When looking at the buzz surrounding this book, I've seen a lot of comparisons between it and Daisy Jones and the Six...but I beg of you: appreciate The Final Revival of Opal & Nev for its own unique identity, unforgettable characters, and the important issues addressed in this book.

Daisy Jones and the Six is one of my favorite books, but I think it's important to view Opal & Nev without comparison. This novel follows Opal, a strong, American Black woman who shines bright, and Nev, a British musician trying to make it big across the pond. The story is presented in an interview style being conducted by Sunny Shelton, who has a personal connection to Opal and Nev. Her father, Jimmy Curtis, was the duo's drummer and Opal's lover...even though he was married. At one of their shows in the 1970s, a riot occurs and a famous photo is taken, changing the trajectory of the duo's fame and sparking conversations regarding racism, sexism, hate, and more.

The Final Revival of Opal & Nev is Dawnie Walton's debut novel, and it left me excited to read more by the author in the future. Walton developed characters full of depth and addressed deep rooted issues within American society facing marginalized groups. I read an e-book copy and also listened to the audiobook to match the interview style, and both were spectacular. The audiobook features a full cast and adds to the ambiance of the varying perspectives this book offers.

Opal Jewel was absolutely an icon and my favorite character from the start. Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for an ARC of this novel, and I highly recommend The Final Revival of Opal & Nev, whether that is an audiobook or print copy!

“Before my birth, before the world had a chance to know much about my father beyond these facts, he was beaten to death by a racist gang during the riot at Rivington Showcase”

Wow what a book ! I finished The Final Revival of Opal & Nev at 4 am! What drew me to this book was that it was being compared to Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid but this is more than a story about a group of singers 😭 this book touches on racism, social injustice and knowing your worth.

Let me tell you when I started this not even 1% into this book I was googling if the characters were real 😭 this story is told in an interview style and you follow S. Sunny Shelton who is a editor at Aural Magazine and its 2016. She wants to do a writing piece on her favorite idols Opal and Nev but who are these two people? Opal is a Black woman and she gets sought out by Nev (who is white) and his team for her to record a rock n roll album with him. they don’t blow up at first but they keep trudging on.. until one day the record company decides to sign a band that displays the Confederate Flag and causes a lot of problems for everyone.

This was like a documentary in my head. You know those Unsung documentaries? That’s what I felt like I was reading. This was a RIDE ! I wish the songs was real. I kept wanting to go on YouTube to look for a old video of Opal & Nev and had to remind myself that THESE PEOPLE AREN’T REAL !! I was cracking up one minute and mad the next. There is one character who supported a certain Orange person we know and he made me want to fight him ! I’m only 4’9 but listen... 😂😂😂👊🏽👊🏽👊🏽

Huge thank you to @netgalley , @simonandschuster , @37ink for the advance copy of this book I finished right on pub date so everyone go get a copy !

Rating : 5 ⭐️

I wanted to love this book. But it did just not work for me. I found myself struggling to finish. I think that because I went into this book thinking it was going to be like Daisy Jones and the Six, that I doomed myself. I hope to try again and if I do I will update my feedback.

This book seems right up my alley. An oral history style retelling of a badass female rock lead, set in the '60s, racial justice elements, all of that sounds AMAZING to me. So I'm not sure why this one just never quite hooked me. It took all of two weeks for me to finish (I'm usually less than one week for a read I'm really immersed in) and I just didn't feel connected to Opal or Nev or Sunny, for that matter - though I did love Virgil. The story was interesting, but fell short of captivating. I don't want to sound too critical, because this was a good story, but I just really expected it to be my new favorite and can't quite pinpoint why it won't even be on that shelf.

This is a fictional oral history of the story of Opal and Nev, a rock duo from the early 70s. Opal is a young Black woman from Detroit with a signature style and attitude for days. Nev is an Englishman and aspiring singer/songwriter, attempting to make it big in the U.S. with a fledgling record label. The story is written by music journalist Sunny Shelton, who has her own connection to the group- her father was Jimmy Curtis, the duos former drummer. The duo is famous for a photo taken during a riot at one of their shows, and decades later Opal is considering a reunion tour with Nev.

I’ll start with the obvious- there is a similarity to Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid, in that it’s a story about musicians told as an oral history. But that’s really where the similarities end. This has commentary on race and sexism in the music industry, and brings the discussion into present day. What I loved about this was that the story was unraveling as the journalist was writing it. She uncovers some things that threaten to put an end to the reunion tour, and the reader gets find out what happened back then and about how they’ll handle things now. I started this in print and switched to audio- a great decision, as it had a full cast and really brought the characters to life. I LOVED Opal- she’s such a powerful and fully fleshed out character- I swear I had to remind myself several times that this was fiction. Overall, this was a fantastic debut that goes on my recommended read list!

A poignant and timely look at a 60s rock group with a black woman and a British white dude. I deeply enjoyed the editor's notes that gave us the background on the journalist narrator whose father had an affair with Opal while married to her mom. Perfect for fans of Daisy Jones & the Six.

Book Review for The Final Revival of Opal & Nev
Full review for this title will be posted at: @cattleboobooks on Instagram!

The comparisons to Daisy Jones & The Six are inevitable. While the oral history format, set in the 70's music scene are commonalities, that's about where it ends. While Daisy was a lot of fun, it was lacking in deeper social commentary, Opal and Nev are more richly drawn and memorable characters, and even Opal's sister Pearl and best friend Virgil, and I have a feeling they will all stay with me for a long time - I miss them already. While Dawnie Walton is an experienced writer and editor, the fact that this is her first novel is impressive, and clearly she wrote what she knows, so I will be curious to see what's next for her.

Being really picky, a small critique, the use of footnotes throughout was random and perplexing - ranging from a reference to Virgil's partner that seems could have been easily woven into context, and on the other end of the spectrum, one about Watergate? Was unsure of the purpose or whose benefit these were for?
Would have liked to have hear more about the ensuing years between Opal's Paris jaunt and the Final Revival, though perhaps a personal preference that was a good call on the author's part, may have bloated the novel too much.

However, the weaving in the most perfect modern day cultural figures and musical artists, designer Stephen Burrows interviews into the narrative to illustrate Opal's cult influence was genius. Nev's appearance on CBS Sunday Morning was particularly fitting for an aging rock-turned-pop star.

Every character, even secondary, were well-developed, and left the reader wanting to know more about them too, plus Sunny herself. The last 1/4 of the novel and without spoiling, the consequences to Sunny taking on this story were sadly realistic. I want a sequel!!! The author creates a fresh yet familiar universe surrounding Opal and Nev, and makes one wish they, and their music, really exist. While early in the year, confident this will be one of this reader and critics alike will name top reads of the year - I cannot stop recommending or thinking about it since finishing.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the author for an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for my honest review.

I really liked how the author set up this book - a mix of interviews and regular story lines. It took me a while to figure out that all the interviews were conducted by the same person, Sunny, but once I got that figured out, it was easier to follow. While Sunny was an important character ( just because of who her father was), I didn't think she necessarily needed to be the focus of the book. Also, because I read a Kindle version, the footnotes weren't as easy to follow. I didn't skip ahead to read them as they occurred in the story, and more than once I just skipped them all together once I got to the end of the chapter. I'm sure I would have liked them better in a physical book. This book has been compared to "Daisy Jones," but I'm afraid it suffers by comparison. I'm not sure exactly why. Part of the problem for me was the inclusion of real-life events and people. Sometimes that works for me in a book, but in this case it didn't. Also, there was so much talk about how the music industry works, and that didn't advance the story; I'd rather the author spent more time on the characters. And while Nev went on to have a fairly successful career (despite not being terribly talented), Opal didn't. She was popular among her fans but was famous mostly for her antics at the 70s era show with the Bonds band. Yet when it came time for the final concert, where she and Nev were finally reunited, the crowd went wild. That didn't really ring true for me. Speaking for myself (of course), the first part of the book was the best. Somewhere around the halfway point, it seemed to stall, and I found myself checking often to see how much was left. Many thanks to Simon and Schuster, Dawnie Walton,and NetGalley for the ARC of this book

I so wanted to love this. Loved the idea and the format (mostly) and especially the topics of music and examples and exploration of racism and the deep dive into history and present, but the story really dragged through a lot of the book and I didn’t particularly look forward to reading it each day because of it. The end was great, though, and brought it up from 2 stars to 3 for me.

This is definitely one of my top books of the year so far! I was instantly drawn to this book because of the description, but this is so much more than a story of a musical duo! Opal was such a cool character to read about and the soundtrack for this book would absolutely SLAP!

On top of the interesting bits about what it’s like being a rock duo in the 70s, this book shows the bad parts of the time as well. This book makes great points about white privilege, performative allyship, sexism, and racism. By taking us through the years, we actually see how little progress we’ve made.

I’ve seen a lot of people compare this book to Daisy Jones and the Six for the format and the fact that they are both about music groups of the 70s. No shade to Daisy because I love her too, but this book just brought so much more to the table! I would definitely recommend checking this one out!

Hold my heart. This book is phenomenal. I could not put this down. The writing is beautifully laid out. Surely this will be a favorite of 2021 for me.

This was a super engaging story that highlights what it was like to be a Black musician in the 60s and 70s and the disparities in experiences between white and Black musicians. I tend to struggle with writing styles that are purely in "interview form" and also felt there were a lot of long descriptive paragraphs that tended to lose me. Overall though I definitely recommend this book for fans of books like Daisy Jones and the Six and the Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.

The Final Revival of Opal and Nev looks back, through transcribed interviews and other epistolary elements, at the lives and careers of a pair of 1970s musicians.

Young Black journalist S. Sunny Shelton. Sunny is the new editor of Aural magazine and, as both the first woman and first African-American editor of the magazine, feels like she has a lot to prove. Sunny has a personal connection to Opal's story, one that unfolds through the course of the book. The story consists of Sunny’s interviews with Opal and Nev, and with executives at their record label. She also includes commentary from and interviews with musical contemporaries, fans, friends, and even real musicians (like Janelle Monáe and Questlove) and celebrities (like Gloria Steinem, Quentin Tarantino, and Jane Fonda.)

To me, all epistolary stories have their pros and cons. It’s a great format for a book with a lot of characters. It’s great for historical fiction. But in my opinion as a reader, epistolary books just don’t pack the same emotional punch. As a reader, I always feel kept at a distance to some extent.

Opal’s story is about so much more than just her relationship with Nev. But the book uses the two of them to contrast the way each is treated in the music industry and in the United States in general. Opal has try to build a career and make music on her own terms in an industry run by white men, and reading about her struggles was both inspiring and heartbreaking. Her relationship with Nev takes a turn, one that I didn’t see coming but should have. It was also fascinating to compare Sunny’s career struggles in the 2010s with Opal’s, and to watch their relationship develop.

The Final Revival of Opal and Nev wasn’t a fast read. It’s rich with detail and beautifully written, a book that you’ll want to take your time with. I highly recommend it!

This book has been compared to TJR’s Daisy Jones and the Six by practically everyone who mentions it, but I think that comparison is a bit reductive considering the topics of this book are more hard-hitting and far less romantic.

there are definite similarities, but there are also pretty striking similarities between the format/narrators involvement in Opal & Nev and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. Walton did a great job of evoking the sound of Opal and Nev, I loved the costume descriptions and Opals relationship with Virgil, and the book felt very timely.

If you enjoy the oral history format and hearing from multiple characters, you’ll likely enjoy the format of this book. It felt slow at times and took a while to get to the meat of the story but I couldn’t put it down once I started it and finished it in one and a half sittings.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for an advanced copy of this book! I really enjoyed it and recommend it once it hits the shelves.

*Adding fictional music legends to my genre list (along with Fiction for Foodies, but that's another topic/review)

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing a gifted copy for an honest review.

I enjoyed this novel and especially enjoyed the nod to real bands/musicians (and of course one of my favs the Yeah Yeah Yeahs as well as Iggy Pop). The main characters were great and had so much depth... the book tackled race, class, gender, it was a lot to take in- so moving in a lot of ways.

The reason I didn't give it more stars was because there were a lot of parts that were VERY slow moving. The breadth of ALL the issues it tried to cover, and decades worth at that, was probably too much for one book (politics, music industry nuances, regions/geography, drugs/addiction, mental health, family). Plus, there were a lot of characters introduced and at times it was really difficult to remember who everyone was.

** I will be listening to this on audio to see if this changes any of my feedback. If done well, I can see that the book could become even better.

A truly memorable story about larger-than-life Opal and Nev, and our fearless narrator Sunny; THE FINAL REVIVAL OF OPAL & NEV is a captivating oral history that feels all too important given the current social climate.

Comparisons to Daisy Jones and the Six feel natural, but this story, to me, was more believable, heartfelt, and timely. Walton creates a world so realistic I kept wanting to search for pictures of Opal’s outfits, or listen to Opal & Nev’s songs. I rooted for Sunny and Opal, for their story of rock n roll, of music and adventure and redemption and so much more. I would highly recommend this novel- one that will stay with me.

I kindly received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

The Final Revival of Opal & Nev is reminiscent of Daisy Jones and the Six but with more heft. An unlikely twenty someting duo, a powerful, unapologetic black woman named Opal Jewel and a red headed, British singer songwriter named Nev hit the 1970's music scene. Their rise and fall happen quickly. The story takes us through their lives together and apart. It is told from many points of view in an interview format reminding me of Rolling Stone magazine.

Since I particpated in the 1970s music scene, this book had everything I could want and I couldn't put it down. Music = check. Sex = check. Tragedy = check. Success = check. Falling from Grace = check.

This isn't your typical novel--written in oral history formal, similar to Daisy Jones & the Six, with editors notes and historical footnotes.

Centering around Opal Jewel and Nev Charles, a fictional rock & roll duo who rose to fame in the 70s, the journalist who set out to write about the reunion has a very personal connection to the history of these two.

I thought the author Dawnie Walton did a fantastic job crafting her main characters and their evolution. I really enjoyed the real-life references throughout as well. This one definitely doesn't feel like fiction and worth the read if you're looking for something different to add to your TBR.

Thank you to NetGalley, 37Ink and Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to read an advanced copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Final Revival of Opal & Nev was such a magnetic book! I was hooked from page one. The writing style is unorthodox (narrated as an interview) and so vivid (as embarrassing as it is to admit, it also proves how well this story was written --yes, I believed Opal and Nev were real-life characters..), it does reflect Opal's characters and physique: unique, unforgettable, gutsy, eccentric, fun, lively, and the ending was so satisfying. What did I enjoy the most? Opal Jewel, for sure; this young lady is proud to be who she is and I admired her unapologetic and strong personality. She knew who she was and she knew what she wanted, without being obnoxious.

The story between Sunny and Opal had nuance and depth and was not easy to digest but, man, was it a beautiful story! If you are looking for a story including strong Black female figures, you need to grab yourself a copy of TFROO&N! There are a lot of current and important subjects to be discussed on a buddy read or book club.

Much respect for Ms. Dawnie Walton; I will sure follow her work for many years to come. She blew me away.

I can say that this book will be on my top 10 list for 2021.

Thank you Net Galley and 37 Ink for this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.