I don't know how to review this book, because while I recognize its incredible writing, well-drawn out characters and important subject matter, for some reason it didn't captivate me. Walton is a gifted author and she writes beautifully, but her words could not capture my attention. Perhaps it was because of inevitable comparisons to Daisy Jones, a similar book that I loved, but I kept feeling like something was lacking, even if I still can't put my finger on it. Rounding up from 3.5 because the novel is impressive in many ways and perhaps I was just not its target reader. Thank you for the early copy.

Not reading the other reviews, because I can already guess that they all draw comparisons to Daisy Jones. This reads exactly like Taylor Jenkins Reid's bestseller, but with a 2021-woke/racial angle. Not that that's a bad thing-- TJR is one of my favorite contemporary authors, and while I wouldn't recommend reading this directly after that one, it's entertaining and, if not wholly unique, exceedingly well written. The novel is one of epic proportions, creating a landscape that feels at once familiar and new, and tracking along multiple timelines, from multiple points of view. All of the characters are dynamic, though none more so than the titular Opal Jewel, who is complex and jumps off the page. She is ahead of her time, though she still manages to feel 'real', in her day.
Would definitely recommend to fans of A Visit from the Goon Squad and, obviously, Daisy Jones & the Six.

For the first several chapters, given the familiar framework, it might appear like a hardcore replica of Daisy Jones and The Six with racial factors sprinkled all over it but just then, it is going to blow you away. I tell you, this is no second Daisy Jones and The Six, this is the first The Final Revival Of Opal and Nev.

It is raw and honest in a whole another level. It has so much to offer. This book voices against racism, pseud feminism, sexism ; looks right into your eyes and tells you how this world could be 'unkind' to you at times, tells you about 'the struggle' and the price you have to pay for being a person of color in America, for being under the limelight, the unpleasant side of music industry and its abusive impacts.

This book is a manifested diversity, no matter where you look at it from. Politically or provocatively, you say it.

But to my heartbreak, I just couldn't bring myself to like a single character from this book. I couldn't even enjoy this one thoroughly. At times it makes your adrenaline rush but when it's being informative or critical or a storyteller, it tended to fall flat for me. It felt like the author couldn't keep the humour go. In all the 'Editor's Note', the author seemed angry and annoyed. Also there was a lot usage of swear words which I don't like to see in writing, it's a personal choice, I'm sorry.

So I was enjoying the book but sometimes I wasn't. Indeed the author had put a lot into this work and as a debut it's remarkable.

And lastly, I would like to thank NetGalley and the publishers for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

(3.5 stars) In my opinion, this book suffers by comparison to Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Not because it’s not as good…it’s actually better as it deals with other issues (race especially) in addition to drama surrounding the band. But being so similar in structure and subject to Daisy Jones, I felt as if I had read it before. Opal IS Daisy as a POC with fashion flair and a bald head that she decorates with wild wigs. Nev is similar to Billy, leading the band and dealing with crises with his lead singer. Opal and Nev’s story is told from the point of view of a female journalist whose father played drums for the band. This was an interesting way to narrate the story, and gave an added dimension to the tale. Still too similar to Daisy Jones for me, though.

This is a very creatively written story of Opal, a talented young black woman who found fame and fortune singing with the up and coming English singer, Nev, in the 1970s. The book combines elements of reality (singers and songs that we all will recognize) with the fictional musical work of Opal and Nev. Their lives and careers together are wonderful and horrible, and their story is told by a young black journalist, with a special connection to Opal.

I loved the first part of the book when Opal and Nev are first starting out - so entertaining and compelling. I wondered how the horror of certain events would be settled - how would Opal and Nev would resolve their differences, both musical and personal. The ending seem to drag on just a tad - I might have edited it down some. I'm not sure I would have ended the story this way. And I'm not sure I'm comfortable with the relationship the journalist had with Opal, finding it not especially believable, given the nature of the relationship.

This book will appeal to those of us who grew up in the 1970s and listened to great music on the radio, and had the opportunity to go see nascent bands perform in small clubs, and then got to appreciate reunion tours of those same bands years after they had achieved musical fame.

Thank you, NetGalley, for allowing me to read this book.

Is "fake rock biopic" a genre of fiction? If not, can we make it one? Either way, Opal & Nev was a truly original take, and it will easily hold its own against the inevitable comparisons to "Daisy Jones and the Six." For one thing, Opal and Nev themselves were such a unique creation - such an unexpected musical duo. I didn't even try to imagine what their music might have sounded like, I just accepted that people heard something special in it. Luckily, the stellar writing is all the evidence readers will need.

3 stars
This has all the Daisy Jones vibes. I absolutely loved how that story was told, but I love how this author did their own interpretation. It’s a oral history this characters giving their takes on events.
I thought the characters felt real and genuine. I thought the setting was spot on and I loved the weaving of real world events.
It didn’t capture me as much as I thought it would. I wanted to be emotionally invested, and that took me awhile.
It fell off a bit at the end, but overall, a great debut novel.

I think this faux musician/ celebrity trend should continue forever. I absolutely love it.
I definitely think of you appreciated Daisy Jones, you will appreciate this story!

The Final Revival of Opal & Nev, a debut novel, wrote in oral history format, is the story of the rise and fall of a unique pairing of band members. Of course there will be comparisons to Daisy Jones because of the format and storyline. But where Daisy went light and fluffy, Opal & Nev tackles social issues present during the times, continuing into today's reality. I really enjoyed the book, although pacing throughout the book slowed a little to much for my liking. Characters were really well fleshed out, I really enjoyed the interview style of the writing. Dawnie Walton brought such detail to this novel that I had to remind myself that Opal & Nev were fictional. I think this book would make for a great book club selection. Thank you to netgalley and Simon & Schuster for providing me an advanced readers copy.

This book is so well written that I wish it was a fiction novel. I loved the style.of Daisy Jones so I couldn't wait to read this one.
There's enough real world people and characters to make Opal (a young Black woman) and Nev (a British singer/songwriter) feel like they fit right in the time-line. It's relevant to the 70s and now with the abuse of power from cops and record albums. Go put on some punk rock and read this book.

The Final Revival of Opal & Nev is like reading a biopic of a band that you love/loved! Several times throughout I had to stop myself from Googling the relevant participants or parts of the story because Walton is very skilled at weaving her characters into the fabric of the contemporary music scene. If you enjoy "Behind the Music" stories and learning about the lives of musicians and other artists, then this fictional bio is for you! RECOMMEND! [Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in order to review the book.]

After reading that this was the next Daisy Jones & The Six I was looking forward to diving into the music life of Opal and Nev. The first half caught and held my attention, but the second half fell flat. I found myself not really caring about the characters or feeling invested in their story. Opal was the most interesting in the beginning, but by the second half even she lost some of her luster.
If you are looking for the next Daisy Jones, you'll have to wait a little bit longer.

I really enjoyed this book & how it was written in the oral history style. It reminded me of a book version of VH1’s Behind the Music. You get to learn about the chaotic ride of Opal & Nev, a fictional 1970s rock duo, from many different perspectives. I also enjoyed the historical & political undertones throughout the story. Very unique & engaging.

It's good. It's not Daisy Jones and I'm sure the author is sick of hearing the comparison but I don't see that going away anytime soon. It's fiction that reads like nonfiction about made-up musicians. See why they're being compared?

Where Daisy Jones is a white cast of characters, Opal & Nev speaks to race in way that make you sit back and think about if we've made any progress at all. At times the commentary felt forced and so in your face obvious that of course maybe that was the point.

Throughout the book, I found myself wishing I could hear Opal & Nev's music because I couldn't quite grasp what it sounded like in my head.

It's one I can't wait for more people to read because it lend itself to great discussion. Definitely a good book club pick and I hope the find a stellar ensemble cast to narrate an audiobook version.

Thanks to Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The premise of this book interested me before I picked it up--the setting of Detroit, music, the 1970s...Everything about it indicated I'd be interested. There is a lot that Walton does well in The Final Revival of Opal & Nev. I enjoyed how the history of the 1970s was woven in, and the way in which the journalistic form of writing made the book read almost like non-fiction. The latter made me double check a few times that Nev & Opal are fictional. The characters were intriguing, and the book highlights a important facets of the Black American experience of the time.

However, it fell flat for me. Perhaps I could not get invested in the story, or perhaps it was that I thought there would be more focus on the history of the time within the story (the latter of which I would have especially enjoyed). Perhaps it could also be my general disinterest in the showbiz industry. I can't really place it on only one thing but I felt bored reading it, and after getting through part one I was not interested enough to continue reading. It is for these negative points & my reading experience that I rate it so.

All that being said, if you do enjoy pop culture, reading about a band in the style of an interview, and also learning about the racial history of the time, I highly recommend reading The Final Revival of Opal & Nev.

Thank you to Net Galley and Simon & Schuster for the eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Final Revival of Opal & Nev is a brilliant debut that adds a bold new voice to the conversation regarding systemic racism not just in the 1970s, but today as well. The story starts with the origin of Opal Jewel from Detroit, and Neville Charles, an English singer from Birmingham and how they came together. When in Detroit one night, music producer Bob Hives is trying to find someone worthy enough to duet with his latest protégé. When Opal and her sister, Pearl, perform, Nev Charles is awestruck by Opal. The way she carries herself, her style, her voice. She's exactly what he's been looking for.

This one took me a while to really get into in the beginning. It's a lot slower paced than I'm used to, so that maybe played a part, but the first half was a bit confusing for me up until near the end of part one and the small twist that reared its head at the end. The book was easy to read and digest, but seeing as this genre and style of writing is new to me, so I maybe didn't get as much out of it as is potentially possible.

I did enjoy the writing style, because it helped to move things along and it was definitely easy to follow with the interview format of this fictional oral history. As new to this style as I am, I think I especially enjoyed it because you really get a sense of each character being interviewed for this fictional book within a book. The world building in here, while it takes place both in the past and the recent past, is so well done that there were quite a few times where I forgot I was reading a fictional novel and thought that I was reading someone's memoir or autobiography. I almost Googled these two main characters thinking I must have missed something, but luckily, I didn't.

For a debut novel, this is brilliantly written, and the conversation is starts is an important one. Tackling systemic racism is going to be uncomfortable, that's the point. There is no sugarcoating it. If we want to continue to have this conversation and dismantle the system, and we definitely should, we're going to have to feel uncomfortable. Fighting for equal rights has never been easy, and as indicated by this novel, the job is never finished.

A great story told from a unique perspective. The oral history narrative made this book incredibly readable. This story, while about a band and its “life” is so much more because of the elements of race and racism and how they are interwoven into the intricacy of the story. When you have an interracial band, in the 70’s, how can it not be about race? The tale of Opal and Nev is so sophisticated, robust, and sometimes sad that I could not put it down.

I have been waiting to read this book for a while and was so happy to run across it on NetGalley! It was well worth the wait too! This is a wonderfully griping story that will suck you in and you'll quickly find it hard to put it down.

Tackling a topic as tremendous as the music industry of the past sixty years then add in racism and feminism and you have the makings of quite a story on your hands. In her new work of historical fiction, #The Final Revival Of Opal And Nev, author Dawnie Walton proves she is more than up to the task. A quick note here about this reviewer. I am 71 years old and from Toledo',Ohio, a stone’s through away from Detroit’s international sister, Windsor and well within listening range of the Motown infused music of legendary AM radio station CKLW. What a marvelous soundtrack for my formative years. In fact, it was so influencing that from 1973-2004 I was co-owner of one of Toledo’s top record stores. I mention these facts to show I have about a thirty year age lead on Ms. Walton and, by my standards attest that she has done her homework well - this book rings true from start to finish. Although the book is, in title, the story of songstress Opal Jewel and songwriter/musician Nev Charles', for me this was primarily Opal’s tale. The book is packed with colorful characters and antidotes,but it is Opal’s je ne sais quoi that jumps her off the page. I must admit that throughout this entertainment every time Opal was front and center I heard Nina Simone singing Mississippi Goddamn. Please correct me if you disagree. # The Final Revival Of Opal And Nev is a remarkable time capsule of an era that will live on forever, made even more remarkable in that the author didn’t live through much of it.

I was really intrigued by this once I saw it followed a similar oral history format as Daisy Jones & The Six. I would say this one includes more interjections by the interviewer / fictional author, as she herself is entwined in the story, which worked well and made the format feel more personal.

This is a story about music, about racism, about media and the public and the way we treat women vs. men and BIPOC vs. white people. While it covers a lot of ground profoundly, at times I wished the central message was more focused on one particular theme. The pacing also felt off for me; there was so much setup at the beginning of how Opal and Nev came to be (close to the first half of the book) that the ending and reunion show felt a little rushed (and I spent a lot of the book thinking they'd achieved a lot more success as a duo than Nev had as a solo act).

Still a very good read that I would recommend! And I just really, really wish Opal Jewel were a real person because she sounds like an absolute badass and we could use more women of color like her in this world. Thank you Dawnie Walton to bringing her to life.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

I rate this book 3.5/5 stars. I really enjoyed the oral history and the way it was written. I really enjoyed getting to hear different characters and think Dawnie Walton did a really good job giving each character a different voice and personality.

The Final Revival of Opal & Nev is about a young black woman who partners with Nev, a white European man to create music. S. Sunny Shelton is a journalist who is creating a story about both Opal and Nev and wants to write an oral history of their lives. Sunny, is the daughter of the late Jimmy Curtis who was the drummer for Nev and Opal, she wants to find out more about the night her father was murdered during a protest.

I will say it again, I really liked the characters that Dawnie Walton created and how they each have their own voices. I think she wrote a great story with a lot of very delicate material. This novel navigates, racism, women in music, identity and equality. I think for a debut novel this was really well done. I do think the first half was very fast paced while the second half really slowed down for me. I did like that this story wasn't what I thought it would be like and took me by surprise. I look forward to seeing other work by Walton.