A review by mvvelde
The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton

Did not finish book.
The premise of this book interested me before I picked it up--the setting of Detroit, music, the 1970s...Everything about it indicated I'd be interested. There is a lot that Walton does well in The Final Revival of Opal & Nev. I enjoyed how the history of the 1970s was woven in, and the way in which the journalistic form of writing made the book read almost like non-fiction. The latter made me double check a few times that Nev & Opal are fictional. The characters were intriguing, and the book highlights a important facets of the Black American experience of the time.

However, it fell flat for me. Perhaps I could not get invested in the story, or perhaps it was that I thought there would be more focus on the history of the time within the story (the latter of which I would have especially enjoyed). Perhaps it could also be my general disinterest in the showbiz industry. I can't really place it on only one thing but I felt bored reading it, and after getting through part one I was not interested enough to continue reading. It is for these negative points & my reading experience that I rate it a 2.5/5 stars.

All that being said, if you do enjoy pop culture, reading about a band in the style of an interview, and also learning about the racial history of the time, I highly recommend reading The Final Revival of Opal & Nev.

Thank you to Net Galley and Simon & Schuster for the eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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