The Final Revival of Opal and Nev by Dawnie Walton - 4 stars

[MelanieJoy]

This was a compelling story. Basically the story is a book with a book that our MC - S Sunny Shelton, also SaraLena, is writing, centered around two musicians in a band that her father was also in. At an event where the band was to play, her dad died in the scuffle. The book she is writing is about Opal's life leading up to the band, Nev's life and start in music, what happened in the band leading up to the event, and then what happened after - all ending at a reunion show of Opal & Nev.

I read this for a reading challenge so I was trying to finish it quickly. It's a literary fiction book where the style slows me down, but has really provocative language, imagery, etc.
I felt like the book had heavier content than I usually read and it was hard for me to buy into the style- it took me a while to understand that the editor's notes were the MC Sunny writing her own book, like a book within a book. I felt like a lot of her feelings and ramblings wouldn't be put into a normal book but that it was added for us the audience to understand the flow of the story, find the climax, etc.

It's a little hard to explain but I would definitely say it's worth a read. It touches on racism in music specifically.