This is Kelsey Patterson with the Sioux City Public Library and you’re listening to Check It Out.
Today, I’m recommending The Crow Valley Karaoke Championships by award-winning Canadian author Ali Bryan.
A year after forest fires ravaged the town of Crow Valley and claimed the life of Dale Jepson—karaoke legend, local prison guard, and all-around good guy—the community hosts a high-stakes karaoke competition. But when a convicted murderer escapes from nearby Crow Valley Correctional, residents discover there’s more on the line than local, perhaps even national, karaoke fame.
In this darkly comedic, fast-paced ride through an unforgettable small town, five residents with intimate connections to Dale and drastically different goals for the night will collide into, conspire with, and aid one another as they scramble to make it successfully through the evening under the scrutinizing watch of neighbors.
To the soundtrack of classics belted out with abandon, voices will crack, cars will be stolen, marriages will falter, and kids will slip away in search of trouble. And maybe, just maybe, lives will be transformed for the better.
Told from alternating points of view and over the course of a 24-hour span, this offbeat and big-hearted novel is not to be missed. Author Amy Jones summed up my feelings on this book’s author absolutely perfectlywhen she said, “Ali Bryan is a comedic genius—the kind of writer who makes you laugh until your guts hurt, and then turns around and sucker punches you with a truth so powerful it breaks your heart.”
It is a perfect read for fans of Fredrik Backman and J. Ryan Stradal. And once you start reading this book, don’t be surprised if you suddenly find yourself debating brushing up on your singing skills or contemplating a move to the fictional Crow Valley to hang out with its motley crew of charming, messy, quirky, and relatable characters.
Check out The Crow Valley Karaoke Championships at the Sioux City Public Library.
Support for Check It Out on Siouxland Public Media comes from Verde Outdoor Media.
