The Final Revival of Opal & Nev is a juicy book. Its style is propulsive and readable and the drama at the core of its story made the novel an engrossing read. While I found some of the storytelling clunky it was a fun and unique read.

The Final Revival of Opal & Nev is a sweeping oral history centring on the fictional afro-punk, rock ’n’ roll duo Opal & Nev. The novel recounts the flash-in-the-pan success of an infamous pair best know for the tragedy that kick-started their career. Between chapters recounting the nitty-gritty origins of Opal Jewel and Nev Charles, we follow the journalist piecing the story together, S. Sunny Shelton. We see Sunny’s ups and downs as she uncovers the decades-long mystery of the death of her father and exactly what role Opal and Nev played in it.

As someone who loves a good celebrity documentary what initially drew me into Opal & Nev was the way this fictional oral history blended salacious scandal and nostalgic history. Dawnie Walton crafted a meticulous, vivid image of a fictionalized past. 1970s rock ’n’ roll and the tapestry of interconnected history that made Opal & Nev’s story was amazingly realized. Her writing perfectly captured a nostalgia for the time period that made the story feel all the more authentic.

One of the most clever things about this novel is the way Walton used a constant rotation of points-of-view to capture the scope of the story. We heard a cacophony of voices chime in on every aspect of Opal & Nev’s story. Everyone from siblings to producers and receptionists got a voice. This variety made for a detailed portrait of the most infamous moments in Opal & Nev’s history. The constant contradiction between players added layers to the characters and the story.

This book seems built for discussion. Its salacious drama and occasional shocking twists are a breeding ground for conversation. Even further, Walton’s stunning portrayal of complicated, messy characters would be fun to unpack with a group. What ties those elements together are the overarching themes of the story. This book explores the ways black artists in the music industry are disregarded and devalued. Walton depicts the ways white mediocrity is elevated at the expense of exceptional black artists. Her exploration of how even the people who call themselves allies turn a blind eye to injustice for profit was particularly incisive. It's the heart of the book and excellently woven into every aspect of the story.

However, despite my praise, The Final Revival of Opal & Nev didn’t fully work for me. This book attempted to balanced two connected but separate narratives and lost me because of it. This book is primarily an oral history, but a major thread of the novel follows our protagonist, Sunny, uncovering the truth about her father’s murder. By the novel’s midpoint, the story overwhelmingly centres on Sunny’s personal journey rather than Opal & Nev. Unfortunately, I cared significantly less about Sunny as a character a didn’t appreciate how the story shifted gears.

I also found the depiction of contemporary social politics within the novel clunky and jarring. While I appreciate what Walton was saying about our modern attitudes towards black women in the music industry the ways she conveyed that did not work. We’re subjected to multiple scenes wherein Walton attempts to convey the conflicting attitudes towards racial awareness in the industry. These scenes read like Twitter hot takes and the characters represented these viewpoints are caricatures. This was especially jarring because of how well-crafted the characters in the oral history portions of the book were.

In the end, The Final Revival of Opal & Nev was an impressive novel. I loved diving into the fictional history of a rock duo whose music I’ll, unfortunately, never get to hear and I was completely engrossed from start to finish.