Reviews with content warning for Hate crime - The Final Revival of Opal & Nev

Reviews tagging 'Hate crime'

The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton

71 reviews

mandireads's review against another edition

emotional

3.0

I liked this alright! I liked the interview style it was told in — and I loved that the audiobook had a full cast. It really brought the characters to life. I liked that it spanned decades and we got to see Opal & Nev from the beginning all the way through to the end. I really enjoyed the social, cultural, and political commentaries that weaves throughout the book. It made it all feel very real. I had to regularly remind myself this was a fiction novel!

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bealittlebrave's review

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challenging emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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jashanac's review

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3.75

I quite enjoyed this -- more than I initially suspected, simply because historical fiction about a made-up rock band just doesn't strike my fancy, as a concept.

The audiobook is fantastic -- definitely recommend reading it that way if possible!

I thought the story was interesting and had a lot of nuanced conversations surrounding race and gender, throughout several decades in American history. The characters were compelling, and even the side characters were compelling and I thought really added a lot of depth to the overall story.

Ultimately though, I'm NOT really "into" rock music like that, so those elements of the story didn't captivate me as much as they probably captivate other readers. And I honestly found a lot of Sunny's portion of the story to be a bit unnecessary, as it stood. I guess I wish we had actually gotten more in-depth with her perspective and her own story. I know that wasn't exactly the point here, but it made it so that any time we stepped out of the Opal and Nev history and into Sunny's current life, I didn't care all that much.

I also did think that the ending was a bit rushed, but not enough to "ruin" the ending for me.

Overall I felt like this was immersive (it's true what everyone says -- you forget that these are NOT real people and events...!) and covered some really good conversations and themes, but ultimately it isn't a book I ever see myself re-reading, simply because while I enjoyed my time with it, I didn't LOVE my time with it, probably because I'm just not that "into" rock music and band stories in general!

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horizonous's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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spookyaz's review

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

this book was written in such a convincing/interwoven way that I had to stop myself at several points and be like "no, opal & nev was not an actual musical duo"

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evaverm's review

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challenging dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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kimveach's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book was amazing! I loved it. Please listen to it. I'm sure it's good in print, but the full-cast audio makes this a performance. The book is in a similar documentary style as Daisy Jones & The Six, but it's also different in so many ways. I loved this one a little more.

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