this was an okay read for me. not one of my favorites, but interesting enough.
i was never dying to get back into it, but once i did decide to open it, i enjoyed myself.

Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt for providing an advance copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

I selected this book because I love karaoke. There was definitely karaoke here, and I related to the descriptions of the singers and their song choices. Other than that, I didn't really relate to any of the main characters. I felt sorry for them and their losses and challenges, but I didn't understand their choices and actions. Why did one character always where a head lamp? Why did the female prison guard...well, don't want to give any spoilers. I felt like I kept waiting for something significant to happen--there was action, but it didn't make an impact, because I wasn't connected to the characters. I had trouble keeping track of who was married to whom and who had been widowed, and I just didn't really like any of them. I didn't want to race to town and join the contest or sit down and have a beer with any of the characters.

I read this book about a year after I received it--unfortunately, it just wasn't for me.

A feel good, funny, and warm novel that made me laugh, pulled my heart strings, and made me forget about the real world for a little bit.

From the title of the book to the cast of characters; The Crow Valley Karaoke Championships is a brilliant novel filled with quirk, charm, an endearing cast, and a fantastic story.

This book definitely requires some suspension of disbelief but it was so entertaining. I could not put it down.

This was a great book about different points of view at a karaoke championship. This is full of so many emotions and the different lives of everyone.

Thanks to Henry Holt and Netgalley for this advanced copy!

This novel was definitely not what I thought it would be, which was a quirky little story about a karaoke championship in a small Canadian town and maybe how it helps them heal from a tragic loss. Instead this novel took us all over town, focusing on a prison break and how everyone handled that and their grief. I honestly couldn't even really follow the karaoke! I really loved how Bryan developed the characters both as themselves but also in their grief for the loss of Dale, a beloved community member. The short chapters kept the plot moving, although it also felt a little jostling at times. In the end I really enjoyed this and would read other books by the author.

Told in the voice of five unique narrators, this story is more about the people that the Crow Valley Karaoke Championship. You get thrown in the middle of the story, and it can take a bit to sort of who everyone is and what's happening, but once that's done, it's a fun romp of a story! If you love karaoke and the fun, slightly wacky personalities of people who participate, then this is for you! Thank you got Net Galley for a free-ebook in exchange for this review.

The Crow Valley Karaoke Championships is an enjoyable and thoughtful character driven novel. Told from multiple points of view, we are introduced to the townspeople of Crow Valley, still struggling to recover from a devastating forest fire and the death of Dale Jepson, their beloved karaoke champion and all-around good guy.

The story is told over one evening, when everyone comes together for the town’s annual karaoke competition. This year, the event is held in memory of Dale. It’s also a high stakes qualifier for the National Championships. Emotions run high. Dale’s wife Roxanne struggles with her grief. Competitors Brett and Molly place all their hopes on winning. And in the middle of it all, they learn that a prisoner has escaped from the local correctional facility.

Ali Bryan’s writing is a delight of descriptive language. I can’t help but wonder if she collects random metaphors and similes in a notebook when they pop into her head.

Here’s one of my favorite passages: “That was the thing about marriage; it was good until all of a sudden it wasn’t. Like meat in a refrigerator. Prime, pink, and reliable one day, gray and questionable the next. You ate it anyway, ignoring that it might be off, ignoring the pain in your gut, in your heart.”

I really loved this book, its humor and heart. It’s a story full of regret, loss, and sorrow, but also forgiveness, redemption, and the power of letting go.

I really wanted to love this one but it fell a little flat for me. I was intrigued enough to keep reading and finish but there were a few main reasons why I didn’t love this one. There were so many characters that it was hard to remember who was who. I think some sort of character key would have been super helpful. This book took me several months to read because I wasn’t sucked in but the last 2/3s I read fairly quickly and still struggled with remembering who was who.

I saw a review comparing this to Schitts Creek and while they both take place in small towns that was pretty much the only similarity I found. I just didn’t find this book super funny.

There were a few comments throughout the book that I just found unnecessary for the plot such as many of the comments about Kabirs race. I found. Schitts Creek was an accepting small town and didn’t need racial jokes to be funny.

I did think the story was well written and would consider checking out future works from this author but overall this was a miss for me.

I loved this book. It reads like an untethered freight train speeding towards destruction, incinerating everything in its wake. I barreled through the book as quickly as I could, anxious to learn what would happen next after each chapter. The chapters all are told from the point of view of one of several characters, cycling through from one to another and back again. Even though the action takes place in the span of just a few hours, the reader becomes privy to each person’s lifetimes of joy and regret, happiness and sorrows. All of them wear their emotions on their sleeves, and it’s impossible not to root for each and every one of them, regardless of their individual foibles or mistakes. Although it seems everything and everyone is destined to end in a tragic manner, there are several surprises at the very end that I did not anticipate, making for a very satisfying ending.

Of course, the satisfaction received from reading this novel should have been expected, given that its author, Ali Bryan, has won several awards for her previous works, including her first novel, Roost, which won the Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction and was the official selection of One Book Nova Scotia, and her second novel, The Figgs, was a finalist for the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour. She also has won awards for several short stories, essays and her one YA novel.

I would love to thank Ms. Bryan, her publisher Henry Holt and Company, and NetGalley for providing me the opportunity to read an advanced digital reader’s copy of Ms. Bryan’s newest book. I look forward to reading many more from this terrific author. My review of it is wholly VOLUNTARY.

This may have been one of the best books I read all year. I loved the raw honesty of the characters. All were in different stages of life, dealing with very real problems. Alcoholism, adultery, motherhood, becoming a widower, a traumatic childhood and a life of crime, and loving yourself and others. Life is hard and we all go through some hellish experiences.

We come together for a karaoke contest in a small town in memory of Dale, just an all around good guy and local. He lost his life during a wildfire evacuation and a year later, his life (and death) still make an impact. The author does a fantastic job of weaving the character perspectives with the current events all while giving us that background of how Dale impacted them or seeing memories of him. I felt such sorrow for each of these characters and how the last year has been for each of them. Filled with regret, sadness, anxiety, and so much more. This story isn't sad necessarily, though the emotions they go through did have me tear up. Each character reaches an epiphany of some sort in their own way. I will be thinking about this one for a while.

A prison escape, a bear on the loose, botched lyrics. What more could go wrong with Crow Valley’s most anticipated night of the year?

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.

My thoughts:

This was a fast-paced, character-driven story of the residents of a small Canadian town revolving around a Karaoke competition. Short chapters make the book easier to delve into the minds of the residents. Themes of grief and forgiveness resonate throughout the book. Made me laugh out loud more than once.

I received a complimentary digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are mine alone.

Crow Valley is a small town in Canada that was devastated by a wildfire one year ago. One of the town’s heroes died in the fire and no one can seem to move on. Written in alternating points of view, this book showed many sides to the fire and the grief that the town was feeling. At first, it was hard to figure out who everyone was and how they fit together. As the town is having a karaoke championship in memory of their beloved Dale Jepson, a prisoner escapes from the local prison, and all hell breaks loose forcing the people to come to terms with their grief and their lives in general. The story is strange and somewhat complicated at times. I think I was hoping for more from the ending. I wanted things wrapped up a little neater than they did. But, it did leave the reader with some hope and a little closure. I still wanted more and to know for sure what happened with some of the characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own.

This book! If Garrison Keillor, Fredrik Backman and J. Ryan Stradal collaborated on a novel, I think it would be like this. Ordinary, quirky flawed people, trying to make it through life, a life in which a karaoke championship is a highlight. The book centers on five characters, who are like Jenga pieces. Remove one, the structure will topple. Everyone is falling apart as it is, because of Dale's death.

The story takes place over the course of one day. While a lot of it is amusing, it deals with quite a few dark themes and language in places. One of the main characters was in jail, so don't expect flowery language and gentlemanly behavior. I think some of the content could have been dialed down a little bit. Also, the writing style isn't for everyone.

I was surprised at the ending, but not unhappy with it. I look forward to reading more books by this author.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the chance to read and review this book. All opinions are mine, and freely expressed.

A town so small that everyone knows everyone's business. When the karaoke championship starts everyone is watching. While the town people are in the community center there is a jail break.
Thanks to Henry Holt and Co. and NetGalley for the ARC.

This a quirky book about a small town in Canada told from 5 different town citizens. It’s been one year since the town of Crow Valley dealt with a horrible forest fire that claimed the life of Dale Jepson, a local favorite and karaoke champion. The community is hosting a karaoke competition in his memory.

Many things happen that day including a prison break nearby and dealing with the escaped convict. Dale is referenced heavily throughout the book and influences most of the characters. There’s a high level of dysfunction in the town and it got a bit confusing with all of the different character POVs. The book is slow going but ends better.

Thanks to NetGalley and Henry Holt and Company for this eARC. The Crow Valley Karaoke Championships is out now.

The Crow Valley Karaoke Championships by Ali Bryan is a contemporary dark humor novel set in a small town in Canada. We alternate between the point of view of several characters.

It has been one year since the town of Crow Valley dealt with a horrible forest fire that claimed the life of prison guard and karaoke champion Dale Jepson. The community hosts a high-stakes karaoke competition in his memory. Hijinks ensue, including the escape of a convicted murderer.

The premise for this book really intrigued me, since I love karaoke and currently sing in the choir for a video game music orchestra.

There are so many different characters here, and they are fleshed out and not just caricatures. The five different narrators especially are all highly relatable in very different ways. Though it was a highly character-driven story overall, I was definitely interested in reading further just to see what would happen next.

It was an enjoyable read, but the beginning especially moved pretty slowly for me and I think I would have had a better experience if I was listening to the audiobook. There were also a lot of characters we were juggling, and I got confused a few times.

CW: suicidal ideation, grief, physical and emotional abuse (referenced in the past)

The Crow Valley Karaoke Championships
By Ali Bryan

At first glance, this book is a quirky tale about quirky people in a quirky Canadian town – in sum, a "beach read". I wasn't sure where the author was going with this disparate cast of characters.

Crow Valley holds an annual Karaoke contest, the winner of which goes on to the national contest. Dale Jepson, revered by his town as the best man they had – father, husband, corrections officer, sportsman, singer. But Dale is dead – killed in a fire saving Molly. So this year's contest is dedicated to Dale.

Molly is one of the key characters, along with her husband Gary, a Mountie. They have four boys, and Molly feels trapped and depressed. Val is a prison guard and recovering alcoholic. Her somewhat estranged husband, Brett, still loves her and wants to be back in her good graces. They have two daughters, Olivia and Daphne. Roxanne, Dale's widow, cannot accept that he is gone and talks to his ashes, which she keeps in his old thermos.

Two other key players are Norman, another prison guard and Val's AA sponsor, and Marcel, a prisoner who escapes and is on the loose.

As the story develops, the "beach read" gives way to something more. All of these characters become more multi-faceted. Even the deceased Dale. The lesson that we learn here is that all of us have a past which shapes who we become – and all of us have good and bad sides, some parts of ourselves we are proud of and some not. The lesson here is to "not judge a book by its cover" – pardon the pun!

Thank you Ms. Bryan, for turning a "beach read" into a captivating story which will leave readers with things to ponder.

Ali Bryan's The Crow Valley Karaoke Championships was a quirky read about a little town in Canada. The narrative revolves around a karaoke competition, which becomes much more thrilling when a prison break occurs nearby. As the evening progresses, secrets and realizations emerge that affect each and every individual.

I liked this book a lot, but there were so many distinct narratives that I never felt like I connected with any of the characters. While each chapter was enjoyable to read, it was difficult to determine which storyline belonged to which character. While I don't mind numerous points of view in a story, there were far too many in this one. Perhaps if there were fewer characters, I might have been able to connect more and give this book a higher rating. Overall, I enjoyed Ali Bryan's unusual novel and plan to read more of the author's work in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt and Company for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.