Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - The Final Revival of Opal & Nev

Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton

37 reviews

lochanreads's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

The final revival of Opal & Nev is a fictitious biographical novel about the riotous rise to fame of an oddly compelling interracial Afropunk duo. The story imagines the 70s era music industry as it was but with the coupling of Opal & Nev as part of the canon. The narrative has an interesting interview style structure, encompassing several different testimonies from the artists, producers, industry experts, journalists, such as the main narrator and family members. I thought its style and musicality was conceptualised well and it has a loud activist voice, personified through its boldy daring and confident heroine.

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alomie's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
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 was such a fabulous book, like a avant-garde punk version of Daisy Jones and the Six, with so much more to say.

Steeped in conversations about race and gender, the winners and losers and who should be getting the spotlight, and how so many times the system fails women and people of colour.

Nev is still a highly successful, white "rock star" but with all the ego and none of the sparkle, a talented musician sure, but a man who is willing to step on anyone to get the fame, and who allegedly started a riot, that ends up killing a man.

Opal is by far the stand out of the pair, vibrant, powerful and with a richly layered past, brings a fire to the music and performance Nev can only wish, but as is the way, Opal is the one who is sidelined and not taken seriously, and ridiculed.

I really enjoyed this book, and I understand why this was on the women's prize shortlist.

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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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breeinreadingland's review against another edition

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informative reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

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sarah984's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense medium-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

5.0

This was such a good read for me. The themes are handled really deftly and the characters and situations feel true to life. The characters and their moment in time are integrated into the real historical context in a way that feels organic. I'd wondered how interesting the book would be to read when it's leading up to an event you already know will happen but it really works.

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cgp1234's review against another edition

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medium-paced

4.0

This has rightfully been compared to Daisy Jones and the Six, which is why I couldn't give this one 5 stars. I liked that Dawnie Newton tackled the Misogynoir rampant in the 70's (and unfortunately still prevelant today), but the story is told in such a lacksidaisical way, despite the plot itself being intruiging/exciting. I wanted a greater sense of urgency while reading this, but overall I thought the potential was greater than the execution.

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lanacrow's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
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

I really enjoyed this book!!! I think the characters were all really well fleshed out and all seemed so real, they all had flaws and would act in ways that made you think “well of course they’d think that!”. The places, studios, venues, etc. I thought were all described well enough that I felt I could picture them quite well which is rare for me!

I hate Nev!!! As soon as everything came out about him (which I didn’t expect!) I automatically believed it and just didn’t like him at all and it was sad that Opal couldn’t believe it until she saw it with her own eyes but how could he just keep playing like that!!! Anyway!

I think this book was really interesting and felt real and I just enjoyed it :) I liked Bob Hize as well, he seemed like one of the only genuinely nice ones.

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