What an amazing book this one is. 

The Final Revival of Opal and Nev by Dawnie Walton tells the story of Opal Jewel, half of the titular 70’s punk rock duo. Opal is a young, dynamic Black woman, discovered during an open-mic night by an up-and-coming British singer named Nev Charles. The career they embark on together is just getting started when they are thrust in the middle of an Altamont-type confrontation that changes the lives of many and cements their place in history.

Now, 40 years later, the story of Opal and Nev is being told through interviews to a reporter whose father was lost that fateful night. On the verge of a reunion concert and possible tour, the interviews threaten to expose secrets kept hidden for decades.

It will be impossible for almost any review of this book to not draw comparisons to Daisy Jones and the Six after that book’s incredible success. Both tell stories of 70’s rock bands and the strong women who front them. And both are written as an oral history told to a strangely similar source.

But.

Make no mistake—this is it’s own story. It is about the music and the personalities, yes, but it is also about the constant struggle that Opal faces as a Black female both in the music industry and in the country as a whole. Through the lens of the interviews looking back and narration told in 2016—just prior to the election—it is a gut punch of a story about how the more things change the more they stay the same and how far we have to go.

The characters are vibrant and strong and feel so real you will wish you could just Spotify their music and pull up photos of Opal’s stunning outfits.

My only criticism is that I felt like the story dragged JUST A BIT in the second half, but it was not enough to stop me from reading it in 2 days.

This one will stick with me.

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

The Final Revival of Opal and Nev is so well written that I thought it was a true story. Sammy an editor at Aurel, a music magazine wants to find information on a musical group from the 70’s and ‘s. Supposedly her father, the drummer of the group had an affair with Opal while Sammy’s mother was pregnant with her. Opal is a young Black Girl from Chicago while Nev is a young man from England. Nev tours the stateslooking for just the girl to be his partner., finally finding Opal a gospel singer. The novel is narrated by various characters as Sammy interviews those people who can tell her about her father and Nev and Opal’s early career. Some of the characters were very relatable and funny. All were well written. The:music business was explored but did not overwhelm the story. I just can’t believe this wasn’t a biography.

Two years ago, I read and loved Daisy Jones and the Six. It was the first book I'd ever read that was written in an oral history style and when I finished it, I wanted more stories told in that manner. So when I saw that The Final Revival of Opal & Nev was being compared to Daisy Jones, I couldn't add it to my TBR list fast enough. They are similar in that they are both about a musical group or duo from the past, and their story of fame to fade out (all that happens in between and some after) is told in an oral history style, but other than that, they are very different.

Opal & Nev were a (fictional) duo from the 60's; a white British man and a Black American woman, quite the odd pair, but together they just clicked on stage. We know from the start that they survived something terrible and tragic at a concert, and that decades later, they are planning a reunion concert and possible tour. A journalist who has a close personal connection to their past is writing a book about them to coincide with the concert. The details unfold as mentioned above, in oral history style (as answers to unspoken questions in an interview), and also in excerpts from the book that is being written. There are many real celebrities and actual historical events mentioned throughout, which helps make it all seem real. Just as I did when I read Daisy Jones, I almost found myself wondering if Opal & Nev were actually real performers.

The first third of the book was a little bit slow - not boring, I wanted to keep reading, but just a slow burn. After that, it picked up the pace and I had a hard time putting it down. The chapters that covered the tragic events at the concert were riveting and heart wrenching. Many topics are timely; racism, gender inequality, privilege, violence, and so on. As I mentioned, the book spans decades, from the 60's when Opal and Nev first met all the way to 2016, when the reunion concert takes place. And it serves to show just how far we haven't come in regards to racial issues.

I recommend this book to those who enjoyed the style of Daisy Jones and the Six, though of course this book is different - maybe a bit deeper. I personally loved that about it, and if not for the slower start, and an ending that felt a little bit rushed after all that buildup, I would give it a full 5 stars.

My thanks to #netgalley and #Simon&Schuster for an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

I wanted to love this - I did. For anyone who loved similar stories told in a long magazine type interview way - or ones that are looking for a story with substance and backstory and are relevant now, then you'll probably love this.

I just wasn't a fan of the style of writing. It feels disconnected and I didn't like the huge author notes. I still think a novel type telling, especially with the daughter's POV, would have been much more compelling and I would have felt her shock and anger as she learned the secrets she searched for. I did like the peak into 1970's music scene and I did find many parts funny.

Interesting oral history story about a famous band and those involved. I didn’t love this as much as I hoped but it would be one I recommend.

What I liked

The Final Revival was told in a series of flashbacks from many narrators, like Daisy Jones & The Six, which it is often comped to. I find this storytelling technique the most fun in audio form, but it’s always enjoyable, especially when the author does it well. Dawnie Walton gives each individual character (and there are dozens!) their own distinct voice.

I really thought it was real, for a moment. Even though I knew it was fiction from the start, I did take a moment to google Opal Jewel, because I thought, just maybe, it might be real. That’s when I knew this book would be good. (I did end up not loving it as much as I expected to, but it continued to be well-written throughout.)

The Final Revival deals with racism in the music industry and in the United States as whole on almost every page, and Walton does an excellent job contrasting “the way it used to be” and our modern era. (The modern narration was set in 2016, so, what a year.) For those who think that we’ve come so far, this is a really educational education on the simple fact that we have not.

What I didn’t like

In Daisy Jones & The Six, we learn at the very end that the narrator has a personal connection to the story. (I won’t spoil that in case you haven’t read it.) But in The Final Revival, S. Sunny Shelton reveals her connection very early on – which I appreciated, because it makes a lot of sense as to why she’s writing the story. What I cared for less was the many personal interludes and editor’s notes inserted in the narration. It messed up the pacing for me.

Pacing, in general, kept me from loving this book. There are long stretches where it feels like nothing is happening, and then a lot of action condensed in a few pages. I think that can be the weakness of a story told through interviews, because “subjects” have the opportunity to ramble.

If you like that, you’ll like this

Daisy Jones & The Six, obviously.

Fictional rock and roll bands on tour. Or real ones!

Journalist main characters.

I really enjoyed "Daisy Jones and The Six", so this sounded promising. Oh, Lord! What a really grand surprise. It was a terrific book, and so well done, I had to keep reminding myself it was fiction.

Nothing in the narrative was contrived or forced. Each event was what it needed to be, and each character, no matter how minor, did what they needed to do.

This is a fictional account of an unlikely duo’s rise to stardom as told by a veteran journalist, S. Sunny Shelton, whose deceased father once had an affair with Opal herself. Having spent the bulk of her career closely guarding the secret of her proximity to Opal Jewel, Sunny finally gives herself permission to tell the story of her “most complicated idol” after winning a hard earned promotion - and with that promotion, unabated creative freedom.

There will be the inevitable comparisons to Daisy Jones and the Six, and that’s a very fair comparison. They are structurally identical. What Opal & Nev brings to the table is female-centered oral history with a civil rights era twist. This is so much more than a tale of sex, drugs and rock n’ roll. Its not even about a band - by all accounts, Opal & Nev were not a wildly successful musical act. There was no meteoric rise to fame. Their most popular album peaked at #45. The novel focuses on the aftermath of a riot that occurred during their most high-profile gig, which was at a defunct playhouse - showcase for industry executives and media. The fact is, Opal Jewel is no Daisy Jones.

This is a timely story of an industry dominated by white men - some of whom were the type who could justify the glorification of the Confederate Flag. Walton does an excellent job of highlighting the fact that the rampant racism of the 60s and 70s is still alive and well today. In the age of “wokeness” it’s easy to overlook how little progress we have actually made.

My biggest gripe about the novel is that there was little to no character development when it came to Jimmy. I also wish we had more insight into the relationship between Opal and Jimmy. It came off as a casual fling, and not a torrid love affair. For a character whose life and death affected everyone involved in this oral history, I wanted more.

Overall, a great read. Put this one on your TBR list!

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC of this fantastic novel.

what a novel! The Final Revival of Opal and Nev had very similar vibes to The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones and the Six. so that to say, i loved it. the storytelling was so creative and compelling, despite being very similar in structure to those mentioned — it was still new and exciting and kept me engaged the whole way through. it weaved in important topics and made you think about what society has demanded throughout the decades, how that’s changed, and how people who don’t fit into that norm were considered outsiders and radicals.

the story starts in the 1970s with British boy Nev. when he starts to inch his way into the music biz, people at the (struggling) label decide he’d be better as one half of a duo. so they set out to find the other half, and they find that in Opal Robinson from Detroit. Opal was a fabulous Black woman — enticing, fascinating, perplexing, different. she was such a complex, riveting character — watching her evolve throughout the story was perhaps the best part of this book. we didn’t see as much development in Nev’s character, but i honestly didn’t even care, and i doubt you will either.

like our dear Evelyn Hugo, the format of the book, is the writing of a book. there are interviews with pretty much everyone involved, article clippings, press releases, and more. our narrator throughout, Sunny, is the EIC at a top magazine and has been given the green light for a book all about Opal and Nev. this situation is made complicated and emotional by the fact that Sunny is the daughter of Opal and Nev’s drummer who died in a racist incident at one of their concerts, provoked by Opal in protest. the effects of this event on Sunny, and Opal, and their trajectories, are palpable.

Opal is fiercely passionate about justice, freedom, independence, her own worth, doing what’s right, protecting others. and this book is a perfect example of the societal repercussions for that, especially for women, especially for Black women.

this book shows the importance of following your truth — how that’s not always an easy road, but is always worth it. highly recommend hopping on the roller coaster that is Opal and Nev — out march 30!!

The Final Revival of Opal & Nev
by Dawnie Walton

I am not really sure how I feel about this book. The interview style is interesting and keeps the various voices relatively short and contrapuntal. This style has an almost musical feel to it, which ties in with the story line about musicians back in the 60's and 70's.

Having been young in the era of Opal and Nev's story, I can relate to much of the angst around race and gender which really came to the forefront at that time. Amazingly these topics - and many others which are extensions of them - are still plaguing our society today. It says something about who we are that we cannot seem to come to grips with these issues and find some meeting of the minds. Instead, as Ms. Walton points out, we are becoming more alienated from each other and seem to have less and less understanding of where the "other side" is coming from.

While her points are well made and presented, I find it hard to read yet another rendering of what is going on every day in this country without any thought provoking ideas as to how to come together and rescue ourselves from the mire we find ourselves in. I would like to think that there is still hope for us, but books like this make me not so sure.

I have not finished reading this book.

I thought Dawnie Walton knocked it out of the park with this book. It covers some very hard topics about systemic racism, BLM , white supremacy, white vs black society/culture, and it was so believable it seemed like it could have been a nonfiction biography. The main characters were believable, and the most important was a daughter wanting to know the truth about her father and his relationship with Opal. Opal, wanting and needing to be back in the spotlight.

I think I would have been a fan of Opal & Nev's music since it was somewhat punk rock. Kept my interest from start to finish. I think I will buy this at publishing date.

Definitely some similarities to Daisy Jones, how it was written through interviews and observations, but this focused on black culture. I felt this was the stronger book because of the other topics throughout, just my opinion. Recommended! Definitely looking forward to more books from this author in the future.

Thanks to Netgalley, Dawnie Walton, and Simon Schuster 37 Ink for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Available: 3/30/21

I really liked the format of this book. Laid out as a series of interviews for a book, complete with “editor notes”, this was a long but good read. One that makes you think about the social injustices from the 70s through 2026, but also one that takes you on a musical journey. The characters are so real and the interviews are written so that you question whether or not this is fiction. I wanted to Google Opal Jewel to see if I missed something. This is also the emotional journey of a black woman trying to find her father’s history and the whys and hows of his demise. From the side characters to the main folks, incredible detail was paid to every aspect.
A phenomenal debut from this author, if a smidge long in some parts. I’m glad I was invited to read a galley of Opal & Nev.

This book was written so well and interestingly that it felt like nonfiction! The Final Revival of Opal & Nev is book inception-the narrator, S. Sunny Shelton, is writing a book about a short-lived band that happened to involve her father (who is neither of the title characters, but is a very integral piece of the story). She wants to get to the heart of some things in the past while also maintaining professionalism, but the book she is writing already is, and becomes, far more personal. I really enjoyed the way to book was written, as interview pieces arranged in order to become a story line, with "editor's notes" throughout to show what was happening as Shelton was writing the book.

The characters are all written intricately, with flaws at the forefront. It captured what was going on during the 70s, from drug use to racism, with such realistic detail that I could feel the emotions, fear, and anger that the characters were feeling.

This book is a great read, and once you get into it, it rolls pretty fast. Every now and then there is a slight lag, where you are wanting to get to the crux of the situation, but overall, a great, fast-paced read.

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.5/5

For fans of Daisy Jones & The Six. This book is fast-paced and engaging, especially the first part, as you bounce between perspectives with Opal & Nev’s band members leading up to the Rivington Showcase.

It exposes the systemic racism and the white supremacist ideology embedded in American patriotism. It exposes how white people are able to navigate the world differently than Black people. And it exposes how white people may turn a blind eye to the racially motivated violence and injustice they see but must be held accountable for their choices and inactions.

This is a powerful novel for how it shows that not much has changed. I enjoyed the historical elements and the way Walton embeds this story amongst historical events—from the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing that killed four Black girls, to the Altamont Free Concert murder, to Trumpism.

It’s an entertaining and informative read. It’s hard to capture an audible medium in written form, but Walton does an incredible job of describing the visual performances and musical cadences. I like the characterization and the way it ebbs and flows, depending on where you are in the book and whose perspective you’re in. And there’s a real sense of understanding where each character is coming from, whether you agree with them or not.

I would have liked to hear more from the other band members before and after the Showcase, and Part 1 ended with such a bang that Part 2 seemed a bit slow in comparison. Also, just a personal preference, but I wish the relationship between Sunny and the Opal & Nev story was revealed later.

Thank you to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster, and Dawnie Walton for making this ARC available in exchange for an honest review.

<i>The Final Revival of Opal & Nev</i> starts off strong. The voice of Sunny, reporter, struck me as so real that I looked up the famous Opal Jewel... only to realize she was a fictional character and this was a novel. Yet, throughout, she remains entirely believable. Dawnie Walton interweaves fiction and fact in a way that is remarkably fluid, historic events and figures seamlessly woven into the fictional story of Opal Jewel.

I can imagine some reviewers will say, "for fans of <i>Daisy Jones and the Six</i>" because the writing style is similar. Quickly changing perspectives, all linked to the heroine, telling different parts of the same storyline about a rock-and-roll phenom. I love this kind of storytelling and the layers it brings. However, this story, unlike <i>Daisy Jones</i> is very much about race.

Opal Jewel is a fierce black woman from a working-class Detroit family. When she moves to New York City to make music with the quirky, white Nev Charles, she revels in flamboyance, color, and outlandish personality. And Opal is acutely aware of how she is treated in comparison to Nev, or other white people. There is violence, policy brutality, blatant racism, and the finger always points back at Opal or her black friends--the white perpetrators sliding out of the same predicaments easily.

Overall, I have mixed feelings about this book. Several times it slowed enough that I wanted to put it down. Then, there'd be a an absolutely stunning line or paragraph that hit me deep in the belly--almost always about racism--and made me think. That kept me reading. This novel is timely, credible, and powerful. But I can't quite bring myself to rate it more highly because it was too bloated and bogged down for me.

Thank you to publisher & author for the NetGalley.

This book was hard for me to get into, mostly the style didn't work for me personally though others have liked it a lot. So while the topics were things that interested in me and it was a time i lived through, i felt more detached and less involved than i wanted to be reading a book

I was immediately intrigued by this book when I first heard about it - I was a big fan of Daisy Jones and the Six, and was eager to see how this book would handle the "oral history" format. Walton takes that format and adds so much more to the story - while it is a story around a musical duo, it goes so far beyond the music they made and tells a gripping story that, while primarily set in the 60s/70s, still reflects similar racial issues we are still grappling with today.
Considering we go into the story knowing the pivotal moment in the story basically from the first few pages, there was still a great element of tension and suspense as we approach that moment in the timeline. And even though you think you know what happened by the time we get to that day, Walton still manages to knock you over with some revelations from the characters retelling the story. And the ending was an excellent mix of realism and satisfaction.
The writing in this book is beautiful. I enjoyed it immensely, and cannot wait for it to hit the shelves so everyone can enjoy it!
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an ARC.

As much as I wanted to love this book, as a music fan, I didn't. I am 100% sure that I will be in the minority here. The writing style is journalistic, behind the scenes, just like Daisy Jones. So many people loved Daisy Jones, but I didn't. I think that this style of writing is not for me. I never feel like I can really settle in when the narration and perspective is constantly changing. That said, the content is very interesting. If a reader is a fan of the style, I think that they will love this book. I just can't get passed the style; it doesn't work for me individually.

The Final Revival of Opal & Nev presents a fictional oral history of the titular duo and the famous photograph taken during a violent, racially motivated riot at one of their shows in the early 70s. While Nev goes on to have a kind of fame most reminiscent of a Billy Joel or Elton John-type, Opal is the standout character, a wholly unique punk rock, black power, feminist creation by the book’s author, Dawnie Walton. Interspersed with a first-person narrative by Sunny, the editor of a Rolling Stones-esque magazine who has a personal history with Opal, Walton has a lot to say about race, white allyship, and the capitalist structures that prop up our cultural institutions.

Walton’s choice to present three-quarters of the book in each character’s voice as they relay the beats of the story to Sunny makes the book reminiscent of Daisy Jones & the Six, but The Final Revival of Opal & Nev is far deeper and better executed than Taylor Jenkins Reid’s crowd pleaser. I hope that this book finds a similar sized audience, even if the style of a written oral history was off putting at times and made the book more laborious to read than if Walton had opted to go for a more traditional first- or third-person narrative. Still, there is much to like here, and the narration from Sunny set in early 2016 are poignant and intriguing. I’m excited to see what Walton does next in a more traditional narrative.

I received an advanced reading copy through NetGalley.

I was absolutely thrilled for The Final Revival of Opal & Nev; it was probably in my top 5 most anticipated books for the year. So I think part of my problem was that I probably had set my expectations much too high for it. Another part of the problem, based on quick skimming of other reviews, was that I have not read Daisy Jones and therefore was completely unfamiliar with the oral history writing style.

I recognize that Sunny needed to insert her voice somehow throughout the book, but I didn't particularly enjoy the use of the "Editor's Note" feature. It felt a little heavy handed, and like she was doing a lot of telling us vs. showing us what was going on. It also contributed to a weird flow throughout the novel. The pacing felt off to me, with nothing happening for long stretches, or a ton of buildup only for the big event to happen within a page or two, and then back to long stretches of very little going on. I struggled to stay super engaged with the book throughout.

I do think Walton did a great job of writing in the voices of the different characters; it never got confusing whose point of view she was writing from and each character's voice felt very unique. That being said, the character development of characters across the board fell just a little bit short for me. I was never quite able to get myself fully emotionally invested in their arcs. The points of the story that hit on Jimmy were far and away the strongest.

Not by any means a bad read, and wow do I wish Opal Jewel actually existed in our world, but it just didn't quite check all of my boxes.