Voice

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Voice (eBook) Pub. Date: 5/29/2011 Publisher: Ragman Press LLC

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Voice (eBook) Pub. Date: 5/19/2011 Publisher: Joseph Garraty, via Smashwords
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Voice Pub. Date: 6/28/2011 Publisher: Ragman Press LLC

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Overview

Local rock band Ragman is finally taking off. Stephanie Case's flamboyant performances and scorching guitar work have started attracting crowds, and singer John Tsiboukas--aka Johnny Tango--is delivering the best performances of his life. After months of playing to dead rooms, it looks like success is at hand.

The thing is, there's something wrong with Johnny's voice. Until just a few weeks ago, he couldn't hit the right pitch if you painted a target on it and let him stand real close. Now he sounds amazing. . . and strange things happen every time he sings. Lights burn out. Whole rooms become cold and hushed. People get violent.

For Johnny and Case, Ragman is a ticket out of a life of meaningless, dead-end jobs and one lousy gig after another, but as the weirdness surrounding Johnny begins to turn into outright nightmare, they find that the price of stardom might be higher than either of them could ever have imagined.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780983711704
Publisher: Ragman Press LLC
Publication date: 6/28/2011
Pages: 354
Product dimensions: 5.24 (w) x 7.99 (h) x 0.74 (d)

Meet the Author

Joseph Garraty is an author of dark fantasy, horror, and science fiction. He has worked as a construction worker, rocket test engineer, environmental consultant, technical writer, and deadbeat musician. He lives in Dallas, Texas.

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Heavensent1

Posted October 5, 2011

more from this reviewer

You pay your dues when you dance with the devil~!

Voice is a supernatural thriller.

John Tsiboukas has always dreamed of making the "big time". With a passion he gathers those around him who have the right look and the sound for his band, "Ragman". The only problem is that John really is not that great of a vocalist.

Danny is John's brother and the drummer of the band. He has been practicing his whole life for the moment he would make his dreams come true.

Quentin is the band's bass player and has been friends with John for over a year but he soon comes to feel like there is something else going on with the band, something that feels evil and Quentin is not sure if success is worth it.

Stephanie Case is the lead guitarist, hired after John hears her play at a local bar during open mic night. Case, as she is known, thinks that John really sucks but the pay sounds great and Case becomes a member of "Ragman".

The four of them practice daily and Case brings to the music, elements that had been lacking in their previous four chord songs. After playing at an area college, John is approached by a foul smelling old man, Douglas, who vows to change John's life forever if he would only travel with him to the crossroads.

John, who is jealous of Case's success on stage and her and Danny's apparent on-stage love affair, decides to follow Douglas into the unknown and see what he has to offer. He is given a choice and decides to pay the piper in order to become a person that will be a household name, a voice that people will remember long after John has passed from this world. He will be immortal, a price he would pay anything for.

At first, the rest of the band is bewildered by John's new sound and John brushes it off as his voice lessons finally paying off. However, weird things begin to happen every time John sings, fights break out amongst the patrons, fires start and Douglas always seems to be there, in the crowd, whispering in people's ears.

When Danny comes up with John's on-stage alter ego, in order to combat John's stage fright, Johnny Tango is born with his bad ass attitude and no nonsense appeal. Slowly John is allowing his alter ego to take over and the bad is beginning to feel uneasy with the changes taking place. Evil seems to permeate every show and the freaky "Johnny Fan Club" members are unnerving to those who seem them smiling maniacally and hanging onto Johnny's every word!

When things begin to go really bad, it is time for the members of Ragman to decide if fame and fortune is really worth the price you have to pay to achieve it!

This was a fairly decent novel to have read! The characters are all remarkably written and believable in each of the roles set before them. The plot is a bit tired, the whole cross roads and sell your soul to the devil for your music has been done to death, but author, Joseph Garraty still manages to write decently despite the plot cliche.

Stephanie Case is a great character and you watch her character unfold from a uncaring and rude woman into a caring and kind lady who can really belt out a tune! She is depicted as being gorgeous and talented and yet shies away from the attention that the two things entail. She is always fighting her demons about her self worth!

I wasn't as interested in John as I wished I could have been. I found that his transition from John to Johnny wasn't well placed. It felt rushed to me and some of the descriptive that could have been
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HeadshotHeather

Posted September 12, 2011

Doubleshot Reviews book review

I will have to admit that my initial thought on the concept of Voice was "oh great, another crossroads story, they are all the same" I was wrong. Joseph Garraty did a great job in bringing a new life to the old crossroads tale. The settings where just what you would expect to read about for an up and coming band. Ragman played in cramped rehearsal spaces, dive bars, crappy university halls and eventually the bigger and better venues.

The characters, in Voice, and their back stories were pretty well detailed and well written. I loved Case...hell I wanted to be Case. A hot, bad ass babe with a guitar! Who wouldn't want to be her? Although she did do something in the book that I was not thrilled with and honestly didn't feel needed done. John/Johnny was a trip to follow through in his transition from a front man with stage fright to a demonic rock 'n roll superstar. The rest of the Ragman band members were, also, interesting characters that I came to enjoy learning more about. Heck, even some of the throw away characters were interesting.

From the dive bars, to the noise filled auditoriums, Voice takes us through the ups and downs of stardom and into the pits of hell that some will traverse in order to receive that claim to fame.
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Katya_Sozaeva

Posted August 27, 2011

more from this reviewer

I Also Recommend:

Must-read horror novel featuring rock and roll

Joseph Garraty has written a horror novel that ranks right up there with the masters - "Voice" is amazingly creepy, full of the sorts of things that will make you keep the lights on for nights to come. His characters are realistic, and you feel like they are people you know. By the end of the book, you'll be so creeped out, you'll likely not even want to listen to rock music for a few days.

John Tsiboukas - aka Johnny Tango - has been obsessed with music since he was a kid. He's in a band named Ragman with his brother, Danny - who plays drums - and a friend named Quentin on bass. Case, a guitarist, is brought into the group after he hears her at a new-band-night gig. Ragman has a great sound, but John himself has no voice - he has no sense of pitch and his voice is too weak to carry the hard rock sound to match the rest of the group. So, one night, he goes with a strange man to a crossroads and makes a deal - fame, fortune and glory. After that, his voice fills in to the potential and Ragman starts gaining a following. But weird things start to happen - there are murders around their venues. Johnny starts substituting odd chants for the lyrics. And an obsessive group of followers begins to trail along with the band - their faces hungry, their eyes . there is something wrong with their eyes. And then the final show in Dallas, where the potential for wrongness comes to fruition .

If you love horror and love rock and roll, you'll LOVE this book. You won't want to miss it - get it TODAY!
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Heart2Heart

Posted August 9, 2011

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Sometimes the price of stardom might be more than anyone could ever have imagined!

Sometimes we stand at the crossroads at a point in our life wondering which direction we should take. We all want the very best in our lives and sometimes we often have to ask the question, just how far are you willing to go to get what you want?

John Tsiboukas has been trying to get his rock band, Ragman, to be all that he dreams it can be, even if some of those dreams turn into the most horrifying nightmares possible. The only problem with the band is that John can't sing. He's even managed to replace his lead guitar player with Stephanie Case whose stage presence alone makes the band popular, besides her amazing ability to play and the fact that most of the men who come to see her want to go out with her. Only John believes he can be great if only he could find a way to sing and his voice lessons don't seem to be helping him improve at all except to make his vocal coach a whole lot richer by taking his money.

A dark stranger appears one night at a concert which one more confirms that if John can't find a way to sing, they will soon find someone who can. He meets with John outside the college and offers him a ride. Sensing danger but also an overwhelming curiosity, he goes along. Not sure where they are headed, the stranger lets him out at a dark stretch of road and tells him that he can go no further, John must go alone from here.

When John crests the hill, he sees an old dead tree by a road and it appears to be much darker here than it should be. When a man appears and asks John want he wants most in life, he tells him to be able to use his voice to draw people to him, for fame and riches beyond anyone could imagine.

After that encounter, John changes, a darkness now settles over him but the most astonishing thing happens at their next concert. John can sing, and he can sing really well. After a series of concerts, it appears that the band is headed for success. But when things begin to happen once John begins to sing, the band finds out that the price for stardom might be higher than any of them could have ever imagined. Now people are winding up dead!

In the latest novel Voice by Joseph Garraty, we get a look at what happens when something appears to be too good to be true and a deal with the devil is made. This book is a twisted tale on what happens when a desire is taken too far and evil is unleashed.

I received this book compliments of Joseph Garrarty and Pump Up Your Book Tours for my honest review. The story line is great and definitely keeps the suspense and thrills going to the end. Definitely on the creepy side. My warning for some of my readers is that it does contain a fair amount of profanity and some sexual content that would likely be found in a rock band scene, so it may not be suited for everyone. Those that enjoy a bit darker suspense thriller will be in for a ride when they pick this book up. I rate it a 3 of out 5 stars due to my rating scale for content.
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ajpohren

Posted July 31, 2011

more from this reviewer

Excellent!

Kick a*s, motherf*ckin rock n roll! Okay, sorry. Just finished reading Voice and am feeling all psyched and rammy now. With a blend of horror, rock and roll, no-holds-barred attitude and black evil, all rolled into one not-so-pretty package (well, okay, the cover is pretty awesome), Voice is a story that will entrap you within it's pages from start to finish. Just to give you an idea, here is a taste from the Prologue:

The voice that comes out is nothing like a human voice, singing nothing like human words. It's vast and deep, oily and ravenous, and it pounds into your brain like a meat hammer. The pressure is crushing, mounting, thunderous, and you forget that this is a recording and you can turn it off at any time, you forget everything except that your brain is being pulped by a godawful, godless sound that shouldn't even exist, a sound like tectonic plates grinding corpses into fields of broken glass, and then, incredibly, the sound gets worse, and you open your mouth to scream, and -

How's that for an opening?! Voice is the story of a band whose lead singer, John, will do anything to get his name in lights. For over a year, he has been pounding away at small gigs with little to nothing to show for it. It is when he sees lead guitarist Case at work, he knows he must bring her over to his side. Once he does, John feels a bit closer to reaching the high life, but not quite there yet. One night, after a less than stellar gig, John meets Douglas. Douglas knows John's deepest desires, more importantly, Douglas knows how to give John all of his dreams on a blood encrusted platter. No price is to high for John to pay. Once the deal is sealed, lives will change forever, screams will ring eternal and blood will flow. All of this, the day Johnny Tango was born..

Have I mentioned that I absolutely loved Voice?! If you haven't caught that vibe yet, I am screaming it out now. It is not often that I come across a book that combines elements of horror and hard-hitting rock and roll. This story takes the reader on a journey from the band, Ragman's, very beginning until it's very end. It was incredibly intriguing to get a glimpse into the hard work and sweat that goes into getting a band out there and heard. Of course with Voice, there is plenty more than hard work and sweat that goes into the band.

I loved Case. She is a take-no-crap woman who knows what she wants and isn't afraid of anything. She can also play a mean guitar. Danny is John's brother and the band's drummer. I loved his character as well - for me he seemed very "human". Quentin, the bass player grew on me and probably left me the most emotional. John? What can I say about John...

I am going to honestly say that Voice by Joseph Garraty is one of my favorite reads thus far this year. Mr. Garraty emits eerie and creepy horror all over the place with his story. He also achieves this without overplaying the "gore" card, which for me is a HUGE plus. Yes, there are a few graphic scenes, but mildly so and not over-the-top like many horror stories can go. Also, just to give you an idea of how much I loved this book, I received a copy of it for free for the Pump Up Your Book! tour, in exchange for my review. However, I found myself purchasing a copy for my Nook Color just so that I could read it in bed. Yes, I was that hooked!!

In any case, I cannot wait to read more by Joseph Garraty. He is an amazing talent with an amaz
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