Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC

The Final Revival of Opal.and New is a story for music lovers to savior. Dawnie Walton explores not only the how musicians create art, but how their own creation can backfire on them. Walton's writing is so fresh, so alive, that her debut makes the same kind of impact of a musicians debut release

I had really high hopes for this book. Daisy Jones & The Six was one of my favorite experiences of 2019, and I was hoping for something similar when I picked up this book. While The Final Revival of Opal & Nev was definitely an interesting story, it didn’t scratch the same itch. It was less about the music than the trappings thereof. The descriptions of Opal’s look were intriguing and easy to visualize, and the politics attached to the music are unequivocally important. However, I was here for the music, and I must confess that I was disappointed with how much of it I received. The book was incredibly well written, and did indeed transport me to another time and place, but it felt as if the musical story was used merely as a vehicle for getting a message across, instead of being allowed to develop and stand on its own. This is definitely a book worth reading. Just don’t make the same mistake with your expectations as I did; know what you’re getting before you crack this one open.

The premise of this book captured my attention. The formatting is an interesting way to write and read a book, and while it was a struggle to get into the flow of it, it worked for the effect the author was going for. However, I just could not for the life of me get into the story. I felt like I was trudging through mud trying to read it. This should have been a quick read for me and it takes days for me to get through a chapter because I cannot get hooked. I have heard a lot of rave reviews about this book and I know it is one of the most anticipated releases for 2021 which makes my disappointment greater, but it is also a reminder that not every book is for every reader.

Loved this book. Told in the interview style somewhat like "Behind the Music, or Inside the Music", and news articles. Very different writing style that definitely worked for this story. The music, the history and the tragedy of Opal and Nev, 1970's rock duo. Opal, a black woman and Nev, a British man. Thanks so much to Net Galley and the publisher for the opportunity to read the advance copy.

This book was a fabulous documentary-style tell about two extraordinary characters. This gave me major Daisy Jones vibes, but it was executed so much more adeptly for this genre. A great read for those who have a desire to revisit the 70s.

4.5 stars rounded up. This will end up getting a lot of comparisons to Daisy Jone & the Six as this is told in the same interview format and is about musicians but make no mistake this is no Daisy Jones. This is so.much.more. I dare say this may be my book of the year.

The Final Revival of Opal & Nev tells the story of a musical rock duo who rose to fame after a tragic incident took place in the middle of their performance. Opal an African-American woman and Nev a British man and their rise and fall is being written by Sunny who has a connection to Opal through her father. Her father was part of the band.

It's not often I request a book blindy based soley on how it sounds, I usually hear about it on insta or a blog or mentioned somewhere first. This is one I grabbed soley on my own and the fact that BOTM picked it up shows what a gem it is. For a debut it really knocks it out of the park. It's an unforgetable story, emotionally charged characters, contemplative of racism in the past and of today, and really such a fantastic narrative. I can not adequately describe how special this book is.

***Thank you NetGalley and Simon&Schuster for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an unbiased review.

Loved it. The style, the subject, the characters..
What I loved
This style of writing didn't work for me in Daisy Jones, but it worked here. I was so invested in the story. Especially the parts where Sunny had her 'editor notes'. It all felt so real that sometimes I thought this band really existed.
What I didn't like
I missed a bit of an conclusion. I would have liked an epilogue of sorts to see how everybody ended up.
Conclusion
Great book, that speaks about important racial and feminist subjects against a backdrop of rock n roll.

“There’s too much work to do in this revolution and too many people to wake up. Too much to fight. Nobody had time to get waylaid by fear.”

The Final Revival of Opal & Nev is a fictional oral history of a rock & roll duo who rose to fame in the 70’s. Opal is a fierce Black woman who wants to be a star. Nev is a British singer/songwriter who discovers Opal at a bar in her hometown. Thus, Opal & Nev are born. Swipe to read the full synopsis.

Daisy Jones & the Six is one of my very favorite books, so I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to read another rock & roll oral history.

The Final Revival of Opal & Nev was a bit of a slower read for me. It took a little bit for the story to pick up for me, and there were some characters that I wish were more developed. However, the story was told so beautifully and I was left heartbroken for the characters many times. I had to take breaks to fully digest some of the heavy moments. This book is so much more than the story of a musical duo. It is a timely story that tackles racism and how it is still at play today. It is also about a woman in the music industry, which is dominated by men. The Final Revival of Opal & Nev is well-written and feels real, although it is fictional. Highly recommend!

(4.5 stars) The music of the 70s was iconic, and this fictional rock-n-roll, afro-punk duo vividly and seamlessly fit right in with that progressive and revolutionary music scene. Walton has delivered a bold debut that takes you on a journey through time, music, and the tragedy of racism both past and present.

Told like an old episode of Behind the Music, interviews and news clippings give us an intimate look at the beginnings of this duo, including a tragedy that accompanied their start up, their brief rise to fame, and the potential of a modern day reunion. But this isn’t just a pop culture music history. This is a gritty and raw detailed account of how racism has played out across the decades set amongst the backdrop of the music industry.

Walton meticulously crafted these characters, particularly Opal. Her descriptions had me so entranced and felt so real that I found myself wanting to search Google for pictures and album covers and snippets of old hits. And if I’m honest, I was a bit star struck by Opal. There was an authenticity to the characters that made them as real in my mind as any other 70s phenom.

I also appreciated the connection that the interviewer, Sunny, had to the the story. Her desire to know her dad was raw. I felt her emotion as she unraveled his connection to this duo. It gave a depth, an extra layer that further expanded the veracity of the story as a whole.

Many people liken this book to Daisy Jones and the Six. While the format is very similar, the books themselves couldn’t be more different. Whereas Daisy Jones focused on character relationships and pop culture, this book is a story of our times with important cultural relevance.

Many thanks to Dawnie Walton, Simon & Schuster, 37 Ink, and Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

There's nothing quite like a book that envelops you in it's world.
The Final Revival of Opal & Nev is fiction that doesn't feel like fiction.
Thank you to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for my eARC for review!
Didn't we all watch that YouTube video of reunited bandmates Opal Jewel and Nev Charles? I'm certain we know the album cover of the classic release Polychrome, plus all the songs. Who hasn't used that Opal GIF on social media?
And of course, we must be up on the infamous details of the death of their drummer during the Rivington Showcase.
No? But it feels like we should know of these elements as part of our entertainment history.
Author Dawnie Walton has created a work that the reader can't put down, in a world we are somehow part of. We know these musicians, their lives before music up to their final performance; and the journalist telling their stories. We remain in this world still, surrounded by talent and fame and racial injustice.
I compare this reading experience with that of Taylor Jenkins Reid's Daisy Jones & The Six. Which is a favorite of mine, so consider it high praise. The plots and characters differ greatly, but the overall feel - of having these anecdotes revealed to us - is the same.
The Final Revival of Opal & Nev is an exciting, noteworthy book to be savoured. Recommended!
For release on March 30.

All of the comparisons to Daisy Jones & The Six (one of my favorite reads of all time) are well deserved, both because of the style it was written in as well as how enjoyable this book is! The oral history format makes this story feel extremely lived in and, at times, had me feeling as if Opal and Nev were truly a musical duo that I had just forgotten existed. I will agree with some other reviews that this story took me a little while to get into, but once the characters and time period had been well established I was HOOKED.

Some things that really set this book apart for me and made it intriguing (instead of just a copy of Daisy Jones & The Six) are that the focus are primarily on Opal and Sunny, the narrator who has a strong link to Opal through her father. Focusing on these two characters made them feel extremely developed and made me more invested in their story. I do wish there had been more explanation of Nev's character and motivations, but perhaps that's also what made his character feel realistic. Additionally, this story dives deep into the racial and gender tensions of this time period, as well as their continuing and lasting impact in today's society.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The Final Revival of Opal and Nev was my very first advanced copy and what a great book to claim that title! Dawnie Walton tells the story of the rise, fall and then 'revival' of the somewhat unlikely punk-rock duo Opal and Nev. The book is written interview-style as Sunny Shelton works to compile a book on Opal and Nev, with all the key characters skillfully represented in their own voice. She interweaves real life artists both past and present through public statements and snippets from articles, which added a fun 'hey. I know that person!' element to the book. I've seen other reviews that compare the novel to Daisy Jones and the Six, and while I can certainly see the parallels in the topic and writing style (I can see Opal and Nev being an excellent full cast audiobook, much like Daisy Jones), the stories are very different, and Opal and Nev tackle some tough topics that Waltonbrings to life so vividly.

The front half of the book felt slow to me and I honestly struggled to get into it. You know from the start that there is a violent bursting onto the scene by the duo when the death of their drummer (and Sunny's father) Jimmy takes place at one of their concerts. This isn't a spoiler - you learn about it in the opening chapter - and the first half of the book is a slow march towards this inevitable moment. I had trouble reaching for this book initally because this part is so slow, but then you realize what a master Walton is - this is supposed to feel slow, almost boring. It's what everyone already knows, why is Sunny just repeating in her book what is already out there. What is she missing? It isn't until Sunny realizes this that the reader grasps just how important it was for you to be a bit bored by her story at the outset. There is more there, and by the halfway point, both you and Sunny realize it. Then the story picks up as Walton slowly uncovers the real story - this is where the magic of this book is.

Along the way, the reader gets to know these interesting, well-developed, complex characters - their stuggles, triumphs, and flaws. And you learn so much about the time and culture surrounding them - that is a big part of what makes this book so special. The fashion statements crafted by Opal and her best friend Virgil also add so much: "the hat, I notice, is blooming not with flowers or feathers, but with a clutch of plastic Black-power fists" (yes!).

I highlighted so many lines in the book and reading them over for this review solidified in my mind just how strong this book is. Here is one of my favorites: "There's too much work to do in this revolution and too many people to wake up. Too much to fight. Nobody has time to get waylaid by fear."

I can't wait for it to get into the hands of more people.

After seeing this as a Book of the Month club pick, I luckily got approved for the ARC.

This fictional oral history reads so realistically that I found myself trying to google the characters to see if they were real (some minor players are) and I loved how Dawnie Walton brought this this rock 'n' roll duo and lifestyle to the pages. We get multiple viewpoints, excerpts from interviews, and editor notes through the entire novel that create a stunning reflection on their career that ends in the present day. It touches on racism, the ins and outs of the music industry, family tensions, secrets and revealed truths.

I thoroughly enjoyed this and I loved Opal and Virgil the most. They were killer, they were fierce, they were fabulous.

The characters were well developed. And the story was very well documented! I felt like I was part a part of a behind the scenes documentary on Opal and Nev!
But the end of the book just fell off for me. great story awesome writing.

Journalist Dawnie Walton's debut, The Final Revival of Opal & Nev is THE book of the moment. An unabashedly provocative story, it speaks to the social/political issues of the present by telling the tale of a fictional music duo’s rise to fame and their planned-for revival concert in 2016. The story is told through distinct-yet-perfect framing: This book is an oral history, which gets shaped into a fictional book being written about the revival (and the history that came before it) by S. Sunny Shelton, the daughter of the duo’s original drummer, Jimmy. Sunny’s interviews with all the main characters make up the majority of the book, as well as her own editorial notes and recollections about events. It’s similar to Taylor Jenkin Reid’s rock/oral history novel, Daisy Jones and the Six. Yet, while Daisy mined the history of the band to reveal the answer to a mystery and deconstruct a quasi-romance, Opal & Nev uses that history to solve a mystery, while also commenting on racism, politics, sexism, feminism, and fame.

Opal, a Black singer from Detroit, recorded two albums for Rivington Records with Nev, a British singer/songwriter. Their collaboration didn’t generate much fanfare, until they ended up sharing a festival line-up with the Bond Brothers, their label’s most-famous yet troublesome act. The Bond Brothers, a country band from Florida, irks Opal and the more sensible producers at the label due to their excessive drinking and drugging, dallying with groupies, and, especially their flagrant use of the Confederate flag--on their vests and as a prop for their stage show. They bring a huge Confederate flag to the showcase (as well as a rowdy, drunk motorcycle gang that sexually harasses the women in the other bands), which eventually causes all hell to break loose. The gang members beat up and eventually kill Sunny’s Dad (and Opal’s lover), Jimmy. During the riot, an image is taken and gets a showcase in The New York Times. It’s Nev, carrying Opal on his back out of the melee. The notoriety from the photo revives the duo’s fledgling career, and they enjoy a short but intense time as rock stars who break all the rules by singing about the denigrated and downtrodden members of society fighting against “the man.” One extremely provocative song in particular achieves infamous notoriety.

I don’t want to spoil too many plot points, but this riot is the event that propels the varied storylines, particularly how the ultra-compelling character of Opal (it’s no fluke that she, not Nev, is featured on the book’s cover) navigates the racial, sexist, familial, and personal challenges in her path. She’s an amazing character. A punk-rock goddess who is both empowering in her fashion and in using her voice to speak out against society’s ills (as a singer and an activist), but, at the same time, ignorant of nefarious forces that ultimately affected her career. Sunny, as her fan/antagonist/fellow Black woman, has an engrossing relationship with Opal--it’s the beating heart beneath the explosive social issues this novel explores.

Walton does a wonderful job making each character’s voice distinct (LOVE Virgil!), while also honestly and openly commenting on how the divisive political atmosphere of our country has reignited talk and exploration of the racist and sexist challenges plaguing our electorate. Through the fiction, she openly and honestly addresses a wide range of hot-button issues in a completely believable and thoroughly engrossing way.

Whether you’re a music fan, a lover of contemporary fiction, an activist, or a person interested in the politicized issues of today, you’ll love this searing, engrossing novel.

An interesting interview-esque read that is perfect for fans of Daisy Jones & The Six, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, or musicians' biographies. As a fan of plot-driven novels, this wasn't for me, but I can definitely appreciate its beauty and the appeal that many could find.

The Final Revival of Opal and Nev is being overwhelmingly compared to Daisy Jones and the Six but apart from being 1) about a musical group in the 70s and 2) written in the oral history format, there aren’t many similarities. This has more going on: a daughter’s search to learn more about her father, the detailed account of a interracial musical duo’s career, and an explosive event of racial violence that leaves scars and secrets behind.

I struggled so hard through the vast majority of the book. There is so much - SO much - about the nitty gritty details of the behind the scenes business aspects and it read heavily like a nonfiction book. I got very tired of reading about managers, fashion decisions, album covers, event bookings, stage set up, press releases, and on and on. There are a lot of editor’s notes interspersed to fill in the timeline and then occasionally to share the journalist’s personal feelings and it all forced me to have even more of a nonfiction-ish experience rather than the escapist story I was looking for. I was just so, so bored through all but the dead center of the novel where the dramatic event happens.

I would recommend this to anyone enthralled with the 1970s music scene who also loves unconventional novel structures.

The Final Revival of Opal and Nev is a book ripe for the times. Themes of racism, female Black power, activism, loyalty and the role of art in society speak to our divided nation. Walton's writing is evocative and purposeful. The oral history structure serves to give each character a distinctive voice and role in the complex story. The structure is somewhat experimental in that even beyond the oral history, there are layers from the perspective of who is taking the oral history and why. Overall, I found the story compelling, but a bit wrought with noise. There was too much detail from a few too many side characters.. The central characters, and Opal and Pearl in particular, are well-crafted and captivating. I would have preferred to hear more from them and less from the surrounding characters and the record industry. As a debut, it's very impressive and I'm eager to read what Walton offers next.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for this digital ARC.

This book is always going to be compared to "Daisy Jones & The Six" and that's unfortunate because it has so much more to offer. Yes, it has similarities - the multi-narrator format, it's about a musical group in the early seventies and the "author" has a personal connection to the subjects. But it feels more relevant to our current times with its themes of feminine identity, sexism, racism and white privilege.

Another reviewer called this "journalistic fiction" and that is perfect description for this book. There's a "behind the scenes" vibe with a peek into the music industry, publishing and "celebrity" life that hooks you right away. But it's the characters and their complex relationship to each other that keep this story going. And Walton deftly captures the tone of the 70s art and music scene.

Definitely recommend

“The voices of Black women like Opal should not be discounted or diminished in deference to those who have hijacked our shine whenever it suits.”
After I finished The Final Revival of Opal and Nev at 2 in the morning, I stayed awake for another hour just thinking about how much I loved it.
Straight off the top: this book will draw comparisons to Daisy Jones and the Six (and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, for that matter.)
But I would like to submit for the record: Opal and Nev transcends Daisy Jones. And I don’t say that lightly, given how much I love the Fleetwood Mac if it all in DJ.
But it’s hard not to feel like all books about fictional rock bands are sanitized in comparison to Opal and Nev. The book - and the band - are willing to go where others don’t, and it pays off.
The reason, of course, is because Opal is a Black frontwoman of a rock band. Her music partner is a white man. A hate crime is the driving force of their careers and lives. Which means Opal and Nev - the book and the band - are inherently political. And the best music and the best books about music, I think, is political.
Because Opal and Nev is a book deeply about race, politics, and how Black Lives Matter - whether that be in 1971 or 2016 - the book surpassed its peers in every way.
The stakes in this book are higher, the rises and falls of the characters are bigger, the reveals are more shocking and the relevancy is more urgent.
And Opal. The Afropunk provocateur frontwoman propels the novel forward, and both her past selves and her current selves stick into your memory. For a punk music lover like me, my only regret is that Opal herself isn’t a real person, and that there are so many would-be Opals in the real world who never got the huge careers they should have had. (A side note: you should look up Poly Styrene.)
She also shared the heart and soul of the book with its intrepid narrator. S. Sunny Shelton is a rock journalist trying to tell a story that she herself is deeply connected to. I loved them both.
Author Dawnie Walton knows exactly when to introduce a new character, complicate a matter you thought was resolved, add a new detail or let a character be a little more vulnerable. The story itself, which I don’t want to give to much away on, both surprised me and gave me everything I wanted.
From the plot to the writing to the characterization to its applicability to the real world, it’s all masterful and it’s my new pinnacle for this type of book.

PS. One of the details I loved about this book was how seamlessly it blended the fiction of its world with our world. There was just a lot of joy to be had in seeing reviews about Opal from Janelle Monae and Henry Rollins, and young punk women wearing X-Ray Spex shirts.