Monday, January 2, 2023

Malibu Burns





Near-future San Francisco is a dark world where reality is changeable and different dimensions overlap.

Teen Malibu Makimura discovers she can feel people’s emotions, and senses an ominous voice growing inside her. She lands a job at a women’s nightclub drawing surrealist caricatures. One night while drawing a portrait, she feels a sinister emotion projected by a woman named Luciana, who invites Malibu to her Presidio Heights mansion.

There, she makes a peculiar request - and Malibu agrees. With each following act the evil inside her grows, and Malibu begins to wonder if she will ever be in control again… or if she even wants to be.


Book source ~ TWR Tour
29 September 2022
Sci-Fi | Dystopian
288 Pages

My Rating ~ 3 bites



Malibu Makimura is a teenager alone in a world that is dark, bleak, and often dangerous. She’s drawing surrealist caricatures for patrons of a women’s nightclub when a meeting changes the course of her life. But is it for the better? Or worse?


This is a mind-bender of a story. Malibu had an easy life until she turned 16. Everything falls apart after that. I’m just going to outright say it - her dad is a complete dickhole. Anyway, Malibu develops this talent(?) of reading her dad’s mind, but over time it evolves into something else. Something I believe is not good for Malibu. What it is, I have no idea. I couldn’t fully wrap my head around the story. I’m sure I just didn’t grasp the significance of it and that’s on me. But I also don’t care for the jumping around of timelines and sometimes the writing just feels off. However, overall this is a fascinating look into a future I’m 100% sure I want no part of.


Mark Richardson is the author of the novels Malibu BurnsThe Sun Casts No Shadow, and Hunt for the Troll.

His short stories have appeared in numerous crime and literary publications, including HobartFugueSegueCrime FactorySwitchback, and Nth Position.

Born in the Chicago area, he graduated from the University of Iowa, and promptly escaped the midwestern winters for sunny California, first living in Los Angeles and then San Francisco. He spent thirty years working as a writer and marketer for tech companies in Silicon Valley.


Mark now lives in the East Bay with his wife, two children, and the world’s cutest dog. He spends his time writing fiction, obsessing about the Chicago Cubs, attending his daughter’s softball games, and reading stacks of books. He loves genre-bending fiction, especially speculative writing with a noir flavor. In 2019, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, and supports the Michael J. Fox Foundation.

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