A perfect read for fans of Daisy Jones & the Six!

I loved the structure of The Final Revival of Opal & Nev, the interview style was interesting and I liked the first person narrative and editor's notes that were intersected throughout the story. I found this style of writing brought the characters to life and I enjoyed reading all the footnotes which gave deeper understanding to the characters and their world. The first half of the novel builds up the characters but I found the second half more interesting as everything started to crash down. Issues of race, money and fame are intertwined throughout showing that issues in the 1970s are just as relevant in the 2020s.

I'm looking forward to seeing what Dawnie Walton writes next! Thank you to NetGalley and Quercus for an ARC in exchange for a review.

Like everyone says this book holds strong comparisons to daisy Jones and the six. Same Era, based on a band, written in interview format and strong female characters.

I feel like for me this is where the similarities end. Like the basic ingredients are the same but the recipe is different which makes the whole meal a totally different experience.

I found The revival of Opal and Nev to be a lot more raw. When thinking of the two books and if they were ever made into movies I feel like Daisy jones would be a big budget, big Hollywood kind of movie and Opal and Nev to be more indie and artistic.

I enjoyed the diversity in this book and the tough topics that are being dealt with by the characters which are all current problems in the world as we speak and have been for a long time.

I liked the twist, I didn't expect it. I didn't think that person would be capable of that. The messiness of all the relationships in this book was to me realistic and I guess even more so to be expected of that time and scene.

My favourite charcter was Virgil. He just added that something extra to the book for me. Least favourite was Chet ... as to be expected.

All up I really enjoyed the book and the story and messages it told.

I wish I had the audiobook for this. I just feel it would work better in that format.
The writing just didn't work for me. The pacing was too slow that it felt like it took forever to get through. Even if it only took 3 days.
The huge author notes throughout kept disconnecting me from the story. The structure as a whole just didn't work. The amount of POVs and so many different interviews quotes. It all felt too much. I would have preferred just a couple of POVs.
I gave this 3 stars because when I look past those issues the story itself was great. Touching on important topics especially ones that were around in the 70s. But also still around today. I loved that it did show present days issues as well.

The story is about a fictional 70’s afro-punk duo, Opal & Nev.  Opal is an American black woman and Nev is a white British man.  A very unlikely duo but they became an icon of movement against racial injustice in 70’s before breaking up.  Opal now in her 60’s approaches a journalist and asks her to write a book about the duo prior to the reunion... 

The book takes an interview structure and it’s about a band, so I have seen people comparing this to Daisy Jones & Six.  But actually these are very different books with different themes, so I feel like I shouldn’t compare them.  

I thought I was going to get a fun story about a retro band, but this book turned out to be very political.  It surprised me because I wasn’t expecting it, but in thr end I enjoyed this book.  Characters are fascinating and unique,  and the story is compelling and interesting.  And the themese it deals with are very relevant to what’s going on today.

There is obviously a lot of talk about music and relationship between band members, but this book brings in much more...  Race, gender, politics and even fashion are big themes in this book.   So if you are interested in those themes, you might enjoy this book, but I wouldn’t read this expecting it to be like Daisy Jones!

The only complaint about this book is the overuse of the editor’s notes.  I found the heavy use of it a bit distuptive.  But otherwise I think this is a good debut novel. 

Thank you to @netgallery and @QuercusBooks for kindly giving me a chance to read this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved Daisy Jones and the Six, and felt this hit in all the same places. Going from the 1970 through to modern times, this is a beautifully written nostalgic novel which also focuses on hate crime.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I read this book as a lot of previous reviews that I had seen compared the book to Daisy Jones and the Six, a book I haven’t read.
The book is written in a style I haven’t read before, in a magazine/journalist style with various characters being interviewed throughout. I did enjoy this and it made the book interesting and quite fast paced.
I loved the character Opal, and she was certainly central to the book. The way she is portrayed and developed gave me a real clear image of her and the time era she lived in. I also loved the relationship between her and Virgil, perhaps enjoying these scenes more so than those with Nev.
I really enjoyed the first half of the book and was eager to find out what happened to Jimmy on that fateful night. But for me, once the story reaches that climax and secrets were revealed the story lost its drive.
However, I did still enjoy it and am grateful for recovering this eARC from NetGalley.

This book was disappointing. The structure of an interview based rock-biography has been done before, most notably / recently in Daisy Jones and the Six. In this case it is done in a sloppy way. There are interviews, convenient articles, editors comments. In the last part of the book it just sort of slides into a first person narrative. It could work, if this was presented as unedited notes, but we are told that this is the published book.
The plot itself is inconsistent. Opal is portrayed as not having a lot of spare money ever, but she pays for private school for someone that she has no responsibility for. Like much of the book it doesn't add up. Like the big reveal, about half way through, that made no sense to me. There are convenient things that happen to hammer home the points, that felt heavy handed to me.
mainly, it is written in a very repetitious way, that goes over and over the same events, without any character development at all. Sunny in particular does not feel like a boss. She doesn't really feel like anything at all. Most of the rest of the underdeveloped characters are deeply unlikable.
There are some good scenes, and the premise had potential. I would like to see what Dawnie Walton writes next, but for me this book was a drag.

I received a free e-arc from Net-Galley in exchange for an honest review.

First things first, this is a brilliant book and I absolutely loved it. This review will, however, be a short one as I don’t want to give anything away - Dawnie Walton leaves a lot of hints throughout that indicate the direction of the story, and I want you to be able to enjoy that experience as much as I did.

At first glance, this is a story about rock band Opal & Nev: Opal, a Black woman living during the trials of the late 20th Century, and Nev, a white Englishman living in the United States. What Walton is truly showing us, however, is the interplay of race and politics using these two characters. What starts off as a memoir of a dynamic pairing turns rapidly into commentary on how easily Nev was able to become a white saviour type figurewhilst Opal had to salvage a reputation that should not have been destroyed in the first placeThe oral history format was perfect for this kind of narrative; where Opal described everything from the Freedom Riders travelling throughout 1961, to the Detroit Riot in 1967, to the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in 1963, to the fictionalised events of her own life, the audience was able to see her thoughts and feelings in real-time. Walton cleverly immerses her readers in Black history and the civil rights movement, pulling together the tragedies of the mid/late 20th Century and the continued racism and police brutality that we’re seeing in the present day. She talks about how Black spaces may be uncomfortable for white people and lets us decide why that is, she shows us how well-meaning actions can be microaggressions (and how not to deal with that), she shows how it’s not enough to associate yourself with Black people if you’re continuing to be part of the problem and that white saviours are just as bad as (if not worse than) outright racists. To me, THE FINAL REVIVAL OF OPAL & NEV was the perfect way for Walton to insert her own voice into the conversation, and to show the realities of life as a Black woman (and man) in the 1960s/1970s and a Black woman in the here and now. This was a wonderfully written book, and I will definitely be keeping my eye out for more of Walton’s work in the future.

3.5/5

Okay. My thoughts on this book are still trying to settle, but I can confidently say the expectations I had going into this book were totally wrong and that's not necessarily a bad thing. 'The Final Revival of Opal and Nev' is going to forever be compared to 'Daisy Jones and the Six' - the oral history format, the music setting, the time period, the central conflict between a mediocre man and an incredible woman etc. But if you're going into this hoping for DJATS part 2 - you are going to be disappointed.

There's plenty to enjoy in this book. Walton's infusion of the Afro-punk music scene of the late 1970s and early 80s with discussions on Opal's existence as a black woman in music are truly fascinating, weaving fact with fiction. There's a real visual quality to the way she writes and I'm hopeful that someone will pick it up for television.

But, I struggled with this book for the first half. There are a hell of a lot of characters and they talk for a long time. The interviews aren't 'interviews' as such, they felt more like standard prose, but with all dialogue, no action. Walton takes their time getting to the core of the artists, spending a long time talking about their childhood, their journeys. There's no meteoric rise to fame for Opal or Nev, this book purely covers the little time they spent together - and so there doesn't feel as though there's as much movement and change in the plot. Hence why I felt the writing struggled - it wasn't moving quickly enough to retain my interest.

HOWEVER. The second half of the book, effectively the 'comedown' from the major event that happens, is far more intriguing. The narrator plays more of a part and more things happen as we learn about what happened to these characters following the collapse of their partnership - as well as their eventual revival together.

Ultimately, I didn't love this book as much as I thought I was going to - and that's on me, because my expectations were in a different place. However, I would recommend it to people - particularly those who didn't like Daisy Jones. I think you'll get a lot more from this.

Plenty of people are comparing this book to "Daisy Jones & The Six" (a book I loved) but I think that this format reminds me of "Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk" that I find a seminal book in telling a story using different voices and interviews.
That said I loved this book, engrossing and fascinating, and the well developed characters.
The different POVs make this sorry sound "realistic" and I loved how they described the characters, their story and the background.
An excellent story that I strongly recommend.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

New York, 1970.

Opal - bald, black, mesmerising singer

Nev - ginger, English, looking for what's missing.

This collaboration shouldn't work. But it does.

And the consequences have a long reach

Wow! This book is phenomenal and I savoured ever word as I was reading as I didn’t want to miss any detail!

The book opens with an Editor’s Note from S. Sunny Shelton, the music journalist who has been given the chance to curate a book about her idols Opal Jewel and Nev Charles. Immediately this gives an intriguing opening as Sunny explains how her father, Jimmy Curtis, fell in love with Opal in the summer of 1970 and how for the duration of their affair he was married to Sunny’s mother, who in 1971 got pregnant with Sunny. But before the world got to learn any more about her father beyond these facts, he was brutally beaten to death by a racist gang during a riot at Rivington Showcase in November 1971, a night that changed Opal and Nev’s trajectory and that nobody would ever forget.

Sunny’s book provides the portal for us to learn everything about these two icons, from how they met, to their debut album Polychrome released in November 1970, the events leading up to that fateful night in 1971 and the months and years that followed. Opal was a fierce and independent young woman, pushing against the norm in terms of style and attitude; a black punk artist before her time. When aspiring British singer and songwriter Nev Charles discovered her one night, Opal, believing she was destined to be a star, took him up on his offer and so began their flamboyant and unique musical journey together. I liked too how Sunny explained in her opening note, that when interviewing Opal for the book, she announced she was considering performing with Nev in a headline slot at the 2016 Derringdo Festival, the first time she would be performing live in over 25 years. I liked having this piece of information in the back of my mind as I was reading and wondering if this reunion would go ahead or not!

I loved the interview style format of this story and for me it really brought all of the characters to life. From Opal and Nev themselves, to Pearl, Opal’s sister, Bob Hize, the producer for Opal and Nev and former partner of Rivington Records (the label Opal and Nev were on), Howie Kelly, the founder of Rivington Records, Virgil LaFleur, Opal’s best friend and long term stylist, and many other people along the way. I also liked the insight Sunny’s editor’s notes gave which were interspersed throughout.

I have absolutely loved getting to learn about Opal and Nev and truly did forget as I was reading that this was a work of fiction. I felt like I was reading about real life musical icons from the 1970’s. It was really interesting to see their different journeys into the world of music and then everything they experienced in this world both together and apart. I wish I could Google ‘that photo’ from the night of the Rivington Showcase in November 1971, a night which changed both of their lives forever. I really liked that section of the book and how there were so many ‘what if’ moments. I liked being able to reflect on how there were so many opportunities for just one different decision to have been made by any number of people on that day or even leading up to it, and how different things may have been. Even now, as Sunny has learned through her interviews, there is still a question mark about just what caused things to escalate in the way they did.

I would love to be able to listen to Opal and Nev’s albums, especially their debut Polychome, to hear their unique style. I loved the little details like all of the song titles on the album having colours in them and how even on one track the sound of a mic stand being knocked over by Opal remained in the recording! I can really visualise their album covers too! It would also be cool to be able to hear their solo albums to hear the contrast in their styles.

I honestly cannot stop thinking about how incredible this book is and definitely didn’t want it to end! I will be recommending The Final Revival of Opal & Nev to everyone!

This is a beautiful story, and in my opinion, the story itself definitely earns five stars. It’s an impressive debut and incredibly powerful. I loved the unexpected duo: Opal, the Black girl, and Nev, the green-eyed, ginger-haired singer/songwriter. The story gives an insight into racism in the seventies, and I sometimes asked myself how much progress we’ve made in the fifty years since then.

I had one problem while reading, though ...

I just didn’t like the format and the structure of the book (interviews instead of a flowing story), and that’s definitely on me. Instead of indulging the story, I kept sighing—too many POVs and next to the interviews, all those footnotes. I hate myself for sighing because mentally, I know the story is beautiful and that I should love it. But sadly, I didn’t. I think I would have liked it more if it had been an audiobook with different voices to emphasize all those different POVs.

So, instead of an excellent five-star rating, I stick to three stars. If you like this kind of writing, please check out the four and five-star reviews! This book might turn out to be a real gem for you!

A foreword by the author, two pages in and she drops Living Colour and Fishbone. I already like Dawnie Walton!

The Final Revival of Opal and Nev is the fictional account of Opal Jewel, a strong minded young woman who in the very early 70s was Afro-Punk before it existed and Nev Charles, a British singer songwriter who moves to New York in search of fame and fortune.

Told as a work of research for a book on the duo by our narrator Sunny Shelton, the editor of Aural magazine, it’s an unusual format, consisting of lots of interviews and inserted editors notes, but it works for the most part.

Opal and Nev had some success in the early 70s. Nev felt that he needed a partner to join him on his album, someone not anything like him. He’s not sure what he wants but knows he will know when he finds it.
Opal is singing with her sister in a small bar in Detroit, the weaker singer of the two but she has amazing stage presence and attitude. Nev knows right then she is the one. She moves to New York to record with Nev and they have moderate success with the album.
Their record company aren’t happy with its performance and to try and promote the label as a whole they arrange a showcase of all their major artists at a theatre in New York.

The night proves infamous for both Opal and Nev as it ends in a riot, some blaming Opal for provoking it. Their drummer ends up being beaten to death. He also happened to be our narrators father and lover of Opal while his wife was pregnant with Sunny.

I really enjoy this. I have a keen interest in music and this really does read as a work of non fiction.
There’s a huge amount of social commentary here as well as drama and the writing for the most part is beautiful.

This book is more about Opal than Nev in a way. Both are fantastically written. Both not without their faults and sometimes their decisions leave you infuriated but you empathise with both, especially Opal in my case. We get a lot more detail about her, from her early childhood onwards.

A combination of escapism and social commentary that leaves a lot to chew on, this one won’t be for everyone I think, but I really really liked this.

Thanks to Netgalley and Quercus Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Unsurprisingly The Final Revival of Opal & Nev is being compared to Daisy Jones and the comparison is quite fitting. I would add that some of the dynamics are reminiscent of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. I just find this oral/interview format hard to get into. It puts distance between the reader and the characters. I am sure this book will be well received and I would definitely recommend it to fans of The Final Revival of Opal & Nev.

I haven't read anything with a narrative presented in this way before, a story told through interviews and first-person notes from the 'author' (everyone is comparing this to Daisy Jones & The Six which is still sitting in my TBR pile). Because of this, it took me a few chapters to relax into the narrative, I had to keep reminding myself that this was fiction and not a biography. The characters were so realistic, their dialogue exactly what you'd expect to read in interviews; from the false candour and pretend humility of celebrity to the ignorant bravado and self-satisfaction of the entitled. It was easy to believe these were real people with unique voices being interviewed.

At first, I struggled to understand what the actual story was here. Sure, the protagonist had a personal connection to Opal, but the Opal and Nev reunion show didn't seem very exciting or relevant. But this book builds the suspense so subtly I could barely tell it was building until suddenly I found myself in the middle of a story I wasn't expecting and I had to know how it was going to end.

It would be a discredit to Walton's talent to give anything away, her ability to weave fictional characters through actual history, creating a compelling story at the same time, is remarkable. I will say that I was not expecting these innocent interviews, the protagonist's attempt to learn more about the father she never knew, to become a poignant portrayal of race relations in the music industry and day-to-day life, both in the 1970s and present day.

The Final Revival of Opal and New tells the story of an afro-punk duo in the seventies told in an interview format, we cover how they came to be, how they rose to fame, how they fell apart and how they may reunite. Opal a bold, strong willed, young black woman and Nev an awkward English man make an unlikely powerful duo. The story has more of a focus on Opal and Sunny, the journalist writing the story on them, and I am glad it did. Having a narrative where there is a white man and a black woman, and the primary focus is on the black woman is refreshing.

I picked up this story originally as it sounded similar to Daisy Jones and the Six. And it is in terms of it being a fictional music act and told in an interview formant. However, this book tackles much more due to the overt and subtle forms of racism depicted and how they are addressed. Knowing that these scenarios could and do play out in real life makes your blood boil. The conversations surrounding racism in the music industry and just in general is where this novel surpasses Daisy Jones and the Six. So, I would recommend anyone that enjoyed that to give this one a go.

You know from the beginning why Sunny is the one gathering information from these interviews and you know what terrible event is going to happen, but still when that fateful night that changes things happens it still manages to have a massive impact and from there other things seem to come to light. The characters felt real and you rooted for some and I didn’t like others. The only character that didn’t feel as real to me was Sunny, I didn’t feel like her thoughts and dialogue worked as well as it could of. Another thing I didn’t love was that I found sometimes some bits dragged on a bit, compared to other parts of the novel.

This book is raw, important and honest and I liked that Opal was always authentically herself and always stood up for that and what she believed in. This is an amazing novel for it being a debut and I will definitely be looking forward to whatever Dawnie Walton writes next.

Thanks to NetGalley and Quercus Books for sending me an e-arc to review.

Well this certainly did not disappoint! Dawnie Walton doesn’t shy away from tough topics. It is provocative and thought-provoking with a strong black female lead at its heart. I loved Opel, strong, independent, ahead of her time and fabulously flamboyant! I loved reading her story. As heartbreaking it is, it showed how different and tough our world can be for women and even more so for women of colour.
Opel and Nev were a Rock and Roll band in the 1970’s. The story unfolds through the interviews of the two and those who were part of their story. One night changed everything for Opel and Nev. Something so devastating they were never able to recover from.
In 2016 when there is talk of a reunion between Opel And Nev, music journalist S. Sunny Shelton takes the opportunity to put together an oral history of the band. Sunny adds her own Editor’s notes throughout and we learn at the start how she is directly connected to that fateful night in 1971.
Walton’s writing is beautiful, she tells this story so well. The characters come to life on the page and you really get a sense of who they are. Worts an all! A must read!
Thank you to NetGalley and Quercus Books for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This is an oral history account about Opal Jewel and Nev Charles, an Afro-punk rock n’roll duo who find fame and notoriety in the 1970’s after a tragic incident at a concert in 1973. The band splits but a reunion concert is planned in 2026 which is when S. Sunny Shelton a music editor at Aural Magazine takes the chance to record interviews with the duo and those connected to them. Sunny is personally invested in their story.

Ok, sounds like Daisy Jones and the Six? In some ways of course, it is as the format is the same but this goes much deeper than sex, drugs and music into race, racial and sexual inequality and prejudice, into Black Lives Matter and Me Too, thus making it a very relevant story. The characters are well portrayed especially Opal who comes across strongly. She’s fierce, independent, brave, has a strong sense of justice and survival. She can be wild and reckless and likes to shock which for me makes her easy to like! Nev is not so easy to see, though his creativity is not in question, however, he’s crucial to the storytelling as without him there’d be no story. The contrast between them is fascinating, she’s jet black to his milk white, she’s a visual peacock and he’s the peahen! The other character I really like is Virgil LaFleur who helps feed Opal’s flamboyance. As the book progresses it becomes less Nev and Opal and more Opal and Sunny although there’s an intriguing plot turn which Nev is central to and getting to that truth proves tricky. The author creates a really good 70’s vibe, scenes are well described so you can visualise them and I like the inclusion of actual events which gives context to the storytelling. The music scene is vividly portrayed especially the whims of Rivington Records, their recording label. It captures the excitement of breaking success with their first album. The most evocative parts of the book centre on the Rivington Showcase concert where it all kicks off with a tragic clash of race and views. This is tense, very scary and well written.

Although I really enjoy most of the book it does take a while to get going, being on occasions over detailed. Sometimes the interviews get to a ‘juicy’ revelation and then disconnects, leaving you hanging which is annoying. I can almost hear the Eastenders theme tune at these points!! It prevaricates too and I just want to get to the point, please!! The final third the tone changes and is slower in my opinion with some pacing issues. I question too whether the format means it’s an account rather than something you can connect to emotionally??

However, despite the above, this is unquestionably a powerful and really good debut novel and kudos to the author who is definitely one to watch. It covers relevant and current issues making it thought provoking and well worth reading.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Quercus for the most appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

This is a book about two people written using interviews and magazines. The book was interesting I can’t wait to read it again in audio so that I can get the full effect of everyone’s different snippets.