When I first started reading Taylor Jenkins Reid’s books, I thought that The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo was phenomenal. Then I read Daisy Jones and the Six and I liked it but it didn’t compare. Malibu Rising, however, was by far my favorite of the bunch. I loved Malibu Rising so much that I can’t even compare it to Taylor Jenkins Reid’s other books. I loved Malibu Rising so much I can barely put it into words. 

Usually I stay away from books with more than two POVs, because I’ve found that usually one character ends up falling short of the others. However, even though I have my favorites in the Riva family (Nina and Jay), I still enjoyed each of the POVs pretty much equally. 

My favorite part of the book had to be the ending confrontation between Nina and Mick. After reading everything that Nina had been to and seeing all of the growth that her character gained because of it, being able to see Nina confront Mick was such a cathartic moment. 

The sibling dynamics were also so incredible. I could feel how much the Riva siblings all loved each other. I love this quote about their family: Nina continued, “[Jay, Hud, and Kit] are all talented and smart and good — and, sure, we’re not perfect. But we have integrity. We know something about loyalty. We are there for each other.”

Overall, it’s easy to say that Malibu Rising has been my favorite read of the year so far!

 Slower paced than its predecessor and although the stakes were higher I felt less invested 

Cute premise with a decent execution. I like how distinct Tiffy and Leon’s narration styles are from each other, how Tiffy thinks in prose while Leon thinks like his life is a to-do list. 

 

Thoughts on Justin: I will kill Justin. This is a threat. You absolutely cannot propose to your ex-girlfriend who you broke up with a year ago in public at her work event. Justin is dead to me.

Unfortunately for my enjoyment of the book, while I found Tiffy and Leon to be a cute couple, I thought that Tiffy and Richie (Leon's brother) had more chemistry in the final chapter than Tiffy and Leon had the whole book. 

Cutesy mix of sci-fi and historical romance. Incredibly sanitized but it is YA so that was to be expected. 

 

Overall, it did not impress me. The narration is so weird, that was pretty much the only thing I could focus on. A chapter would be focused on a particular character but the narration would shift from one character to another without any signifier. The pacing of the entire book was bad. The beginning dragged on a dozen chapters then it needed to be and the ending felt so incredibly rushed that I'm not even convinced that there actually was a happy ending. The ending consisted of a single conversation that was apparently meant to convince me that Helena, August, and Margaret were going to have a successful secret polyamorous relationship, of which I am very much not convinced (are August and Maragaret even friends??).

Furthermore, the lack of critical thought put into the worldbuilding was genuinely horrifying. "What if the British Empire was a good thing?" and "What if God was a computer program that was super into eugenics?" were not questions that anyone wanted answered. 

100% traumatized by the intricate detail woven into the imagery

I liked the first half for how very Bell Jar-esque it was, in the sense that it is composed of anecdotes that on their own are inconsequential but put together form a really compelling narrative.

 

I liked the second half for its descriptions of Selin's homestay study abroad, with both its raw discomfort and incredible fondness.

Cute! Nadim and Reena were a really good couple!

Perhaps my favorite classic I’ve ever read. The novel is written with such a fondness for Charity and her town of North Dormer. The delicate aesthetic of the novel is delightful to read. 

Verity but with flatter characters. The incest twist felt gross and unnecessary. 

The relationship between Lenù and her mother was incredibly well written. Its interesting how interconnected hate and love are; that Lenù's mother loved her daughter so much that it drove her to hate her daughter when she felt that Lenù was wasting her potential; that Lenù hated her mother so much because she feared becoming her, yet was driven to love when her mother was dying. 

Furthermore,  Lenù's relationship with her daughters also captivated to me. Dede, Elsa, and Imma all were distinct and had distinct relationships with their mother - yet all reflect the tumultuous relationship that Lenù had with her mother. As Lenù saw herself in her mother, she also saw herself in her daughters. "They all resembled me and none of them did, their lives were very far from mine and yet I felt them as inseparable parts of me."

The scene in the car during the earthquake where Lila finally made herself vulnerable to Lenù for the first time in years is really moving. It showed that no matter how far apart they grow, they'll always have a connection to one another. Lila's whole character blossomed in this novel. Her depression, grief, and mood swings felt so real and so devastating to read. Her depression manifesting in an obsession with removing herself from the world felt very authentic.

The loss of Tina was devastating in its open-endedness. In fact, the entire ending of the novel was devastating in its ambiguity. After four novels detailing the relationship between Lenù and Lila, it was difficult to be left without a concrete ending, but then it would be disingenuous for Lila to give any concreteness.

The only thing I disliked was how much the novel dragged on, otherwise it would have a higher rating. I couldn't bear how much attention was given to the political aspects, which I found incredibly boring. I understand that they were important for building the social landscape that the novel takes place in, but I felt like every political section dragged on forever.

The Neapolitan series captured something important about womanhood. It is a series that I find to be very special.