"Malibu Rising" by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Taylor Jenkins Reid is a book bloggers' darling, and I am a bit disappointed I did not like this book as much as I thought I would. I have not read anything else by her but saw rave reviews of her previous two novels. The main timeline in "Malibu Rising" is set in the early 80s and is focused on the four children of a mega popular singer from the 50s and 60s Mick Riva. This main plot takes time over a period of a single day, the day of the annual Riva party where everyone who is anyone going to be. In parallel, we get flashback chapters following the story of Mick's first wife June and Mick's rise to fame. We also get a glimpse into the issues each of the Riva children is dealing with.

Overall, I would say I really liked the arc of the eldest daughter Nina's character. In some ways it is mostly her story. I also enjoyed following all of the Riva siblings and learning more about each of them. What I did not like about this book is the overall setting among the rich and the famous of Hollywood. I guess it's just not my cup of tea. The story was hinting at all of the hot topics of the day: objectification of women, toxic masculinity, even racism and police brutality. However, all these topics were I would say token mentions rather than underlying themes. The story just somehow lacked depth. I guess for me it is not that interesting to read about the struggles of children who have a super rich and super famous parents without exploring the underlying privilege and how it affected their lives. I am probably not the target audience for this book. 3 out of 5 stars.

An e-ARC was provided by NetGalley.com