This novel tells the story of a singing duo who rockets to fame after a disastrous showcase with a deadly outcome. As a reporter interviews the duo and their associates, she discovers many secrets from long ago about what truly happened that fateful night that led to the death of her father.

I loved the first part of this novel. Told in an interview format, I was completely engrossed in what happened all those years ago that led to such an awful outcome. There was a twist at the end of part one that completely blindsided me, and I was so excited to see where this new information would lead. Unfortunately, it led to nowhere. The next two parts of the novel seemed to just fizzle. While I was expecting further reveals and altercations, I got none of that. Just a bit of dithering and meandering until the eventual end, which fell a bit flat for me.

Although I was disappointed in this particular aspect of the book, I did enjoy a lot of the commentary on feminist ideals and racial injustice. I loved the progression of Opal from a character that was quite careless with herself and others to someone who really does strive to make change for the better through her influence. Her willingness to right a wrong from the past was both heartbreaking and endearing, especially when done with no thought of gratitude in return. I also thought the commentary on how fame and success doesn't always happen to the most deserving was impeccably told.

Ultimately, Dawnie Walton created a world with complex characters that were each unique and authentic. The format of the novel was engrossing and a breeze to read, and I was immediately drawn into the story that unfolded. I do wish there had been more development in the last two parts, but I can understand the artistic choice in deciding against it.

Daisy Jones and the Six is the most recent book about a fictional autobiography of a band. It was a great concept even though I wasn't as big a fan as most. This is another "unique" biographical fictional account of the brief claim to fame of a duo and years later a reunion. It was a good read, not sure it was better or worse than Daisy, but I enjoyed it.

While the print of the one didn’t keep my attention once I switched to audio the story came alive for me. There’s a full cast narration and they’re all really excellent so I definitely recommend listening over reading in this case. It became an immersive experience and I was transported to the seventies where Opal was a Black woman trying to battle against racism in the music industry and in her whole life every minute of every day. Relevant and timely, this one was powerful.

With enough confidence to pull off any look and an incredible singing voice, Opal believes she is star material. When Nev Charles-- a newly established rock singer-- discovers Opal at an amatuer bar performace, he knows he needs her to join him in making rock music. A cast of unforgettable characters spill the story of Opal and Nev's rise and fall in the 1970s and their inevitable reunion all these years later that unearths so many secrets.

I love books about artists making music. Daisy Jones and The Six was my reigning favorite in this particular type of story but, after reading The Final Revival of Opal and Nev, Daisy Jones has been dethroned!

Told through multiple perspectives from all the people who had front row seats to the rise and fall of Opal and Nev made for such a riveting story. This isn't always a story format that works. Sometimes when I read books written in this format I feel disconnected from the characters and the story like I'm being held at arms length, but from the beginning I was captivated and felt instant character chemistry. This is one of those stories that covered so much ground with so many surprising developments. I felt like I experienced every emotion while reading this book.

The intersection of fashion, music, fame and racial tensions in the 70s made for clash of compulsive readibility and a wellspring of emotional storytelling. You have to pick this up if you haven't already!

Thank you to Simon and Schuster and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I was really looking forward to reading this book. I’m a big fan of music in general and the protagonists are only a few years older than I am, so I could really relate to the era and its music. I just couldn’t get into the format of this book: oral history, i.e., interview after interview, interspersed with notes from the supposed editor. I gave up partway through because I was just not engaged with the story or its characters. It felt like reading a non-fiction book and just didn’t hold my interest. Many people have been comparing The Final Revival of Opal & Nev to Daisy Jones & The Six, but I haven’t read that one so I can’t comment. However, I did recently read another book about a musical duo featuring one black person and one white person that I enjoyed much more: The Songbook of Benny Lament by Amy Harmon. That book also featured an interview but that interview was interspersed between narrative chapters and enhanced the story rather than BEING the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to read an advance readers copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Update: because so many people love this book, I reserved a copy of the audiobook from my library, thinking that the audio format might work better for me. It did - the numerous narrators were wonderful and brought the story to life. However, I still felt like I was listening to a documentary or a podcast of some sort. It never really felt like a novel to me. Because of the audio, I will up my rating from 2 to 3 stars, but that's all.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster & NetGalley for the Reader's Copy!

Now available!

You know a book is incredible if you have to repeatedly Google the protagonist to make sure she's not, in fact, a real person. Engrossing and immersive, Dawnie Walton's The Final Revival of Opal and Nev is a wild journey through the world of rock and roll in the 1970s. Told from shifting viewpoints, the book does a great job of trying to pin down what it means to be a Black punk singer, a Black woman with aspirations, in racially tense America. The documentary style can be hard to adjust to at first but reminds me a lot of Dear White People, especially towards the end of the novel. One of my main critiques is that at times it seems to be overcrowded and the editor/protagonists voice gets drowned out in the ever shifting cast of characters. Overall, though, grab your popcorn & sit down for this juicy story!

I immediately thought of Daisy Jones when I opened this book knowing nothing about it (my favorite way to start a book). But for me, it fell short. The story questions just weren't compelling enough to drive the whole book. I was disappointed.

I was more fascinated by the book's writing style than I was with the story. I have never seen anything structured to where I'm reading a magazine feature as an entire book. It was like reading a transcript of BET's Unsung. I think that was clever, and it grabbed my attention. The writing was so believable that even I thought the musical acts were real. Google did me no justice. Walton did a phenomenal job bringing us readers into the mind of a fictional journalist.

Although interesting, the pacing of the book had its slow spots. It started getting good once the huge revelation was revealed, but I guess that comes with any juicy celeb gossip. We don't care until there's a scandal. Walton wrote an incredible story about the love of music, greed, injustice, and unfairness. It filled my little journalistic heart.

Although much of the story in this book is set in the 1970's, it could just as easily be written about our current world, our current struggles with race and social justice. Opal is a young black woman who has hopes of becoming a rock star. When Nev Charles, a white British singer, hears her sing in a New York City nightclub, he invites her to team up with him for an album, and concerts. They form an interracial rock group, and are becoming successful, when at one concert where the band performs there is on the same stage another band, displaying a confederate flag. I couldn't help applauding and admiring Opal's strong visual response to that flag there, but there were unforeseen tragic consequences.
This story covers several decades of Opal's tumultuous life, and much of it is told through the eyes of a young journalist, S. Sunny Shelton, who became another favorite character for me. As it turns out, Sunny is not quite the objective observer, having her own personal part in this story.
This book reads like it is reporting on a true story, and I look forward to seeing what this author might offer us next.
My thanks to Netgalley, the author, and publisher 37 Ink for the copy of this book I was given.

It’s the early 1970s when Nev, a British singer-songwriter, “discovers” Opal, a young Black woman, at an open mic night at a bar in Detroit. Nev invites her to be his partner in a rock duo group for the small Rivington Records production company. After a so-so debut album release, they agree to participate in a small showcase of all Rivington Records’ talent, despite some reservations about the other acts. When a chain of reactions leads to a tragic finale to the event, Opal and Nev’s responses, emotionally and politically and musically, catapult them onto a nation-wide stage. Years later, music journalist S. Sunny Shelton grabs an opportunity to interview both Opal and Nev (and their associates from those years at Rivington, as well as others involved in the violent showcase event and their following years, specifically, Opal’s friend and stylist Virgil Lafluer), as press for an upcoming reunion show. Her personal connection to Opal and the duo’s music causes emotions to flair and some ugly and difficult truths to emerge leading up to the final time Opal and Nev take the stage together.

Well, I was right and wrong. This is both like and very unlike Daisy Jones. I stand by the fact that, if you loved that book, you’ll also love this one, but I also have to boldly say that this one is just that much better. It takes the things I loved about Daisy Jones – style and topic – and adds some freaking phenomenal and hard-hitting socio-political context. Before I talk more about that, I just have to reiterate right here that I think the oral history style of story-telling is one of the most versatile and engrossing and I get lost in it so quickly and easily and wonderfully. Also, in this case, I actually really enjoyed the addition of the writer’s POV. Since Sunny, as the journalist compiling all this oral history, has such a personal connection and insight into the story herself, getting that additional perspective added in was unique and a very compelling POV through which to examine Opal and Nev’s story. Plus, I was really into the way real life activists and musicians and famous names (Questlove, Quentin Tarantino, Gloria Steinem and lots more) are dropped/quoted about Opal and her character and in response to the Showcase and any/everything else covered in the novel. It was so fun!

Alright and now, the socio-political context aspects. I loved what Walton did presenting the way that art and music are a way of both promoting and questioning a status quo. She leans hard into the way it can be used to start or give momentum to a movement or highlight areas where social justice is needed/people are being failed by their county and fellow people. But at the same time, she is able to communicate how it can also fail us, how it can bring people together in a surface-level way that actually ends up doing nothing to address inequalities outside the shared interest in listening to or creating it. And there is, similarly, an intense look at the way the music industry takes advantage of music as art that could make change and bends it into something that’s only goal is profit and fame. These explorations and demonstrations are all represented and intertwined wonderfully, within a context that also looks more individually at the musicians for whom this is both a higher calling but who also must make concessions they’d rather not because the music is also their actual livelihood. The way many of the characters, but especially Opal, must compromise within that framework, and the way those decisions impact their lives, relationships, public persona, and internal satisfaction/mental health is gripping to read. Similarly, the moral dilemma struggle for Opal, that of taking advantage of Black pain to succeed being offset by the spread/audience her activist ideologies could be spread to is difficult, but fully portrayed in its complexity. And the way that Nev deals with this, or, really, doesn’t have to, is just as clear and difficult message about the reality in this country when it comes to race. So basically, here, I just want to repeat the incredible nuance with which Walton handles the examination in the confluence of racial tension and divide throughout (more recent) US history, the power dynamics within the US as a nation and within the music industry as a sub-cosmos, and the way music/art play such a major role in public opinion and true change in this inequality related to the worth of Black lives, both historically and today.

I was completely absorbed into this story and story-telling. Walton created an iconic character with Opal, and then took that larger-than-life persona and gave readers a look at the real person behind the façade in a way that felt so genuine. She also tackles thorny conversations about race and fame, and chronicles the way music turns into a performance, a movement, a something even greater and with a life of its own, in a way that both interrogates and entertains. Just really a spectacular and mesmerizing novel!

I love the oral history format for fiction books and this was no exception. Fascinating and memorable characters, great storytelling, and a thoughtful look at the role of race in the music industry in particular and the USA in general.

Thank you for a chance to review this book.

If you are a fan of oral history or novels like Daisy Jones and the Six, then this intriguing novel is for you!

Very well written, and compelling for the times. This novel does a great job of tying in interesting characters and the nuances of societal issues that we still experience today.

While this novel was not for me, I respect the story and the work the author put into telling it. I am glad I picked this up and would recommend to friends, but I am not usually drawn to books about music and will simply keep that in mind moving forward!

This book was riveting! I enjoyed Walton's writing style, and the circus of secondary characters were so fascinating.

I haven't felt this much from a book in a good while. I always love books following the 70s music scene and this one was no different, in that regard, but it was different in just about every other way. It felt nostalgic and modern at the same time, yet it didn't shy away from any of the gritty details of a black woman in the public eye, surrounded by white people who may not have always had her best interests in mind. This was not a romanticization of the past through rose colored glasses, but rather a clear window in what life was like in a 1970s America, sexism, racism, confederate flag waving and all. Opal isn't necessarily a likable character, however she's unapologetically herself and so even when I was angry with her, I still had an admiration for her that I was never able to shake. This book is brutal and graphic and blunt and beautiful. Dawnie Walton has created an absolute masterpiece of a book, and one I'll be thinking about for a long time to come.

TW: Racism, racial slurs, hate crime, death, terminal illness, addiction, sexism

Dawnie Walton made an excellent job writing this, sometimes I was reading and I totally forgot I was reading fiction.
This book was incredible and gave me a lot of Daisy Jones and the six vibes! If you like music and historical fiction I would recommend it
Thank you for this free copy in change for my honest opinion.

This book has gotten so much buzz already this year and then premise sounded so promising, but I have to admit, it wasn’t really my jam. I read the first 20% on my kindle over a month ago and got bored and put it down, and I just finished it on audio. I did like the audio format better — the full cast of narrators was excellent — but it still never really sucked me in. It was fine, but forgettable and really didn’t live up to the hype for me, unfortunately.

The Final Revival of Opal and Nev hooked me from the beginning. It's written in an oral history/interview format. While this format took me slightly longer to read then listen too. I enjoyed getting to know each of the characters dynamics. I can't believe this is a debut.

Thank you netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read this digital arc. All opinions are my own.

What an amazing debut novel!
Opal is an African-American musician dissatisfied with her life in Detroit, who is discovered by Nev, a British rock musician. Together, they want to light up the world., Walton wove a story that made you feel as if you were actually sitting in the audience attending the concerts. The story continues to pick up steam when another band brings a Confederate flag to a joint concert. It's obvious that trouble is brewing.
What's fascinating is the timeliness of this dilemma. What transpires from the symbolism of that flag brings enormous questions, just not for the characters but for society itself. There is a major question as to where to place the blame when a devastating event occurs at their concert. It wouldn't be fair to disclose the "if" or ":maybe" of what might or could have occurred but it is quite thought-provoking for the reader to decide.
The author's knowledge of the music is evident. The style of writing was unique and inspiring. I can't wait for Walton's next book. Until then, this one will remain with you for a long time.

3.5 stars for this one. I didn't love it. I was expecting it to be like TJR's Daisy Jones and the Six. To an extent it was, but I think the pacing was off. It moved too slowly at parts, and then towards the end it seemed to get very political out of nowhere. I enjoyed the format. It definitely lent itself to this story, because we did get the perspectives of all the main players and some players that were just ancillary, but the shift to a focus on being a commentary on racism and sexism towards the end seemed abrupt. I was just left wanting more.