The Final Revival of Opal & Nev has a similar format to Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid but the stories themselves are vastly different. The book chronicles the early lives of Opal and Nev and then how they each got into music which eventually leads to them combining forces to make an album. However, this story is centered in the hostile 70’s where racial tensions at a concert come to a head when Opal refuses to back down from another artists use of the confederate flag. This confrontation leads to violence that no one was anticipating and has deadly consequences. Opal and Nev never worked together again after that but forty years later they are about to embark on a reunion tour and a reporter and editor in chief of a music magazine, Sunny, is trying to get the full oral history of everything that happened for both personal and professional reasons. But what Sunny manages to uncover might just shift the truth of what they all thought happened on that fateful day.

I listened to the audiobook of this and it was a wonderful full cast production. I instantly felt a connection to Opal and I loved getting to know her. Actually, the reason I enjoyed this book and loved Daisy Jones and The Six is that they are both stories that come to life and feel so realistic that it’s hard to remember that they are fiction. Walton did a fabulous job of firmly entrenching the reader into every scene and nailed the atmosphere and the tension.

There is a lot of different ideas and themes to this story but what came across universally is the way Opal, as a black woman, was treated in relation to Nev, a white man. This book was at times inspiring and other times heartbreaking and infuriating. It was also clever of Walton to show us Opal and Nev in both timelines. We were able to easily see what the consequences were for both Nev and Opal from that night so long ago. And it was maddening.

The downside to this brilliant book is that it felt like some ideas weren’t fully realized. Upon finishing this book I was a little let down because I wanted more. I could have easily read another fifty to a hundred pages of this book to see different parts of the story unwrapped more. However, this is one of the best debut novels that I have ever read and I can’t wait to see what Walton comes out with next.

The Final Revival of Opal & Nev is more than just a story of musicians. This oral-history style work is a mouthpiece to the world we live in.
I felt immersed in the band’s world. I felt that the characters were fully flushed out, with real motivations, growing points, and shining qualities.
This story was suspenseful, but impactful.
This was a hit.

I'd like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me a chance at reading this book.

I've been reading a lot of these books lately that features narratives by fictional band members about their time in fictional band. In this case, Opal & Nev was one that I would have loved to see live and experience. The story focuses on their short lived days as a duo and their fall, separation, and current lives. The author of the book takes the narrative as a woman whose father played drummer for them and she is trying to get insight on her father while trying to get a story for their upcoming reunion.

There is a lot of good things about the book. The fact that the book has a female character who is powerful, brilliant, flawed, and black. The book starts off brilliantly with her narrative inter-cut by those who knew her (also adding to the interview for the book that the author is to write). For the period of the 60's, being black, skinny, and with alopecia makes her a target. She sings alongside her gifted sister at nightclubs since they have voices. It as at one of these clubs that Nev, a boy from London, spots her and wants her to sing his words. Opal then realizes she has worth, moves to NY with Nev, finds a stylist and transforms herself into a powerful feminist queen.

As with the time period, Opal & Nev must star alongside some other bands with not so great messages and visuals. One of which uses a Confederate flag since they're from the south. During a very important night - which ends up going down in history for the wrong reasons - the author's father is killed during a fight that is started from Opal taking the flag and tearing it apart on stage. A fight breaks out and the author's father is killed while trying to protect her.

So begins the divide of the two - that Opal wants to fight for injustice and Nev wants to stay mute. Which ends up bringing up more dirt and leads the story in another interesting direction.

Unfortunately, this is when the story starts to loose me and hurts the book as well. All the really juicy stuff and the crux of the story falls apart after the band splits and we're following a narrative of mostly the author while she discovers that Nev may not be so innocent in the cause of the fight. The book then ramps up with a falling out with both Opal and Nev from the view of the author and all the way to the reunion on the stage.

There is something I like to reference a lot in books that I call 'Bilbo hitting his head on a rock'. That kind of happened here. We're taken through a really fast narrative and a messy one where the main character watches the concert, the outcome and has a moment with Opal and ... the end. I felt that was a bit of a cheat because I wanted Opal to do more, say more, be more than what happened to her. Was it because she was 60 at the time and just tired? Or was it because the author had gotten tired with the story and ended it there.

That's why I give it three stars. I felt that Nev and Opal's story wasn't finished and as to what happened at the reunion concert, what we got on paper did not feel like a good conclusion to the story.

A Good Morning America Buzz pick ,#The Final Revival of Opal & Nev is by # Dawnie Walton. This being her debut all I can say is .... WOW!! Her character Opal is independent and believes she can be a star.....
Thank you for the advance copy,
#Netgalley, # Dawnie Walton, and # Simon & Schuster 💜🐾🐾

What a timely book!

To paraphrase Opal Jewel, the more things change the more they stay the same.

Dawnie Walton did such a beautiful job telling the story of rock punk group from the ‘70s. The story comes together by a journalist for a music magazine interviewing the members of the group, management, support team, and family members. She is planning to write a book about the history of the group. What we soon find out, she is the daughter of the drummer for the group and he was having an affair with Opal, the lead singer, prior to his murder.

It was unique and captivating.

This book was so much fun, I love a book that details life as a rockstar and this one did not disappoint. Give me all the books that have interview style writing, because I definitely feel more immersed in a life of a celebrity that has some special way of drawing me in.

I listened to this one on audio and it seriously had me doing a double take at first. It felt like it was an actual real life group and one of those VH1 behind the music interviews. (Did I just age myself? Oh well.) ⁣
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It has a full cast of narrators which I always love and that made it an engaging audio despite being a little slower in the middle. ⁣
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Overall, a good book to listen to and one that I can finally check off my list. Just know it centers around a lot of heavier topics in regards to racism.

As wonderful as you have heard it is, by turns moving and thrilling. Very glad I had the opportunity to review this one and am now thinking that the audio version will be well worth listening to as well. Hope the author has more wonderful stories to share with us soon.

This one was very hyped up. I was really looking forward to it. I did have a very hard time following it because of the dual narratives and timelines going on. I even tried listening to it on audio, but that did not help. I felt lost often and just had an overall difficult time following the course of events in this one.

Thank you NetGalley for an Arc of this book. It did not affect my rating.

I absolutely LOVED this book! First, yes, I read Daisy Jones & The Six and this book is in the same format as far as oral history goes. Also, sex, drugs, and rock n roll! Isn't this what we all know about Rock n roll....

I read Daisy and adored it. I gave it 4 solid stars, I enjoyed this novel just as much....maybe even more! I am not a 70s baby by any means, but this novel was written in the style that weaves the real with the fiction, so I recognized names dropped from the 70s into the story, which made you think Opal & Nev actually happened. Opal is so strong willed and smart, that she earns the respect and dignity of many around her. Nev is a Ginger haired Brit.

This book touches on social issues relevant then and even now., which makes it more than just a book about sex and drugs in the rock n roll scene. I think this is why I am ranking it higher than Daisy. It just hit me more.

I highly recommend this book and purchased myself a copy to keep in my collection I enjoyed it so much,

I lived so vividly in this book, I’m genuinely upset it isn’t real.⁣
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This book isn’t just another stereotypical story about the rockstar life, filled with sex and drugs and booze. This book has *substance*, it has a story to tell. Being able to follow Opal was mesmerizing. A characters that legit jumps out of the page and demands to be seen. Again, so upset that I don’t have actual pictures or interviews or songs to refer to!

Really enjoyed this one! Made me feel like rolling the windows down with music at full blast. A lot of fun.

MOVE OVER, Daisy Jones. Opal & Nev deserve *way* more spotlight than they received.

Opal & Nev, an interracial music duo blend their talents in the 70’s. The rock music is fresh, the costumes are avante garde, the live shows are flashy and filled to the brim with electric energy and raucous.

In this interview-style format every character was so very fleshed out, even the ones that made my blood boil. The racist country boys who shared their label. The misogynistic record company owner who couldn’t take any input from a female seriously.

Enter Rivington Records showcase. A show where all the acts from the label share a single stage. Rock and roll history is made when white supremacy rears its ugly head and the life of a black drummer is lost.

Opal is a goddess of sound, and my favorite parts of the book were her smoke-drenched retellings of her time on and off stage.

I understand the compulsion to compare this to Daisy Jones & the Six but it’s so much more than an oral history of a one-time musical act. What a phenomenal book about race, trauma, friendship, strength & perseverance.

Definitely an adventure of a book. It took me a bit to get into the book, but once I was invested, I couldn’t put it down.

I wanted to LOVE The Final Revival of Opal & Nev. The characters were so rich and the story is well-told. And yet, it wasn't a must-read. The action goes slowly and the story meanders a bit. I think this is a book that suffered from being published so closely to Daisy Jones and the Six. There is a great story in there!

For some reason I just couldn’t connect with this book. I even tried listening to it on audio with the full cast, but that didn’t work for me either; which makes me sad because I really wanted to love it.

I think that Dwaine Walton has a stellar writing career in front of her and will definitely try something else by her.

I enjoyed this book. Going in, I thought it would be similar to Daisy Jones and the Six (which it is, in some ways), but it is a very different story. Opal was a strong, courageous character, and I admired her tenacity. I would recommend this book to others.

The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton is a 2021 37 Ink publication.

Opal and Nev were a dynamic, groundbreaking rock duo during the 70s. But when their recording label signs a group that miraculously makes it onto the music charts, the couple gets caught up in the studio’s attempt to book all their artists in the big Rivington musical festival.

Things go awry when the featured group takes the stage waving a confederate flag, prompting Opal to act. When a melee breaks out it leads to the death of Jimmy Curtis, the band’s drummer, and the duo’s promising career…

Nev goes on to success in Britain, while Opal takes a less commercial, excursion into Afropunk music, having taken the brunt of the fallout of the Rivington festival.

Now, there are rumors that Opal and Nev may be planning a reunion. As the first black editor of Aural magazine, Sunny Shelton is set to do a cover story about the duo. But her interest in this story is very, very personal, because Sunny just happens to be Jimmy Curtis’ daughter, and she’s about to interview, Opal- the woman who was having an affair with her father while her mother was pregnant with her…

Well, wow! Just wow!! This book is so realistic that I Googled 'Opal & Nev' to see if they were a real musical duo – or if this story was based on a true story. I had to keep reminding myself the book was fictional!

Nev is certainly a central part of the story, but he’s overshadowed, rightfully so, in my opinion, by Opal.

Opal is quite the character- and is absolutely THE star of this show, hands down. She’s outlandish, bold, bald, outspoken and takes no prisoners.

The story is written exactly as a journalist would approach it- in the format of an oral history. There are many interviews piecing together the events that led to that fateful show and the fallout that followed. But, as the story progresses, it tightens up to a point of supreme, edge of your seat suspense. I was riveted!

The story eventually narrows the spotlight to Sunny and Opal. The author adeptly creates a parallel between them, and their individual struggles, both personally and professionally. Sunny draws strength and inspiration from Opal that she had not anticipated, as the two women come to a special understanding.

Overall, I was drawn to this book by the lure of sex, drugs, and rock and roll, set in the 1970s, but the story goes far deeper than a surface rock saga. (Some are making comparisons to other books that feature 70s fictional bands- also employing an oral history format, but, while I may have enjoyed those books, this story blows them straight out of the water!!! NO comparisons, in my opinion- to be rudely blunt) It is so effective, I really, really wanted Opal & Nev to be real people, and still can't shake the feeling that they aren't.

The story explores many angles of women and race, juxtaposing the past with the present with a dynamic style. The story is deep, gripping, gritty and dazzling. I couldn’t put it down!! It may be early days yet- but I can assure you, this book will be on my list of favorites in 2022.

Highly recommend!!

I like this style of writing a lot and hope that we see other books use this format in the future. I thought that the personal connection that Sunny has to Opal and Nev's story is definitely what makes this book stand out. The ability for this personal aspect of the story to weave together with what the duo meant to the period and how their fallout happened was definitely captivating. I did find myself getting a bit lost at times and because of the format of the book there is not as much of a deep dive into each character's perspective as maybe would have been helpful.