Over the last few years I've been reading a bit of Silvia Moreno-Garcia's work. And as I have noticed I have quite a bit of a preference for her newer work over her older work. So when I got the e-arc of this rerelease of Signal to Noise (originally released in 2015) I was a bit hesitant going in. I ended up really liking it.

Signal to noise is a combination of nostalgia, music and growing up that weaves the tale of Meche. We meet her as she returns home for the funeral of her father, someone who she has very mixed feelings about. Returning home sets up the rememberance of her time as a 15 year old, when she first discovered the magic of some music with her two friends.

The way the story is build up between the present and the past works well. We see Meche dealing with her grief over her father. A grief she is trying not to have because of what he did. She is working through his stuff and remembering what happened. And it helps to show not everything is as black and white as she thought. Not just her father but the falling out with her friends. Its someting she never really worked through but that she ran from.

It is just a beautiful self-contained story of the mistakes we sometimes make and how to deal with the fall out, even if it has been 20+ years.

I went into this book completely blind, not knowing what it was about and I was really pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it!
It won’t change the course of history, but it was a quick, easy and fun read. It felt like one of those books I’ll return to if I need to comfort myself. I loved the unusual type of magic - of that combined with music. I thought it was unique and worked really well the way it was written.

I love the found family trope in any book, so to have it on three outcast teens in the 80’s meant I didn’t care how annoying they were (and sometimes they really were, but hey - they’re teens, it’s expected!), I loved them anyway and loved reading about their relationships with each other.

It took a while for the plot to get going but once it did it was a fun ride. Not a hugely groundbreaking book but one I enjoyed! 80’s nostalgia, magic and mayhem. Perfect for me!

Signal to noise? Let me offer you another term from acoustics: Acoustic resonance. It is (I quote Wikipedia) “a phenomenon in which an acoustic system amplifies sound waves whose frequency matches one of its own natural frequencies of vibration”.
The story, skillfully written by Silvia Moreno Garcia, resonated so much with elements of my own childhood that I felt entranced by how realistic it felt, even though it is a fantasy novel.
I know it is her first published novel, but I think I like it even more than the next ones from her that I’ve read, probably because of this resonance thing.
I am, I have to say, not comfortable with what Meche did as a teenager and how seemingly “unaddressed” it is (you’ll know what I’m talking about after you read it), but I don’t think it is that unaddressed. Maybe it’s lost in the noise somewhere, but a signal is there.
“Like mechanical resonance, acoustic resonance can result in catastrophic failure of the vibrator. The classic example of this is breaking a wine glass with sound at the precise resonant frequency of the glass.” No catastrophic failure for me, but my brain was definitely blown at times. Maybe I just felt so moved that my turntable was spinning out of control.
I couldn’t help reading more and more, the same way I would put the same disk on day after day as a teenager after school and forget my worries for an hour or two.

I want to thank Rebellion Publishing and NetGalley for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Way back in my childhood days, the 80s had passed recently enough that nothing about them was cool. The 70s, sure, but the 80s? As if. Time has a way of making old things new again, though, as evidenced by the Stranger Things kids and all the other 80s properties stirring up nostalgia and retro cool.

Don't get me wrong; I'm not mad about this. Especially if it means we can have more love for 80s-era stories like Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Signal to Noise.

In 1989, Meche is a music-obsessed high schooler, whose love of a good beat is only fed by her DJ father, Vincente. But when she discovers that her vinyl contains more than metaphorical magic, she enlists her friends, Sebastian and Daniela, to help her form a proper witching circle and cast spells. Whether it's finding money on the road or casting love spells, the power of their intent makes up for the disadvantages financial and social handed to them by life. But with their newfound power comes unexpected conflict that threatens to splinter their little group.

Twenty years later, Meche returns to Mexico City for the first time since the events of that fateful school year, this time for the death of her estranged father. Get in, pay her respects, deal with the belongings of his that her long-divorced mother doesn't want to bother with, and get out and return home to Norway, that's the plan. Plans, though, are made to be broken, especially with her meddling cousin on the case. Meche doesn't want to mend fences or heal wounds. But maybe there's some magic left in Mexico City, and in Meche.

One thing I love across Moreno-Garcia's work is her persistent refusal to be boxed into a genre. She got some extremely well-deserved love with her 50s-era Mexican Gothic, and from her 1970s thriller Velvet Was the Night. She's done urban fantasy and historical science fiction and romance and mythology set in the Jazz Age. For all her genre inconsistency, though, she consistently delivers rich writing and characters far more concerned with their own realism than likability. That is present in spades with Signal to Noise.

Most characters get at least a few scenes from their own POV, but the vast majority go to Meche. Her eventual feud with her friends is hinted at in her adult storyline long before it's described in the events of yesteryear. In some ways, the issue doesn't seem devastating enough to break them apart, but Moreno-Garcia lets her teenage characters be teenage characters, both in the heights of their enthusiasm and the depths of their dramatics. In her thirties, her point of view suits someone who's seen too much and coped by shutting herself away for twenty years. When she finally feels safe enough to be vulnerable, it feels like a win even as a reader.

Signal to Noise was originally published in 2015, but it's getting a reprint, out on September 13. I'm glad it's getting another chance to find readers. The 80s are back, baby, and it's a good thing.

(This review will be live at Ring Reads at 1:29 p.m. MDT on 8/23/2022)

"A beautiful new edition of Moreno-Garcia's stunning debut, featuring an illustrated cover by legendary artist Jim Tierney.

Mexico City, 1988. Long before iTunes or MP3s, you said "I love you" with a mixtape. Meche, awkward and fifteen, discovers how to cast spells using music, and with her friends Sebastian and Daniela will piece together their broken families, and even find love...

Two decades after abandoning the metropolis, Meche returns for her estranged father's funeral, reviving memories from her childhood she thought she buried a long time ago. What really happened back then? Is there any magic left?"

The magic of a mixtape. I still have some so ingrained in my head that I can sing my way through them in the shower.

I was really looking forward to this, but it just never quite worked for me.

Thank you to Rebellion, Solaris & NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this digital arc

I will always adore Silvia Moreno-Garcia. This republishing of an earlier work has all the hallmarks of what makes her so wonderful, although it also gives a glimpse at how much her craft has developed. Still a solid and enjoyable read with the tension and atmosphere you expect of her.

I picked up this book because of her hit novel, Mexican Gothic. The plot was unique with a mix of magic and music. However, it did not make much impact to me. I was not a fan of the main character being annoying and it was hard for me to really get into the story. Don't get me wrong, I love her writing style but it really felt off to me because of the main character. Nevertheless, I'm still excited to pick-up more books from the author.

This book definitely gave me the same nostalgic vibes! For me, it was a combo of 'The Craft' and 'Empire Records' ..... 2 of my favorite movies as a teen.
Meche, 15yr old gir in Mexico City .... along with her besties Sebastián and Daniela, want to change their social life. (What teen hasn't wanted to? I saw a bit of myself in Meche.)
Meche may have really discovered the true power that music holds through vinyl records. Things definitely do change! But are they really for the best? 🤔
Loved all the music references (even though I'm not to privy on the Latin references though, none the less, still loved em)

I really enjoyed this kinda ´slice-of-story´!
But I cannot help myself and compare this to her newer works , and those are just way better!
The characters felt a bit flat at times, and there was not much 'excitement' to the story. But it was still an enjoyable read!

Urban fantasy, magic, and a love of all things 80s??? All I can say is that this was a vibe.

Signal to Noise is set to be published mid September 2022. Thank you to Rebellion, Solaris, NetGalley and the author for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 3.5/5

Silvia Moreno-Garcia's republished debut Signal to Noise is a part coming of age, part magical awakening, part romance, and everything else in between.

I loved the writing style, themes, and narrative structure, and the craft that went into this is above and beyond what I expect from a debut. If you've read her later work (I did Gods of Jade and Shadow), you can see in this book the foundations of her craft, and it's such a masterclass. The story is a simple slice of life tale interspersed with adult reminiscing, but it holds gravitas because of the way the setting, context, and characters are developed. It's a love letter to music and adolescence, to dreams and families that love each other too much to be okay.

Though I admire the effort put into making the characters as real and flawed and complex as they are, I wouldn't want them to be my friends. They're still relatable and funny and great, but not my kind of people. Spending 300 pages with them feels so much of a slog, which is why I rated this 3.5 instead of 4 stars.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia is one of my favorite authors and I can’t believe I hadn’t read her debut novel until now!

This book reminded me of all the reasons I first fell in love with Moreno-Garcia’s stories. This is a moving and at times heart breaking story of deep friendship and love with elements of magic and mysticism thrown in. The characters are flawed and at times extremely frustrating, but you are able to connect with each of them and understand their struggles and pain.

If you are a fan of Mexican Gothic and the Beautiful Ones definitely give this a read!

I was sent a free book and am voluntarily leaving this honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and Rebellion Publishing for this ARC!

Also - one of my favorite Coldplay songs Swallowed In The Sea was used in this book and that made me very happy

Mexico City, 1988. Long before iTunes or MP3s, you said "I love you" with a mixtape. Meche, awkward and fifteen, discovers how to cast spells using music, and with her friends Sebastian and Daniela will piece together their broken families, and even find love...

Two decades after abandoning the metropolis, Meche returns for her estranged father's funeral, reviving memories from her childhood she thought she buried a long time ago. What really happened back then? Is there any magic left?

--

I read this book in a day. I enjoyed it, but I found Meche to be incredibly unlikeable and selfish. She's the first to discover magic through music and it gives her a sense of empowerment - she thinks she's above Sebastian and Daniela and that shows through the entire book. She treats her friends like shit and then expects them to help her when she needs it, but never offers the same. I think the only time she did help was when Daniela was assaulted by her teacher. Other than that it was as if her friends only existed to raise her up.

Similarly I did not like Sebastian either. While he was slightly less selfish than Meche, he also showed some worrying qualities. He was incredibly jealous of Meche and he took it to extremes. Neither Meche or Sebastian thought of the other when it came to people they had crushes on. Meche was a huge hypocrite in that regard. She constantly berated Sebastian for having a crush on Isadora, who actually seemed like a genuinely sweet person, and yet she had a crush on Constantino who was a complete dickhead.

The only people I liked in this story was Daniela and Isadora. I was happy to see Daniela getting a story she deserved when she got older, of finding happiness in her kids. I wished we could have seen more of her and not just her being thrown into the Meche and Sebastian show.

I really did not want to them to end up together, they are both incredibly toxic people and that didn't change into adulthood either. They aren't good for each other and they do nothing but insult each other. I felt sorry for Daniela for having friends like that and I felt sorry for Isadora too. I think she and Sebastian could have been good for each other.

The story is woven intricately. I went to this blind so when I got to the part where it involved magic, I was intrigued.

The structure focuses on alternating the present and past, which sets off a perfect anticipation for the readers. The way the words flowed gracefully with each other makes it even more personal and emotional.

It's like historical fiction/magical realism/fantasy. If you've enjoyed Silvia Moreno-Garcia previous novels, you'll enjoy this one.

PS. The book came out years ago, but it is being published in a new edition.

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for approving my arc request!

This is Silvia Moreno-Garcia's debut novel that came out in 2015. My first introduction to Silvia was in Mexican Gothic like so many thanks to the pandemic and the rise in supporting POC authors. I instantly fell in love with the way she creates her flawed characters. It's like a car accident, you can look away from.

She did the same with her M.C. Meche- now this book is told in multiple POV's but ultimately I felt this was Meche's story. Meche is a complicated character, deeply flawed and motivated purely by her emotions and events that affect her life she's not comfortable with. Like all teens she's dealing with hyper emotions and hormones with no one educating her or helping her understand them. So, she turns to magic to solve her problems.

At the core of this story is a romance between two of the characters as they try and understand one another. But the romance was borderline abuse and I didn't really connect with it. Meche was too flawed to get a real reaction of the love story for me.

What I loved the most about this story was the whole magic with vinyl's. It was a slow burn as she tries to figure out how her magic works. This was like The Craft and how sometimes people can lose themselves in it. Overall, I enjoyed the story.

Signal to Noise is a reprinting of Silvia Moreno-Garcia's debut novel written originally in 2015 and I think it's a crime this wasn't a hit when it was first published because this story was fantastic with grounded characters and a sprinkle of magic.

One of the most interesting aspects of this story is the use of playing specific records and how Meche could channel that into a form of magic. I also enjoyed how Sebastian and Daniela were there to keep her grounded in the beginning as well as being fully fleshed out characters on their own.

The two timelines that we go back and forth between are great to seeing how Meche's actions as a teen ripple into her adult life when she returns to Mexico City. Then when it all comes together for an especially satisfying ending as Meche is not the most likeable character for a lot of the book.

I highly recommend this to both long time Silvia Moreno-Garcia fans and for people who want to try her books for the first time. Truly a stellar debut that should have received more love when it originally came out.

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

CW: Alcohol Abuse, Homophobia, Bullying, Sexual Assault, Car Accident, Body Shaming, Emotional Abuse

This was such a beautifully written debut novel. I've always enjoyed Silvia Moreno-Garcia's work, and this one did not disappoint. The story follows Meche in 1988 with her friends Daniela and Sebastian and in 2009 when Meche is brought back to Mexico City after her father's death. In 1988, Meche and her friends discovered that music has magic. Moreno-Garcia does a great job bringing you in and making you attached to her characters. While Signal to Noise is mainly told through Meche's perspective, you also get to see a majority of the side characters perspectives to flesh out the story. I thought the 2009 plot line was really interesting but there was a few time where I found myself less invested about what was going on in 1988, but in the end, everything tied together very well. This book will be republished on September 6th so definetely go check this one out if you haven't already then.

Thank you to NetGalley and Rebellion Publishing for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the premise, along with the bright cover, but the story felt weirdly flat for me and I think it was because I really didn’t like the main character, Meche. She didn’t seem to have any redeeming characteristics, being both a user and abuser of her friends. Which brings me to my next issue – how did she have friends, let alone keep them? Which made someone loving her a bit of a stretch.

It also took a very long time for the story to get going. I remember at the halfway mark wondering if and when it would get interesting. Thankfully the story itself did. It’s told in two timelines – 1988 and 2009 – and this is a plot device I usually enjoy except that the voices sounded the same in each. Despite being 21 years older, there didn’t seem to be any maturation of the characters. The second half was more interesting to read though and finally felt as though the story was moving forward.

Having loved Mexican Gothic I was full of anticipation for this and I’m sure that coloured my expectations but Signal To Noise just never really got going for me.

I've said it before, but Silvia Moreno-Garcia is my favorite author. I was fortunate enough to receive an ARC of this book which was already published but is receiving a reprint and new cover. After finishing a SMG book I always feel changed as a person (dramatic, but true). There is something about her writing that is completely absorbing, immersive, and seemingly effortless. The prose and characterization are excellent, the emotion is raw and it's hard not to feel like you carry these stories with you after you're done. Suddenly they're there, in your mind and your heart from the first page through the last.

Signal To Noise is set in Mexico City, and flashes between 1988 and 2009 as Mercedes "Meche" Vega and her friends Sebastian and Daniela in 1988 as teens (and social outcasts) who discover that with music, they can cast spells to change their appearance, their fortune, and affect the lives of others around them, and in 2009 as Meche returns home after learning that her father has passed away. Despite this novel having magic in it, the magic itself is not the central focus. Ultimately this is a novel about class and inequality, about love, wishes, desires, and dreams. Meche is certainly a flawed character. She's kind of a bitch (love that), she's cranky, she can be selfish, she can hold a grudge, she can be condescending, and sort of clueless, but my mean girls should get their stories told too. Seriously the relationship between Sebastian and Meche is just everything to me.

Anyway, SMG once again proving she's talented, showstopping, iconic, brilliant, totally unique.