Signal to Noise brings Mercedes (Meche) back to the Mexico neighborhood and people she fled years ago for a life of mostly solitary coding in Europe. She reluctantly returns when her father dies, and is thrown into flashbacks to 20 years back in high school, with her intense friendships, tumultuous home life, and, oh yes, a stretch of several months where she and her 2 close friends could perform magic!
Other than the magic, the book is very realistic and descriptive, so it's a great insight into how people with magic or other special skills/popularity that develop before they are mature enough to handle it, can begin to think themselves so superior to others that they can impose their will on them.
Meche is obsessed with music, like her musician/DJ father, but forced to be more practical than him due to his lack of responsibility and the harsh realities of her life. Her longtime friend Sebastian feels the same way about books as she does about music, and they attempt to bridge their worlds but have numerous misunderstandings as their evolving feelings for each other and others get in their way. Meche looks back on all this as she reconnects with her family and friends on her return, and relives the reason she fled and tries to make better decisions with what she's learned from her life playing out the way it did.
I received a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

Set on the backdrop of Mexico, combining a modern day storyline with flashbacks to the 1980s, Signal to Noise is an ode to mixed tapes, to the 80s and to the power and magic of music. An entertaining adventure, the novel deals with witchcraft through the power of song, as three friends learn to cast spells to a soundtrack until one goes very, very wrong. Well-written, a fantasy on the literary side, it deals with the pains of growing up, the difficulty of forgiveness and the power of friendship. A great read.