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A review by thestoryprofessor
The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton
3.0
The novel’s journalistic and meta-novel framing is initially very interesting and creative, but it eventually creates some substantially problematic structural issues; it felt as though there were two novels combined here: the story leading up to the riots that made Opal and Nev famous, and the story leading up to the revival. There are two climaxes folded into this book which can make a reader feel as though the second is unsatisfying. This also burdens the pacing of the story because it forces the tension of the story to restart halfway through the novel.
The real big sin here is how the peripheral characters are characterized: every single one is a stereotype that doesn’t travel much farther than that. Opal is a brilliant character, and she rescued this novel from two stars single-handedly. She’s a truly beautiful rendering, and I wish the novel had chosen a more intimate framing to stay closer to her. The rest of the characters struggle to find footing beyond their stereotypes: an ambitious journalist with dad issues, a gay French stylist, a selfishly ambitious rock star, an overtly (and offensive) religious sister, and other such stereotypes you’ve seen in other stories. These characters are flat, one dimensional, and populate the fringes of what could have been a great character study. Additionally, the narrator (the journalist) is unremarkable and has a forced arc when she is fired.
However, despite these gripes, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. Opal is a one of a kind character that I immediately fell in love with. Every thing she does is well thought out and interesting. The ending, which many people didn’t like for some reason, felt very much realistic and surprising at the same time (I’m referring to the revival, the racism, and that kiss; way to define a single action with the entire history of two characters, brilliant!).
While I might point to other stories that did better either with a similar framing (The Blind Assassin) or depiction of systemic racism in the entertainment industry (Ms Rainey’s Black Bottom), this novel gave us Opal, and she’s worth reading the novel all by herself.
The real big sin here is how the peripheral characters are characterized: every single one is a stereotype that doesn’t travel much farther than that. Opal is a brilliant character, and she rescued this novel from two stars single-handedly. She’s a truly beautiful rendering, and I wish the novel had chosen a more intimate framing to stay closer to her. The rest of the characters struggle to find footing beyond their stereotypes: an ambitious journalist with dad issues, a gay French stylist, a selfishly ambitious rock star, an overtly (and offensive) religious sister, and other such stereotypes you’ve seen in other stories. These characters are flat, one dimensional, and populate the fringes of what could have been a great character study. Additionally, the narrator (the journalist) is unremarkable and has a forced arc when she is fired.
However, despite these gripes, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. Opal is a one of a kind character that I immediately fell in love with. Every thing she does is well thought out and interesting. The ending, which many people didn’t like for some reason, felt very much realistic and surprising at the same time (I’m referring to the revival, the racism, and that kiss; way to define a single action with the entire history of two characters, brilliant!).
While I might point to other stories that did better either with a similar framing (The Blind Assassin) or depiction of systemic racism in the entertainment industry (Ms Rainey’s Black Bottom), this novel gave us Opal, and she’s worth reading the novel all by herself.