Since 2019, Silvia Moreno-Garcia has become one of my favorite authors, and I’ve read nearly all of her books by now. However, I still hadn’t read her first two novels. Now available in audiobook form, I’ve finally read her debut novel, Signal to Noise. It starts in Mexico City in 1988, when teenagers Meche, Sebastián, and Daniela are friends who’ve stumbled upon a form of magic tied to music. But fast forward to 2009, and Meche is returning to Mexico after her father’s death. She hasn’t seen her former friends in 20 years and isn’t sure she’s ready to make amends. What happened back then that tore them apart?

Tropes & Narrative Devices:
- Dual timeline (1988-1989; 2009)
- Unlikeable main character
- Coming of age arc
- Third-person narration

What I Liked:
- So much music! What initially drew me to Signal to Noise (besides it being by Silvia Moreno-Garcia) is how central of a role music plays in the story. These characters are able to wield magic from the vinyl records they pick out, but only some records have magic attached to them. I also love how much Meche talks about music, especially with her dad, himself a radio broadcaster who’s writing a book about Mexican music. Numerous artists, albums, and songs are referenced throughout the novel, many of which I know, and many more which I’ll need to listen to.
- The magic. This novel is set in a normal world, but magic exists for the three protagonists. They’re essentially practicing witchcraft, guessing as they go about what works and how and why. It feels like something tangible, like the kind of magic you secretly hope you’ll stumble upon someday, despite living in this ordinary world.
- The complicated friendships. Meche is a tough girl to like. She can be cruel and vindictive, and yet her two friends stick with her. Sebastián has to work after school and on weekends; Daniela has lupus and is overprotected by her parents. All three are outcasts, misfits in some way, and the roles in their friendship aren’t always even. They argue, they make mistakes, and yet it rings true to how friendships can be in high school.
- Meche’s relationship with her dad. This is another complicated relationship. How does she go from idolizing her dad, with whom she shares a love of music, to not having seen him in 20 years? What went wrong in their relationship? Like Meche, her dad Vicente has his own issues: alcoholism, an ability to see his book to completion, and a toxic relationship with his wife. It’s a lot to sort through, but Meche will have to do so eventually.

What Didn’t Work for Me:
- Nothing, this was great!

Audiobook
Kyla Garcia does a magnificent job of narrating Signal to Noise. She gives each character a distinctive voice, yet never overdoes it, either. I appreciated how she brought out their personalities and made them feel true to their teenage years.

Final Thoughts
Signal to Noise is a captivating novel steeped in music, subtle magic, and complicated, thorny relationships. It’s a coming of age story in many ways, but also one that hints at growth 20 years later. I enjoyed this novel and especially the audiobook version.

At this point the only Silvia Moreno-Garcia novel I have left to catch up on is Certain Dark Things. Stay tuned for my review of that very soon!

It was cute. Didn’t love narration but will eyeball read it soon because I think it would have been easily 5 stars had I done the ebook. Love finding books with Mexican rep

Thank you #partner #spotifyaudiobooks for my #gifted copy. 💜

Signal to Noise
Silvia Moreno-Garcia

📖 Signal to Noise is a magical, coming-of-age historical fiction with a romance subplot, set in Mexico City, Mexico. It's dual timeline, alternating between 1988 and 2009, and follows a group of teenaged misfits. Mercedes "Mecha" Vega and her friends discover that they can harness magic from vinyl records, and they use it to get what they've always wanted... money, love, revenge, and more. But magic doesn't come without a price.

💭Signal to Noise is an angsty, nostalgic, engaging novel that touches on the tumultuous nature of adolescence and the nearly universal experiences of high school. Despite the young cast in the 1988 timeline, this isn't marketed as a YA novel, though it often reads like one (and I'm not complaining)! As a music lover, I love the unique concept of music-as-magic! At its core, Signal to Noise is a story of friendship, family, love, and the price of power.

🎧 This is one of those books that's enhanced by the audiobook. Narrator Kyla Garcia is wonderful, as always, and she truly elevated the story with her performance. I'm not I'd have enjoyed this as much if I'd read it with my eyes, so I'm grateful I had the opportunity to listen to it. 💜

📌 Available now!
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A beautifully heartfelt and magical story that is so well narrated you cannot help but be transported to the world of the story.

I have decided to DNF (not finish) this book. I just couldn't get into it unfortunately. But thank you for the opportunity amd the advanced audio copy!

This was a weird book, but I would expect nothing less from Silvia Moreno-Garcia.
No one does magical realism quite like SMG.
Meche is a MC you love to hate and I was actively routing for her to get hers.
In the end I realized you need to hate her a bit to make the story as powerful as it is.
If you like music, magic and powerful friendships this book is for you.
Much love to NetGalley & Spotify Audiobooks for my ALC.

This is a rerelease of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s debut novel, and it is my least favorite of her stories despite the appealing concept. I expected to love a story about a trio of teenagers in late 1980s Mexico City using records to cast spells. Music holds so much power for most of us at that age. Unfortunately, the main character, 15-year-old Meche, is thoroughly selfish, rude, cantankerous, and at times shockingly vicious.

The story is told in chapters alternating between 1988 and 2009, when Meche returns to Mexico City for her father’s funeral. The plot unfurls slowly, gradually building in intensity. I found the story interesting, but I just hated spending time with Meche and seeing how she treated her friends, who put up with entirely too much from her.

The audiobook production was fine, aside from my review copy containing a couple of repeated chapters. Based on the length of the audiobook listed on retailers, I trust that that problem has been corrected in the published version. I enjoyed the narration by Kyla Garcia, whose accent helped bring the Mexico City setting to life. She’s fun to listen to, with good pacing, clear pronunciation, and distinctive voices to suit the characters. She is able to convey the mood and emotions of the story effectively. The story works very well as an audiobook.

I’d cautiously recommend this for fans of the author and magical realism. Note that the book contains swearing, violence, child abuse, alcohol abuse, sexual assault of a minor, and occult content.

Thanks to Spotify Audiobooks for providing me with a free review copy of the audiobook through NetGalley. I volunteered to provide an honest review.

This is such a beautiful, emotional story, touching on themes of of friendship, family, and the power of music as magic. The writing was eloquent, yet very accessible. I loved all the characters in the novel, particularly Sebastian & Meche. The author did a fantastic job of creating relatable characters, who felt like realistic teenagers. The narrative is slower than the page-turners I usually read, yet I quickly fell into this immersive story. I would recommend this novel to a wide range of readers. I look forward to reading more by this talented author.

I read this awhile back. I was excited to experience this story through audio for a second time. The narrator did a great job of keeping me intrigued. The story is so fun and unlike anything Sylvia Moreno-Garcia has done.

This was a fun, interesting & thought-provoking read.
Tackles the age of tale of how much is enough and what would you do to get there.

I adored Meche, Sebastian and Daniella’s friendship dynamic. Also the commentary on family dynamics, power, grief, regret and reputation; specially in a small community.
Moreno-Garcia’s choice to have the passages be from different povs created very rounded main characters. The way she weaved the magic within the story made it feel grounded and realistic.

Thank you to NetGalley and Spotify Audiobooks for this alc in exchange for an honest review.

I wasn't sure at first about this book but it grew on me. There's the perfect amount of real issue mixed with magic and watching Matche and Sebastian's relationship through time was literally magically even though they both had moments that made me want to shake some sense into them. I loved the balance that Daniela provided to the trio as well as how she developed from doing what ever Meche wanted and eventually finding the voice to tell her she was wrong. This author has become one of my favorite. Such an amazing writing style and the stories are always so interesting and heart filled.

This is an older title of SM-G's rereleased on audio and I'm so glad I got to experience it again in this new format. I enjoyed the narrator and thought that the audio brought a lot to the story as someone not familiar with Spanish pronunciation of names.

I enjoyed the multi-timeline story of estranged best friends reuniting while one is back intown for a family member's funeral. In their teens, Meche, Sebastian, and Daniela had been best friends and were able to cast magic together, but after a particularly bad incident, fueled by teenaged jealousy, crushes, and miscommunications, their friendship crumbled, and they all stopped casting. Now, decades later, they finally discuss what happened and the feelings they'd had so long ago.

This is a great book for anyone who loves old music or enjoys reading about other's complex relationships.

Signal To Noise is Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s debut novel. A re-release of the audiobook happened August 20. Thank you to Spotify Books and NetGalley for the advanced listener copy in exchange for an honest review.

I read Mexican Gothic and really enjoyed the unique premise and creepy, gothic atmosphere of that book and was excited to read this. I didn’t know that this was her debut novel upon starting it, but it makes sense why I didn’t like it as well as Mexican Gothic.

The audiobook narrator was great; I thought that she did the story well.

I mostly had trouble with the pacing and found it to be slow, especially in the beginning. Signal to Noise features a dual timeline between Meche’s childhood in the late 1980s and coming back for her father’s funeral in 2009. At times, it was hard to follow on the audiobook version. I got a physical copy and found it easier to reference back to events. I generally disliked Meche and found it hard to root for her, which contributed to my rating. But what I really enjoyed was the concept of music as magic and thought that the plot was original and unique.

While this may not have been the book for me, check it out If you’re looking for a magical realism book set in Mexico City with a unique magic system of transforming songs into magic.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia just has a way of weaving a story together that I find almost irresistible. I only started reading her work about four or five years ago, but I’ve become a big fan. Her prose sings and her characters are always complex and believable. But because I only started reading her work in the last four or five years, I never read her debut novel Signal to Noise, but now I’ve had the pleasure of listening to the audio version and it definitely cast it’s spell on me. Focusing on Meche, who has returned home for her father’s funeral, we are treated to a fascinating tale jumping back and forth in time from the present to Meche’s teenage years, learning about how she discovered and explored magic via music. I was surprised by how much I connected with Meche and really enjoyed this nostalgic and emotional tale. Kyla Garcia does a superb job with the narration. Certain Dark Things is still my favorite book by Silvia, but this one isn’t that far behind. 4.5 stars. I’d like to thank Spotify Audiobooks and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to an advanced copy of the audio version of Signal to Noise.

https://www.amazon.com/review/R3OMW1NQB1W3QH/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_SRTC0204BT_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

This book was so interesting and I am obsessed. I loved the way Silvia mixes the magical elements to real life. The way they did magic and how it came between the friendship. This was so fun to read and I am obsessed with it.

I got an alc of this book on NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I will say Silvia Moreno-Garcia comes up with some very intriguing ideas for books, but I'm not sure if their writing is necessarily for me. I really struggled with the slow pacing of this book -I nearly DNF'd around 40%, but then pushed through with speeding up the audiobook, which I don't usually do but it did help. I loved the concept of magic through records, but I found the characters a bit ... not likeable, but also not intriguing enough to make up for it, and they read much younger to me than I thought they were.

I think if you're looking for an almost slice of life magical realism book with dual POV from childhood to adulthood, you might enjoy this, even if it wasn't quite my cup of tea!

Thank you Netgalley for the ALC

This is my second book by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and I liked it. I gave it 3.5 because I felt like the story would've been better as just the kids using the music for magic. I didn't care for the present timeline in the book. Meche is a complicated character who is a terrible friend to Daniela and Sebastian, especially Daniela. I didn't like that she accused them of wanting to hex her, when she was the one that not only threatened to hex them if they didn't do what she wanted but followed through with it when it came to Sebastian. Like girl, your parents were not going to get back together.

All in all, I liked the story.

I didn’t realize this was a rerelease when I was given the audio copy. Now that I know it’s a debut I think I have a better understanding of why I didn’t like it as much as I was prepared to. I thought the idea was really neat, but the execution fell flat.

I didn’t really care what happened to any of them.

In Mexico City in the 80s, Meche and her friends, Sebastian and Daniela, discover magic through the use of music. They try to make things better for themselves by casting spells. Still, life is hard for awkward teenagers.
2 decades later, Meche comes back to Mexico City for her father's funeral. Hopefully, she will rediscover her magic and friendships as well.
First published in 2015.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Spotify Audio for this audio e-arc.*

Thank you to Sylvia Moreno-Garcia and Spotify Audiobooks via NetGalley for the eARC of this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia is one of my favorite authors and I loved listening to this story. It’s a dual timeline following Meche in 1988 when she discovers she can perform magic with her friends and in 2009 when she returns for her father’s funeral. There’s also romance and something that happens in the earlier timeline that causes a rift between Meche and her friends, something she has to navigate later in 2009.

I thought this book was so fun and also pulled at my heartstrings. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s books, as well as anyone who enjoyed “My Heart Is a Chainsaw” by Stephen Graham Jones. It’s far less gory and horrific, but Meche and Jade are the angsty teen girl protagonists I love to follow.