el’s review of Malibu Rising > Likes and Comments
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I loved your annotations. Don't think I'll read the book after reading your review, honestly. I had enjoyed reading Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo though. Thanks for saving my time! :)
Richa wrote: "I loved your annotations. Don't think I'll read the book after reading your review, honestly. I had enjoyed reading Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo though. Thanks for saving my time! :)" ah, thank you! i'm hoping the few reviews i read were right when they claimed this book was a big deviation from previous reid works, so i can see why others might have enjoyed her older stuff more. thanks for your response! 😊
mwana wrote: "Mmm as someone who HATED the 7 husbands of Evelyn Hugo I can see how her writing evolved to something like this. Daisy Jones & The 6 was written in podcast format so it didn't really require prosey..." i would be curious to know why you hated evelyn hugo (gonna go check for a review right now), but that is super interesting. for some reason, i was under the impression that reid had really impressive prose, so i was very let down 😭 thank you for your response!
mwana wrote: "elisa wrote: "mwana wrote: "Mmm as someone who HATED the 7 husbands of Evelyn Hugo I can see how her writing evolved to something like this. Daisy Jones & The 6 was written in podcast format so it ..." okay yeah, after reading several reviews, i think i can confidently say i will not be picking up another reid book. the writing here reads exactly the same and the 1-3 page chapter length really grated. it seems like reid struggles to establish anything of substance.
Elyse wrote: "AMEN!!!
What did you think about the bathtub Death? It happened so quickly… There’s absolutely no feeling whatsoever.
I tried to be nice and my review you said it like it is. 💕🔥" agreed. the effectiveness of that death was also undercut by the fact that mick was the cause, and none of the kids knew (or ever would).
Wow. Props to you for getting through it. I agree with everything you said and I barely made it a chapter in. Terrible writing.
Marika wrote: "Wow. Props to you for getting through it. I agree with everything you said and I barely made it a chapter in. Terrible writing." oh, trust me, it was an agonizing reading experience.
As a fellow disliker of Addie LaRue I really appreciated the comparison in terms of online hype. TJR seems to work well in the fake interview format because it's quite procedural and you can get away with tons of extraneous detail and long-winded getting-to-the-point. That doesn't work so well without the crux of the format.
Madison wrote: "As a fellow disliker of Addie LaRue I really appreciated the comparison in terms of online hype. TJR seems to work well in the fake interview format because it's quite procedural and you can get aw..." that's what tjr fans have been telling me! i have no idea why i was operating under the assumption that prose was her strong suit + original medium.
Everything in the comments resonates with me. I’ve found a huge disparity with the quality of the novels that I read and the amount of 5 star raving reviews it has. I’ve started to find wild gems of people on GR that share similar unpopular opinions and you’re definitely one of them. I loved Daisy Jones and the six but more so for the 70s aesthetic. Seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo WAS HORRENDOUS. Truly one of the worst books I read (along with Addie LaRue). From that day I swore off TJR so happy to see I missed literally nothing by never picking up her books again. Great review Elisa! Hope we have better luck with some undiscovered books instead.
marta wrote: "Everything in the comments resonates with me. I’ve found a huge disparity with the quality of the novels that I read and the amount of 5 star raving reviews it has. I’ve started to find wild gems o..." oh, 100%. and i agree—i love finding people whose reviews tend towards critical, because i always feel like that element is lacking in reviews on this website. i'm glad you think of me as one! and after reading reviews for evelyn hugo, i feel really grateful i never picked it up (it sounds deeply horrifying). thank you for your thoughts! 🥰 i hope so too!
I second every single word of this review.
Michele wrote: "I second every single word of this review." glad i'm not alone in my (somewhat controversial) opinion 😖
elisa wrote: "Michele wrote: "I second every single word of this review." glad i'm not alone in my (somewhat controversial) opinion 😖"
Of course! This book was distractingly bad for me. Sometimes a rant review can be cathartic.
Michele wrote: "elisa wrote: "Michele wrote: "I second every single word of this review." glad i'm not alone in my (somewhat controversial) opinion 😖"
Of course! This book was distractingly bad for me. Sometimes ..." oh, 100%!
I had so many issues with the pacing. I gave it 3 stars because I felt there was so much potential but I was just :( bc I was unmoved
Lilyvance wrote: "I had so many issues with the pacing. I gave it 3 stars because I felt there was so much potential but I was just :( bc I was unmoved" that's definitely how i felt. all this melodrama and my face was like this throughout the entire book: 😐
meh. Sounds like you have quite a bit of misandry to work through. I suggest that therapy you seem to be so fond of. But from a dude - and not one that caters to your misandry.
Jeff wrote: "meh. Sounds like you have quite a bit of misandry to work through. I suggest that therapy you seem to be so fond of. But from a dude - and not one that caters to your misandry." that you sat there and read a 2500+ word review deconstructing a novel not just for my sociopolitical qualms with its character writing, but also its prose, construction, and narrative progression and were able to write it off as misandry out of personal insecurity says more about you than it ever will about me. good luck on your continued journey to misinterpret texts on goodreads, bro! 😚
I loved both Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones so this book was a HUGE disappointment to me. The first half was decent enough but the second one with all those fillers was absolutely baffling. I don't understand why I had to read all that empty shit.
Alena wrote: "I loved both Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones so this book was a HUGE disappointment to me. The first half was decent enough but the second one with all those fillers was absolutely baffling. I don't un..." i agree! the second half in particular was excruciating to get through.
Fantastic review! I have an arc for this but no longer feel like reading it now.
so... all this review for a book you doesnt enjoy. damn.
Mery wrote: "so... all this review for a book you doesnt enjoy. damn."
given that i read an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review, yes.
AnnaLuce wrote: "Fantastic review! I have an arc for this but no longer feel like reading it now."
i hope you get more out of it than i did! 😭
As someone who hated Daisy Jones, as soon as I realized June and Mick's relationship was similar to Billy and Camila's I knew I was going to hate this book. I don't have time to rant about it in a review so if anyone asks me why I gave it 1 star I'll be sending them to read your review. Perfection!
I was also dissatisfied with addie larue and everyone acts like I’m NUTS so I’m about to go searching for that review
I didn’t like Daisy so not sure why I wasted my time reading this awful book. Because it was free at the library, maybe. Your review is spot on. I couldn’t get past the first page of Addie Larue.
Sometimes this website does feel like an echo chamber! I agree. I read so many bad books last year with poor writing, predictable events, and characters that weren’t even remotely likable. I began to wonder why these books were recommended in the first place.
I’m happy to have stumbled upon your review (after seeing a friend’s 2 star review). I won’t read this one now and I’ll return my copy.
I agree with everything you said and i cant belive that this is the same person that wrote daisy jones & the six, wich i absolutely adored, i dont understand what happened?? I’m sad
Mar wrote: "As someone who hated Daisy Jones, as soon as I realized June and Mick's relationship was similar to Billy and Camila's I knew I was going to hate this book. I don't have time to rant about it in a ..." glad i could articulate all your thoughts + feelings with this review! 😊
Emily wrote: "I was also dissatisfied with addie larue and everyone acts like I’m NUTS so I’m about to go searching for that review" definitely not as long as a lot of my more recent reviews, but i could write a 10-page essay about how much i dislike addie larue 😖
Anne wrote: "Sometimes this website does feel like an echo chamber! I agree. I read so many bad books last year with poor writing, predictable events, and characters that weren’t even remotely likable. I began ..." that echo chamber can get a little tiring after a while, so i always love finding people brave enough to share unpopular opinions about the books they read!
I totally agree with Elisa. Thank you for writing such a comprehensive review. This is one of the worst books I have ever read and yet I finished it. Because of so many rave reviews, I kept thinking it had to get better. It didn't. Obviously, I am in the minority.
I guess I should try one of her early novels.
Oh thank god. I honestly thought I’d read a different book from the rest of Goodreads. I didn’t much care for Daisy Jones or Evelyn Hugo, but they were actually properly written novels, not the Wikipedia entry for a novel like this one.
Esther wrote: "I totally agree with Elisa. Thank you for writing such a comprehensive review. This is one of the worst books I have ever read and yet I finished it. Because of so many rave reviews, I kept thinkin..." it always feels strange when you see so many glaring faults in something that everyone else can't stop calling perfection 😭 glad you agree!
Rachel wrote: "Oh thank god. I honestly thought I’d read a different book from the rest of Goodreads. I didn’t much care for Daisy Jones or Evelyn Hugo, but they were actually properly written novels, not the Wik..." the consensus among taylor jenkins reid's fans who were critical of this book seems to be that it's the worst of her collection thus far, so i think i might have picked an unlucky place to get started on her work 😖
One of the worst books to be published read it because of the hype and will never read a book by this author again as there was not one redeeming thing about it
You clearly are young. As someone who grew up in that time period therapy wasn’t common. Family and individual problems were kept secret. There was no social media where everyone aired here dirty laundry.
Dede wrote: "You clearly are young. As someone who grew up in that time period therapy wasn’t common. Family and individual problems were kept secret. There was no social media where everyone aired here dirty l..." i'm aware. the therapy tagline is a running gag i have going in my reviews of books featuring characters with unaddressed/repressed trauma.
"part of me also wonders if maybe these books suffer from the cult classic syndrome so common on goodreads—the question of whether everyone genuinely enjoys these authors as much as they claim, or if, perhaps, their universal popularity among goodreads users has begun to affect the dimensions of public opinion/reviews."
THIS SENTENCE SPOKE SO CLEARLY TO ME. I mean this is so common on Booktok too. Some people blindly follow these authors, they would really argue and defend anything instead of agreeing to a difference in opinion.
We are similar in ways that we would rather see for ourselves, and not just rate a book 5 stars because everyone else does.
I HATED Invisible life of Addie LaRue so I won't continue reading anything by the author. Similarly with Evelyn Hugo (despised it) no way in hell am I picking up Malibu Rising. Thank you for your honest and truthfully unpopular opinion (I appreciate it)
marta the book slayer wrote: ""part of me also wonders if maybe these books suffer from the cult classic syndrome so common on goodreads—the question of whether everyone genuinely enjoys these authors as much as they claim, or ..." i could rant about this all day! i don't mind readers who are self-aware and very open about reading purely for entertainment/enjoyment, because i get that it can be easier to turn off our critical thinking skills than to pick apart every little flaw in a piece of literature. i just really dislike the goodreads culture that has made people fear rating a book honestly, lest they go against popular opinion or their friends, and i dislike the weird sense of obligation/loyalty we feel compelled to cultivate if we like an author's writing and now feel we have to like everything they've ever put out or we're betraying them/their brand/their fans.
i think listening to and acknowledging differences in opinion is way more interesting than sitting in an echo chamber all day. which is not to say people can't really genuinely enjoy popular fiction—or mainstream anything. just that liking a book or reviewing it a certain way on the basis that it's popular and an easy way to get likes/reads should not be the unquestioned culture on booktube/tiktok/goodreads.
thank you for your comment! it's always interesting to hear from people who feel how stifling—and unwelcome—these spaces can be to anyone who disagrees with the most popular opinion.
Keren wrote: "Agreed 100% on this AND Addie LaRue!" TWINS 👯♂️
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Jan 13, 2021 06:40AM
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I loved your annotations. Don't think I'll read the book after reading your review, honestly. I had enjoyed reading Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo though. Thanks for saving my time! :)
Richa wrote: "I loved your annotations. Don't think I'll read the book after reading your review, honestly. I had enjoyed reading Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo though. Thanks for saving my time! :)" ah, thank you! i'm hoping the few reviews i read were right when they claimed this book was a big deviation from previous reid works, so i can see why others might have enjoyed her older stuff more. thanks for your response! 😊
mwana wrote: "Mmm as someone who HATED the 7 husbands of Evelyn Hugo I can see how her writing evolved to something like this. Daisy Jones & The 6 was written in podcast format so it didn't really require prosey..." i would be curious to know why you hated evelyn hugo (gonna go check for a review right now), but that is super interesting. for some reason, i was under the impression that reid had really impressive prose, so i was very let down 😭 thank you for your response!
mwana wrote: "elisa wrote: "mwana wrote: "Mmm as someone who HATED the 7 husbands of Evelyn Hugo I can see how her writing evolved to something like this. Daisy Jones & The 6 was written in podcast format so it ..." okay yeah, after reading several reviews, i think i can confidently say i will not be picking up another reid book. the writing here reads exactly the same and the 1-3 page chapter length really grated. it seems like reid struggles to establish anything of substance.
Elyse wrote: "AMEN!!! What did you think about the bathtub Death? It happened so quickly… There’s absolutely no feeling whatsoever.
I tried to be nice and my review you said it like it is. 💕🔥" agreed. the effectiveness of that death was also undercut by the fact that mick was the cause, and none of the kids knew (or ever would).
Wow. Props to you for getting through it. I agree with everything you said and I barely made it a chapter in. Terrible writing.
Marika wrote: "Wow. Props to you for getting through it. I agree with everything you said and I barely made it a chapter in. Terrible writing." oh, trust me, it was an agonizing reading experience.
As a fellow disliker of Addie LaRue I really appreciated the comparison in terms of online hype. TJR seems to work well in the fake interview format because it's quite procedural and you can get away with tons of extraneous detail and long-winded getting-to-the-point. That doesn't work so well without the crux of the format.
Madison wrote: "As a fellow disliker of Addie LaRue I really appreciated the comparison in terms of online hype. TJR seems to work well in the fake interview format because it's quite procedural and you can get aw..." that's what tjr fans have been telling me! i have no idea why i was operating under the assumption that prose was her strong suit + original medium.
Everything in the comments resonates with me. I’ve found a huge disparity with the quality of the novels that I read and the amount of 5 star raving reviews it has. I’ve started to find wild gems of people on GR that share similar unpopular opinions and you’re definitely one of them. I loved Daisy Jones and the six but more so for the 70s aesthetic. Seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo WAS HORRENDOUS. Truly one of the worst books I read (along with Addie LaRue). From that day I swore off TJR so happy to see I missed literally nothing by never picking up her books again. Great review Elisa! Hope we have better luck with some undiscovered books instead.
marta wrote: "Everything in the comments resonates with me. I’ve found a huge disparity with the quality of the novels that I read and the amount of 5 star raving reviews it has. I’ve started to find wild gems o..." oh, 100%. and i agree—i love finding people whose reviews tend towards critical, because i always feel like that element is lacking in reviews on this website. i'm glad you think of me as one! and after reading reviews for evelyn hugo, i feel really grateful i never picked it up (it sounds deeply horrifying). thank you for your thoughts! 🥰 i hope so too!
I second every single word of this review.
Michele wrote: "I second every single word of this review." glad i'm not alone in my (somewhat controversial) opinion 😖
elisa wrote: "Michele wrote: "I second every single word of this review." glad i'm not alone in my (somewhat controversial) opinion 😖"Of course! This book was distractingly bad for me. Sometimes a rant review can be cathartic.
Michele wrote: "elisa wrote: "Michele wrote: "I second every single word of this review." glad i'm not alone in my (somewhat controversial) opinion 😖"Of course! This book was distractingly bad for me. Sometimes ..." oh, 100%!
I had so many issues with the pacing. I gave it 3 stars because I felt there was so much potential but I was just :( bc I was unmoved
Lilyvance wrote: "I had so many issues with the pacing. I gave it 3 stars because I felt there was so much potential but I was just :( bc I was unmoved" that's definitely how i felt. all this melodrama and my face was like this throughout the entire book: 😐
meh. Sounds like you have quite a bit of misandry to work through. I suggest that therapy you seem to be so fond of. But from a dude - and not one that caters to your misandry.
Jeff wrote: "meh. Sounds like you have quite a bit of misandry to work through. I suggest that therapy you seem to be so fond of. But from a dude - and not one that caters to your misandry." that you sat there and read a 2500+ word review deconstructing a novel not just for my sociopolitical qualms with its character writing, but also its prose, construction, and narrative progression and were able to write it off as misandry out of personal insecurity says more about you than it ever will about me. good luck on your continued journey to misinterpret texts on goodreads, bro! 😚
I loved both Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones so this book was a HUGE disappointment to me. The first half was decent enough but the second one with all those fillers was absolutely baffling. I don't understand why I had to read all that empty shit.
Alena wrote: "I loved both Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones so this book was a HUGE disappointment to me. The first half was decent enough but the second one with all those fillers was absolutely baffling. I don't un..." i agree! the second half in particular was excruciating to get through.
Fantastic review! I have an arc for this but no longer feel like reading it now.
so... all this review for a book you doesnt enjoy. damn.
Mery wrote: "so... all this review for a book you doesnt enjoy. damn."given that i read an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review, yes.
AnnaLuce wrote: "Fantastic review! I have an arc for this but no longer feel like reading it now."i hope you get more out of it than i did! 😭
As someone who hated Daisy Jones, as soon as I realized June and Mick's relationship was similar to Billy and Camila's I knew I was going to hate this book. I don't have time to rant about it in a review so if anyone asks me why I gave it 1 star I'll be sending them to read your review. Perfection!
I was also dissatisfied with addie larue and everyone acts like I’m NUTS so I’m about to go searching for that review
I didn’t like Daisy so not sure why I wasted my time reading this awful book. Because it was free at the library, maybe. Your review is spot on. I couldn’t get past the first page of Addie Larue.
Sometimes this website does feel like an echo chamber! I agree. I read so many bad books last year with poor writing, predictable events, and characters that weren’t even remotely likable. I began to wonder why these books were recommended in the first place. I’m happy to have stumbled upon your review (after seeing a friend’s 2 star review). I won’t read this one now and I’ll return my copy.
I agree with everything you said and i cant belive that this is the same person that wrote daisy jones & the six, wich i absolutely adored, i dont understand what happened?? I’m sad
Mar wrote: "As someone who hated Daisy Jones, as soon as I realized June and Mick's relationship was similar to Billy and Camila's I knew I was going to hate this book. I don't have time to rant about it in a ..." glad i could articulate all your thoughts + feelings with this review! 😊
Emily wrote: "I was also dissatisfied with addie larue and everyone acts like I’m NUTS so I’m about to go searching for that review" definitely not as long as a lot of my more recent reviews, but i could write a 10-page essay about how much i dislike addie larue 😖
Anne wrote: "Sometimes this website does feel like an echo chamber! I agree. I read so many bad books last year with poor writing, predictable events, and characters that weren’t even remotely likable. I began ..." that echo chamber can get a little tiring after a while, so i always love finding people brave enough to share unpopular opinions about the books they read!
I totally agree with Elisa. Thank you for writing such a comprehensive review. This is one of the worst books I have ever read and yet I finished it. Because of so many rave reviews, I kept thinking it had to get better. It didn't. Obviously, I am in the minority.
I guess I should try one of her early novels.
Oh thank god. I honestly thought I’d read a different book from the rest of Goodreads. I didn’t much care for Daisy Jones or Evelyn Hugo, but they were actually properly written novels, not the Wikipedia entry for a novel like this one.
Esther wrote: "I totally agree with Elisa. Thank you for writing such a comprehensive review. This is one of the worst books I have ever read and yet I finished it. Because of so many rave reviews, I kept thinkin..." it always feels strange when you see so many glaring faults in something that everyone else can't stop calling perfection 😭 glad you agree!
Rachel wrote: "Oh thank god. I honestly thought I’d read a different book from the rest of Goodreads. I didn’t much care for Daisy Jones or Evelyn Hugo, but they were actually properly written novels, not the Wik..." the consensus among taylor jenkins reid's fans who were critical of this book seems to be that it's the worst of her collection thus far, so i think i might have picked an unlucky place to get started on her work 😖
One of the worst books to be published read it because of the hype and will never read a book by this author again as there was not one redeeming thing about it
You clearly are young. As someone who grew up in that time period therapy wasn’t common. Family and individual problems were kept secret. There was no social media where everyone aired here dirty laundry.
Dede wrote: "You clearly are young. As someone who grew up in that time period therapy wasn’t common. Family and individual problems were kept secret. There was no social media where everyone aired here dirty l..." i'm aware. the therapy tagline is a running gag i have going in my reviews of books featuring characters with unaddressed/repressed trauma.
"part of me also wonders if maybe these books suffer from the cult classic syndrome so common on goodreads—the question of whether everyone genuinely enjoys these authors as much as they claim, or if, perhaps, their universal popularity among goodreads users has begun to affect the dimensions of public opinion/reviews."THIS SENTENCE SPOKE SO CLEARLY TO ME. I mean this is so common on Booktok too. Some people blindly follow these authors, they would really argue and defend anything instead of agreeing to a difference in opinion.
We are similar in ways that we would rather see for ourselves, and not just rate a book 5 stars because everyone else does.
I HATED Invisible life of Addie LaRue so I won't continue reading anything by the author. Similarly with Evelyn Hugo (despised it) no way in hell am I picking up Malibu Rising. Thank you for your honest and truthfully unpopular opinion (I appreciate it)
marta the book slayer wrote: ""part of me also wonders if maybe these books suffer from the cult classic syndrome so common on goodreads—the question of whether everyone genuinely enjoys these authors as much as they claim, or ..." i could rant about this all day! i don't mind readers who are self-aware and very open about reading purely for entertainment/enjoyment, because i get that it can be easier to turn off our critical thinking skills than to pick apart every little flaw in a piece of literature. i just really dislike the goodreads culture that has made people fear rating a book honestly, lest they go against popular opinion or their friends, and i dislike the weird sense of obligation/loyalty we feel compelled to cultivate if we like an author's writing and now feel we have to like everything they've ever put out or we're betraying them/their brand/their fans.i think listening to and acknowledging differences in opinion is way more interesting than sitting in an echo chamber all day. which is not to say people can't really genuinely enjoy popular fiction—or mainstream anything. just that liking a book or reviewing it a certain way on the basis that it's popular and an easy way to get likes/reads should not be the unquestioned culture on booktube/tiktok/goodreads.
thank you for your comment! it's always interesting to hear from people who feel how stifling—and unwelcome—these spaces can be to anyone who disagrees with the most popular opinion.
Keren wrote: "Agreed 100% on this AND Addie LaRue!" TWINS 👯♂️
