Walton's "The Final Revival of Opal & Nev" takes the tact of telling the story through a series of rock journalist interviews with a former musical duo who had a brief claim to fame as a duo and their promoters, managers, and family members. Opal & Nev were an Afro-Punk seventies duo combining the work of Nev, a British singer-songwriter from Birmingham, England, with a skinny bald militant African-American woman out of Detroit. What Walton does do well here is makes fiction seem like journalism. It's so real that perhaps at some point you'll find yourself checking Wikipedia to see if this duo ever existed with Nev going on to solo success and Opal fading into cult obscurity until the big reunion concert decades later. The journalistic interviews curiously are done by the daughter of a fictional drummer of the outfit who Opal had a loud proud affair with, Jimmy, and who we later find died tragically in a riot. This gives the interviews a personal vested interest.

The techniques used here worked best at through the first third of the book, particularly as we are introduced to the childhoods of the main characters and, once again, they feel so real, so authentic, that it doesn't feel like fiction. You hear how innocent and vulnerable Opal is when she comes to New York to make her debut.

The climax of the book is a concert that became a sort of Altamont II with its own band of Hell's Angels type bikers causing untold havoc and death. The author manages to shoehorn in a controversy about the confederate flag as the cause of the riot, showing to an extent how one side (Opal) found it completely offensive for what the Confederacy stood for and the other saw it a symbol of rebelliousness like the General Lee car in Dukes of Hazard without regard for its deeper history. Of course, neither side can hear each other.

Although the final third of the book drags a bit, particularly when compared to the beginning of the book, that is often do with real life stories as the most exciting parts are often about the rise to stardom.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. A wonderful set in the 1970s music scene. Raw, gritty and honest. What amazes me is how far we have come, but so little has changed. Highly recommend.

4.5 Stars

Shared from multiple perspectives, this story centers around a young Black woman named Opal Jewel and the people in her life over time. A Once-Upon-A-Time story of a young, talented, daring Black woman with a promising future in the 1970’s who joins British Neville Charles and his band, their meteoric rise to fame, a fame that ended almost as quickly as it began. One of those groups that rises meteorically, but dissolves unexpectedly, virtually overnight. A catastrophic episode at a concert ends in the death of their drummer, Jimmy Curtis, at the hands of a group of racists that attended to see the band that was set to close the night in 1971. The controversy that follows that night makes them untouchable and they go their separate ways.

Years later, magazine editor S. Sunny Curtis, daughter of drummer Jimmy Curtis, hears a rumour about the possibility that Nev and Sunny plan to get together to perform for a 2017 reunion concert.

Shared from the perspectives of Opal, and her half-sister born two years after Opal, Pearl, as well as Sunny, their stories eventually merge into one story with a uniquely epic ending. Opal’s father, an older man, died before she was old enough to have any memories of him, and Pearl’s father was killed during the war in Korea. Near the beginning of this story, Opal shares their story of their love of singing in the church choir, a love that obviously led to more, their Pastor referring to Opal as a ’tiny wisp of a thing, real chocolate-skinned and swaying side to side… Little Miss Showboat. That was Opal. That is Opal.’

Sunny is working on writing a book about her father’s story, and the story of Opal and Nev’s partnership, the band, and the ultimate unfolding of the horrifying event that took her father’s life, adding another perspective.

There is much more to this story than the concert, and this does have some elements that on the surface are similar to Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Daisy Jones and the Six, but while there is that shared element of sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll at play, as well as it being shared from varying perspectives, The Final Revival of Opal & Nev tackles the more sinister topic of racism, so while they shared certain themes, this isn’t quite as lightly entertaining, although it is thoroughly engaging - if horrifyingly relevant. This story will undoubtedly stay with me longer.


Pub Date: 30 Mar 2021

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Simon & Schuster
#TheFinalRevivalofOpalNev #NetGalley

A promising debut. Complex plot. Engaging, vivid characters. Compelling prose. Important themes.

This book captured my attention from page one. I did not think I was going to enjoy, it but I found the lives of the characters and how their stories intersected to be very interesting! I really liked reading about the main character/author as well and was glad to see that she was able to fill in the blanks on a lot of things from her past regarding how she grew up. My favorite person in the book was Opal. Her childhood was very interesting in my opinion. I was able to read this book quicker than I imagined because it held my interest from the beginning to the end.

Wow, this was a great book released at an important time in the world where we are battling same issues the main characters in this book. Final Revival of Opal and Nev takes place over a wide span of years from 1960's to current day. For me this distance brings into focus how much the issues from the past are still prevalent today. Almost as if a magnifying glass was put over the issues and bringing them into focus for us to see more clearly.

Dawnie Walton evokes true emotions with her narrative of Sunny and Opal’s relationships. In an interesting turn, not exactly a twist, but Sunny's desire for information about her father almost transfers that parental approval to Opal. I loved how this relationship evolves and transforms throughout the book.

Music in central in this as title implies – this is a story of a white boy and black woman joining to form a unique, to the time, punk rock duo.Descriptions of the music, beats and bits of lyrics had me wishing I could listen to the songs.
The story introduces an extremely talented black drummer who was brutally beaten for the most part for simply being black and at the wrong place at wrong time. This leads to highlight the connection between the riot in 1970 at one of their concerts to Sunny's character, who was chosen to write about this punk duo from 60’s in the 2000’s. Would there still be an audience for their unique sound? Will they be fully accepted on talent alone and not have race play a part?

I admire how openly honest and vulnerable the writing of this book must have been especially in current racial atmosphere. This is a good book that sadly shows how much work is yet to be done with regards to racial equality. Read it and then take the time to be present in your life. Look around, stand up for what's right, call out what's wrong. Help make the world a more peaceful unified place for all.

I was given an advanced copy to read from netgalley,in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed above are mine alone and have not been influenced by anything or anyone. Thank-you to Simon & Schuster for allowing me to read this advances copy uncorrected proof.

I loved Daisy Jones and the Six - it’s oral history format just really worked for me. So, I was anxious to see what Walton would do with it. Well let me tell you, she moves it up a notch. This is so much more than the story of a musical duo. It’s the story of our times.
The writing is something special. “That’s what the South was like for me. Sweet on the first taste, but something gone sour underneath. It’ll try to trick you, now - the sugar berries and the quiet and those lovely spread out houses. But after that day with Auntie Rose, I could smell the rotten, too.”
Walton totally nails the time and the place. She intersperses just enough of what was happening in the real world to anchor the story. But beyond that, I felt like I was in the recording studio, the initial concert and at the reunion.
Opal and Nev are both fully fleshed out, with all the strengths and faults. I loved watching how their different decisions led to how their careers and lives played out. And let me just say, I wasn’t expecting this to be suspenseful, but boy, was it. As the story progresses, I couldn’t wait to see how it would play out. The story rings true. By taking us through the years, we see how little progress we’ve made. Put this one on your radar. I’m convinced it’ll be one of the hits of 2021.
My thanks to netgalley and Simon & Schuster for an advance copy of this book.

This book resonated with me on so many levels.

In 1969, I moved from a large city to a small Canadian town near the US border. For the first time in my life, I was exposed to US news and a world much larger than me. I watched a country torn apart by race riots and protests against Vietnam, things that made no sense to me as a young girl. As I moved towards my teens, I started listening to rock music partly as an expression of that horror I felt for what was going on around me. I kept wondering how I'd missed listening to Opal & Nev as Opal so perfectly expressed what I was feeling back then--that rage against oppression, the lack of a voice (for me as a girl, for her as not only a woman, but a black woman in a hostile country), that feeling that you have less to offer because of training or upbringing (and suppressing your voice as a result).

This was a book as much about SerahLena and her quest to figure out what happened to her father, how Opal fit into that story and her own growth into her voice and power. Her story is just as important as Opal's story, just as moving, resonates just as much for me.

This book is moved me deeply as I watch again as a country is torn apart by the same things we witnessed or lived through in the 70s. Opal and SarahLena scream (or whisper, or sing) that black lives matter, that women's voices matter. Will we listen this time?

3.5 stars. The Final Revival of Opal and Nev tells the story of a fictional 1970s rock pair — Nev, who is white and British, and Opal, who is Black and American — who began their rise to fame after the racial killing of their drummer. Although often compared to Daisy Jones & The Six (which I thoroughly enjoyed), this novel is much more serious and darker. True, it has the backdrop of rock music and its story is told predominantly through “oral history” (basically a series of interviews), the comparison with Daisy Jones & The Six ends there. What this novel really focuses on is hard issues such as innate prejudice, sexism and race relations.

While I found the novel fascinating in many respects, some of the side stories seemed superfluous and some characters were just too odd for me. I also found it to be just a bit drawn out and too long. Overall, however, I did find this to be an enjoyable read and was especially impressed that this is a debut novel.

I really enjoyed this book but I felt like the only thing that made this book kind of like Daisy Jones was the fact that it was about a band. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed this and it covered a lot of important topics. It was a lot heavier than I was anticipating. I still enjoyed it though.

It’s hard to imagine a book more designed to succeed in 2021 than this one. Reminiscent of both ‘The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo’ and ‘Daisy Jones & The Six’ by way of Black Lives Matter, Walton’s debut is almost too cleverly packaged to be about rock and roll: it has the market-minded strategising of pop music. And, in the early moments, I was finding things as derivative and predictable as that particular musical genre can so often be.

But, fortunately, things do start to pick up as Walton adds her own riffs to the oral history formula laid down by Taylor Jenkins Reid, ultimately offering a more nuanced investigation of music stardom and the inescapable presence of white privilege and racism.

‘The Final Revival of Opal & Nev’ tells the story of an unlikely rock and roll duo: a flame-haired British songwriter and a fiercely independent young black woman and how their careers and lives became enmeshed and defined by the race relations of both the 1970s and again thirty years later in 2016. Our ‘editor’ for this story is the first Black woman to run the ‘Aural’ music magazine, S.Sunny Shelton, whose interest in the duo is much deeper than just cultural appreciation: her father was a studio drummer who died in tragic circumstances following an affair with Opal Jewell. As Shelton’s professional mission to document Opal & Nev’s career becomes entangled with her personal desire to learn more about her father, who died before she was born, she begins to discover dark secrets and buried truths that threaten to implode all of their lives.

Though it take a little while to get going, and though I had to cringe through some of the early moments recounting Nev’s childhood in England, once unlikely duo ‘Opal & Nev’ are established and heading for their relative, short-lived fame, the book slowly reveals its true intentions and becomes something all the more intriguing and impactful and, well, fun.

Unlike in ‘Daisy Jones’, the musical and lyrical genius of its talented, troubled stars is not the headline act here. In fact, the fictionalised musical output of ‘Opal & Nev’ is largely background noise; Walton instead frames her musical memoir around systemic racism, performative allyship and the importance of legacy.

The book centres around two significant moments: one, the ill-fated 1972 gig that descended into a tragic riot, and the duo’s long-awaited reunion performance at a major festival. In the chapters detailing these defining events, Walton’s writing really shines, full of a tension that thrums and builds to two magnificent crescendos, both of which have a lot to say about race in America.

Like all good concerts, I really wanted an encore at the end, one that more definitively concluded proceedings, but nevertheless this was an immersive read that I have no doubt is going to be topping the charts upon its release. With vivid characterisation- particularly of the badass Opal- and timely resonance, this book heralds Dawnie Walton as a rising literary star.

Thanks to NetGalley & Simon & Schuster for this ARC read.

So good. What else to write? This book, organized via short snippets from a rotating cast of character tells a story that starts in the late 1960s and buttresses up to present time. It’s the fictional account of Afro-part in before it was coined as such, and begs the question of ownership, and art? Who gets to own a genre and how does commercial success limit and expand our artistic abilities? Again, so good.

This book takes novels like Daisy Jones & the Six and Utopia Avenue to the next level by adding race, civil rights, and a present-day storyline to the mix. I loved these preceding novels, but the racial and civil rights elements in this book add a historical realness missing from them. The present-day storyline that forms the basis for the creation of the "oral history" is also interesting and a nice addition. The reunion show impetus for this storyline reminded me of the movie Pain and Glory, which also uses flashbacks. The ending of this book was slightly unsatisfying, but overall this was a great read that I think will get a lot of attention once its released.

This novel is AMAZING! And it's a debut? Outstanding!! From the opening "Editor's Notes," this book grabbed my attention and did not let go. Opal is a character unlike any other. Sunny, "the editor" and the other supporting characters are just as fully fleshed and sparkle on the page. Not just a novel about the history of a rock duo, but also the history of race relations in America, and what it means to be a black woman from the 1960s through the present. This takes the concept of "Daisy Jones and the Six" to an entirely new level.

"Opal is a fiercely independent young woman pushing against the grain in her style and attitude, Afro-punk before that term existed. Coming of age in Detroit, she can’t imagine settling for a 9-to-5 job—despite her unusual looks, Opal believes she can be a star. So when the aspiring British singer/songwriter Neville Charles discovers her at a bar’s amateur night, she takes him up on his offer to make rock music together for the fledgling Rivington Records.

In early seventies New York City, just as she’s finding her niche as part of a flamboyant and funky creative scene, a rival band signed to her label brandishes a Confederate flag at a promotional concert. Opal’s bold protest and the violence that ensues set off a chain of events that will not only change the lives of those she loves, but also be a deadly reminder that repercussions are always harsher for women, especially black women, who dare to speak their truth.

Decades later, as Opal considers a 2016 reunion with Nev, music journalist S. Sunny Shelton seizes the chance to curate an oral history about her idols. Sunny thought she knew most of the stories leading up to the cult duo’s most politicized chapter. But as her interviews dig deeper, a nasty new allegation from an unexpected source threatens to blow up everything."

Thanks to NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I absolutely loved this book. As we follow the characters through the years, from the beginning of their partnership right up until its end, we get to live and breathe their deepest desires. Nev and Opal, a character so vividly portrayed I still see her when I close my eyes, are flawed and yet so achingly relatable. Dawnie Walton’s style of writing too is so addictive - each entry takes us further into a story ripped from the past, so realistic it made me feel as though I was privy to some secret correspondence, I cannot recommend this book enough!

Thank you #Netgalley and 37 Ink for allowing me to read this ARC. The book started slowly, and for the first part I was not overly engaged. I think the idea was to introduce all of the characters as well as some backstory, but in the long run, most of the characters didn't really matter, so it felt like a waste. I loved Opal, she was such a great character she overshadowed all of the other characters in the book. while Nev kind of faded into the background. When Part Two started though, the book started to pick up momentum and I could not put it down. As someone who was in high school in the 70s I remember when everyday racism was accepted because no one talked about it., at least in my town and this book reminded me of it.
I admit, I had problems keeping track of the time periods, but that could be because I am used to dual timelines that are clearly marked. Now that i have finished to book, I kind of want to go back and read the book again, now that I wil be able to keep the characters straight!

This book is 🔥🔥🔥⁣
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I started and abandoned two books this weekend and when I saw THE FINAL REVIVAL OF OPAL & NEV on NetGalley (and it was a Read Now pick), it seemed like a slump-breaker. And it was! ⁣
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This book will inevitably draw comparisons to DAISY JONES & THE SIX as it has a similar frame: an oral history of band that hasn’t been together in decades. I really liked how one reviewer put it...if you liked DAISY JONES but wish it had something to say, TFRON is that book. It delves into racism, addiction, sexism, all while drawing vivid character portraits and settings. The voices are so specific that even in the oral history format, I never lost track of who was talking. ⁣
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Definitely pick this up when it debuts next month! ⁣
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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book tries to be a more literary version of Daisy Jones and the Six, with a focus on social justice and the African American experience in music, but I feel that it fails to live up to any of those goals. I thought the plot was uneven, as I was intrigued at points and completely bored at other points. This is also not really my type of book, but I kept hearing a lot of hype for it, so I thought I would try it out. This book is going to appeal to a lot of readers, but I was not one of them (and that's okay).

Slow start but ultimately hard to put down. The story is engaging, and I like the structure of seeing the narrative evolve through the voices of different characters embedded within the larger structure of notes for an oral history the narrator is researching. It takes staggering writing skill to make a structure like that work as compelling reading! As other reviewers said, by the ending I was wishing Opal & Nev – or at least their records – were real.

Thanks to #NetGalley for advance copy.

(Posted to Goodreads)

This was an enjoyable read and a pretty good readalike for Daisy Jones and The Six, especially if you've added "stories on fictional bands" to your wheelhouse after reading said book. The opening sucks you right in and takes you for a wild ride.
My only complaint is that it feels a bit dragged out so it could have been cut shorter in my opinion.
Still a thumbs up from me. Would recommend.