The Final Revival of Opal and Nev Review

Title: The Final Revival of Opal and Nev
Author: Dawnie Walton
Style: Historical Fiction, Music
Rating: 3/5

Opal is a black woman trying to make it as a star. She is discovered by singer Neville Charles at an amateur night.  Opal and Nev sign with Rivington records. The label signs a rival band that likes to walk around wearing confederate flags. When the band arrives with a confederate flag at a promotional event, Opal decides to stage a protest that sets off a chain of events that will change her and Nev's life forever. Decades later, Opal wants to do a reunion with Nev and S Sunny Shelton decides to create an oral history of the band she grew up loving. As she interviews she finds that there are secrets that could change everything.

If you were a fan of Daisy Jones then this is a story for you. The format is the same, an interview format where the persons words are typed out. There were things I really loved about this book. It touched on some pretty tough themes like sexism and racism in the 1970's.  While reading I felt like the characters were authentic and found myself wondering if Opal and Nev were real people. At the same time, I found parts to be slow.  I struggled to be pulled into the story in the beginning, was sucked in in the middle, then I struggled at the end.  While I found the interview format to be unique I feel like this hindered the story the author was trying to tell. My favorite parts of the story were when the author wasn't using the interview format. I wish we could have seen more of Opal in that format because Opal's character was pretty badass.