worse after her parents die, leaving her to keep up the family restaurant she hated. Nina is eventually forced to pick up her mother's slack, and the kids loose trust in June's capabilities. It comes to a head one night when June falls asleep while dinner is in the oven. The mac and cheese she'd made begins to burn and each of the children have to rescue the dish before it catches on fire. As June feeds the kids the burnt entrée, Kit- having recently learned what a drunk is- is angry at her mother and siblings for pretending that June doesn't have a serious problem.
- The Atoner: Mick is getting older and his growing irrelevancy in the music scene is making him realize how lonely he is. Kit's been sending him an invitation to their end-of-summer party for the past four years and Mick's finally decided to attend. He belives that all broken families "ache to be reunited", even imagining a heartfelt reunion straight out of a family drama. What he gets is a through rejection by the kids he'd abandoned for decades, with Jay making it clear- in no uncertain terms- that Mick's apology has come too late.
- Break the Cutie: June is initially a "tenderhearted dreamer" with a genuinely kind heart. She's expected to take over her family's restaurant which she profoundly doesn't want to do. She falls in love with and marries a man who ends up cheating on her multiple times, leaving her to raise four children by herself. She takes over the restaurant, living hand to mouth while her husband finds financial success in his singing career. When her parents die, the only emotional support she had left goes with them. She becomes depressed and turns to alcohol, leaving her own children unable to trust or rely on her. On the night that would be her last, she finally understands that her ex-husband will never come back. She then accidentally drowns in the bathtub, her dreams unfulfilled and her heart broken.
- Broken Ace: Jay is a champion surfer with model good looks and a famous last name. He also has crippling Parental Abandonment issues and a heart condition that will require him to stop surfing.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: The Rivas have a possible half-sister in Casey thanks to her mother having a one night stand with Mick. Casey comes to the party seeking a definitive answer, so when Mick actually shows up, she's finally able to ask. Unfortunately for her, Mick doesn't remember Casey's mother. He admits that he had sex with so many women during the time period Casey would've been conceived in that he can't possibly know for sure if Casey's mom was one of them.
- Celebrity Is Overrated: Nina is a famous surfer supermodel and offspring of the famous Mick Riva who greatly despises her job and social status. She's deeply uncomfortable with the attention and objectification of her body, expressing shame towards the fact that her claim to fame is a poster of her showing off her assets. She also hates how she doesn't actually get to surf competitively, because her managers say that it's not worth the risk. It's mentioned multiple times that she's only doing what she does to put food on her family's table.
- Convenient Photograph: Jay finds out that his brother and ex-girlfriend are sleeping together behind his back when he finds lewd photos of them in Hud's truck.
- Disappeared Dad: Mick has left his children twice in order to pursue fame, fortune, and carnal pleasure. After the second time he leaves, he basically acts like they don't exit, ignoring any and all attempts at connect. This forces June to take care of them all and, later, Nina to become their legal guardian after June suddenly dies.
- Easily Forgiven: June takes Mick back multiple times despite his continuous betrayals. He ultimately leaves her and their four children behind, but she still believed he would come back until it was too late.
- Generation Xerox: Nina looks a lot like her mother, took over the restaurant her mother's parents started (the same one June hated), and even married a charismatic man who got famous. And just like what happened to her mother, Nina's husband proves himself unfaithful, divorces her for his mistress, and when that affair doesn't work out, he comes crawling back to beg for forgiveness and to be taken back. Unlike her mother, Nina finds the courage to turn down her ex-husband for good, sell the restaurant to someone who actually enjoys running it, and takes some time to live life for herself instead of someone else.
- Happily Adopted: One of Mick's mistresses got pregnant and unceremoniously dumped the resulting child- a son named Hudson- at Mick's home. June is of course furious at both Mick and the mistress, but takes the child anyway, resolving to love him regardless of his illegitimacy. Hud is raised as if he and Jay were actually twins and none of his siblings think he's lesser than them just because he's their half-brother.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Nina longs for a life where no one knows of her celebrity status and connections. Her wish is ultimately fulfilled when she flies incognito to Portugal after the party is over, thanks in no small part to the encouragement and support from her siblings.
- Ironic Echo: "X needed someone to love them. Y could do that. It would be very easy for Y to do" when June's decision to love and take care of Hud, Mick's illegitimate son, as her own child mirrors the Riva siblings' decision to love and take care of Casey, Mick's possible illegitimate daughter, years later.
- Jerkass:
- Mick is a serial cheater, deadbeat dad, and all-around selfish man who makes a ton of excuses to get the people he's hurt to forgive him.
- Jay wants the same prestige and power as his father. When he is rejected by a girl he fell in love with, he "insults" her by saying he knew she wasn't the type of girl to marry. Luckily, he gets better after he and his siblings confront their father and he realizes that he doesn't want to follow in Mick's footsteps after all. He also forgives Hud for seeing his ex-girlfriend behind his back, supports Hud and Ashley having a baby together, and even drives Hud to Ashley's and watches Hud propose without any jealousy.
- Luke, You Are My Father: Casey Greens is a seemingly regular girl who recently lost her adoptive parents in a car crash. She shows up at the party claiming to be another illegitimate child of Mick's. Whether he truly is her birth father is left unconfirmed.
- Parental Substitute:
- After Hud's birth mother dropped him off at the Riva household, June decides to treat and raise Hud as if he was one of her own biological children.
- When June dies, a then seventeen-year-old Nina becomes the sole guardian of her siblings. She manages to pretend a different relative is taking care of them all in order to avoid social services coming in and breaking up what's left of the family. As soon as she turns eighteen, she filed for official guardianship of her siblings.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
- Nina delivers a much deserved verbal smack-down to Mick when he crashes their party expecting a happy reunion after two decades of estrangement; at the peak of their conversation, Mick states that he wasn't "capable" of being a father. Fed up with having to clean up after other people her whole life, Nina reminds him of the various sacrifices she's had to make to avoid them being sent to different homes and save them all from poverty. Whether she felt capable of doing the job didn't matter because her siblings were relying on her.
- Kit gives a smaller take-down when the group discusses whether Mick could be Casey's father. She mocks his promiscuity and then blasts him after he admits that "if he was interested in being a dad, he'd go home to his kids".
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Many of the partygoers are filthy rich, meaning if they do get in trouble for ruining the house or committing indecent acts they can always bail their way out of jail.
- Serial Spouse: Mick has been married six times: first with June, then to the woman he left her for, then to "the biggest star in Hollywood", then to June again, then to a model nearly half his age by that point, then to his former manager's assistant). Most of these marriages ended because of his chronic infidelity.
- So Beautiful, It's a Curse: While Nina acknowledges that being drop dead gorgeous has many benefits (mainly financially), she finds it demoralizing that people admire her looks more than her surfing skills, and that her career as a model has had to take priority over her desire to surf competitively. Additionally, people feel really entitled to her and act creepily, such as a customer at the Riva family restaurant who touches her without asking and repeats a line from one of her ads in a very flirtatious manner while his wife and kids are right next to him.
- The 'Verse: The novel is set in the same universe as three of Reid's other works.
- The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo: One of Mick's former wives is mentioned as being the biggest star in Hollywood at that time. This is a reference to Evelyn Hugo, a famous actress who was married to Mick for one night.
- Daisy Jones & The Six: The Six's drummer, Warren Rhodes, Lisa Crowne, and The Breeze are all mentioned, as is The Six's record label, Runner Records.
- Carrie Soto Is Back: Nina's ex-husband started an affair with Carrie Soto, a female tennis player with her own level of infamy. Carrie herself makes an appearance towards the end of Malibu by crashing the party.
