Set in the ‘90s, some years after the events of Malibu Rising, the novel chronicles a 37-year-old Carrie as she comes out of retirement after fierce athlete Nicki Chan ties her record for most Grand Slams ever won. But what they didn’t know at the time was that the tennis star would go on to become the main character of her own novel-and neither did Reid.īut while editing the aforementioned book, the character stuck herself in Reid’s head and so Carrie Soto Is Back, out on August 30, happened. That you can dictate what you will and will not accept.”īecause she is one half of a party who did something awful to Nina, it’s likely that many readers walked away from Malibu Rising primed to hate Carrie Soto. What a world she must live in, Nina thought, where you can piss and moan and stomp your feet and cry in public and yell at the people who hurt you. Sad that she’d never lived a fraction of a second like Carrie Soto.

“In that moment, Nina was not mad or jealous or embarrassed or anything else she might have expected. “How was it that this woman could shout every thought running through her head? Why was it that Carrie Soto felt entitled to scream?” Reid writes. She’s not a prominent figure of the novel, so readers don’t know a lot about Soto, just that she is considered the greatest tennis player of all time, had an affair with a married man, is brokenhearted and is the type of person who would cause a commotion in front of a large crowd. The chaotic scene plays out in bestselling author Taylor Jenkins Reid’s 2021 novel Malibu Rising, and Soto is putting on her rather shameless display in front of the book’s protagonist Nina Riva-who also happens to be married to Soto’s former flame. When we first meet Carrie Soto, she is yelling from the front lawn of a house party, threatening to light her ex lover’s clothes on fire.

Taylor jenkins reid carrie soto