Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! This book was incredible! I am at a lose for words that can adequately convey how much I loved this book. Silvia is an incredible author because she creates amazing and complex characters who are flawed and yet lovable. Throughout the book I felt for all of them and adored the way in which the past and present were brought together in this book. The way in which music was used as a form of magic was wonderful and a form of truth as music is magical.
Silvia has become one of my favorite authors and is an auto buy author for me now. I adore how all of her books are so different and how she creates wonderful stories with amazing characters.

3.5 stars!

I truly couldn’t tell that this was a re-publishing of Moreno-Garcia’s debut book! It was a really well-done coming of age story and also touched on friendships, grief, and family trauma. I loved the magical realism and how different songs were portrayed when it came to the magic. The prose did feel a bit choppy at times and there was a lot more telling vs. showing. I did like the characters, but Meche did drive me up the wall at times. Overall I really liked this one, but the execution did fall flat in a few areas.

Thank you to NetGalley for the audio ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This reprinting wasn't necessarily for me, though I can see the appeal! It was a DNF for me, with a younger writing style than I'm used to from her short stories. I definitely think it will work well for YA readers and adult readers who are interested in magic and drama, or fans of something like The Magicians, but the drama made me put it down. I did love the audiobook narrator and will still try other things by this author in the future, but this writing style didn't work for me.

Thanks, netgalley and spotify audiobooks for this audio ARC!

Meche returns to mexico city for the death of her estranged father after years of running from memories. In high school, she discovered she and her best friends had the power to cast spells with music, and her rage took things too far. In returning home, she opens old wounds, but may have the help of an old friend to finally, finally heal.

One, how did i miss this book for the last nine years because it is so deeply in my wheelhouse of emo girl witch shit, and two, i just deeply enjoy silvia moreno-garcia in the horror/fantasy landscape. I see why this was the book to put her on the map, and i also am so impressed with her growth as an author since then.

I am familiar with kyla garcia as a narrator from "there, there" and "i am not your perfect mexican daughter" and she is just phenomenal. There is something about a good narrator that just lets you know that the story is going to be great. it's knowing you're in good hands. Would recommend this audiobook to anyone who loves a spooky lil treat.

This was narrated excellently. I loved the distinct voices for each character, and they perfectly represented how the characters sounded in my head. The story of music and magic and Mexico City is brought to life in the way that only Silvia Moreno-Garcia can do it. The timeline jumping between 1988/89 and 2009, and to 2004 at the end is brilliant. Signal to Noise not only tells the story of music that can bring magic to life, but also the confusing times of adolescence. I was really invested in this book, and will miss these characters. Add this to the list of ending chapters/lines that I will think about for a long time

Mexico City, 1988: Long before iTunes or MP3s, you said "I love you" with a mixtape. Meche, awkward and fifteen, has two equally unhip friends – Sebastian and Daniela – and a whole lot of vinyl records to keep her company. When she discovers how to cast spells using music, the future looks brighter for the trio.

Mexico City, 2009: Two decades after abandoning the metropolis, Meche returns for her estranged father's funeral. It's hard enough to cope with her family, but then she runs into Sebastian, reviving memories from her childhood she thought she buried a long time ago.

This was such a creative story. I really enjoyed the way music and magic wove both together and throughout the story. I enjoyed rhe dynamic of the three childhood friends and how we got to see how much changed between them as a group and as individuals over the years. There were complicated and emotions dealing with an absent father, something I know far too well and could connect to in so many ways - that kind of grief and longing was written really well.

Which, speaking of, Silvia writes beautifully and paired with the narration made for an easy listen of a book that faced a lot of deeper subjects. This story was slower paced, but in a way that worked well and was at times heartbreaking and uplifting, magical and realistic, foreboding and reflective - I really enjoyed this experience.

Thank you Spotify and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to listen to this re-release!

This is a dual timeline with a coming of age story about three friends growing up in Mexico City in the late 80’s and twenty years later when the main character comes back for her father’s funeral. In the 80’s timeline the three friends discover magic that’s connected to music, and in the later timeline you find that there was a falling out between the friends.

I thought the premise and the story as a whole was good and engaging, but I did find the book boring compared to later works by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. The book explores teenage friendship, parental divorce, bullying, and the trauma that can come along with growing up. While I enjoyed it overall, I don’t think it’s SMG’s best work. I really liked the musical references and overall feel of the novel. Even though this one didn’t grip me enough to keep me interested throughout, her writing is still impeccable. The narrator Kyla Garcia did a great job capturing the tone of this book and depicting each character in their own styles.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia created one of my favorite books of all time with “Mexican Gothic” and she gifted me with one of the most unique vampire books with “Certain Dark Things”. She became a titular part of my October reads, but this book felt like it was written by someone else entirely. The writing was still good, since Silvia Moreno-Garcia is incapable of being a bad author, but this book was boring. Literally nothing happened. Sometimes, if the plot is nonexistent in books, the characters make up for it. That was NOT the case with this book. I couldn’t connect with any of the characters, so I found myself just pushing through this book rather than enjoying it.

Every time I read the premise for a Silvia Moreno-Garcia book, I think to myself, “I’m not sure I’m going to like this.” And every time I’m wrong.

This is a really gorgeously written and original piece of fiction based on the slightly bonkers-sounding premise of playing records to gain magical powers. It winds up being a lot more logical and perfectly rendered than it sounds, but the real prize here is the characters.

Meche and Sebo are, in a way, both a friends to lovers and a second chance romance pairing, but the story is so much more complex and interesting than just a central romantic relationship and its ups and downs, though that component of the story is also really well-crafted.

It’s really how our two central protagonists interact with other characters and how that consequently affects their own interactions that is so brilliantly done here.

Moreno-Garcia is so creative in the way she reinvents and reimagines standard fiction tropes and turns them into something wholly unique and infinitely enjoyable.

It's 1988, and young Meche wants what many teenage girls want - the hot guy from school. She has two friends, Daniela and Sebastian, the best music of all time (fight me, I'm a Gen X-er and there's nothing better than 80s music), and her parents' decaying marriage at home.

And magic. Because this is a SIlvia Moreno-Garcia book, and of course there is magic, and here it is tied to music, which sounds (ha) absolutely glorious to me. But magic always has a price, and then we find out that it's two decades later and Meche has come home from Oslo, where she now lives, and we also find out she hasn't talked to her friends in those two decades.

I enjoyed going back in time to the late 80s, to the years of teenage angst and yearning, and capturing the what ifs of revisiting old friendships.

This was my favorite Silvia Moreno Garcia so far! The characters resonated deeply with me. I appreciated how truly flawed each of them were, and how the goal of the book was never to remove their flaws, but to have the characters grow with them.

While this is not classified as young adult, we do spend the majority of the book with fifteen year olds. Some readers may find the reactions and decision making of the teenagers frustrating to read, but it was very realistic to how teenagers act.

The magic was uniquely written, and the consequences were taken seriously. I wanted to know more of the grandmother's fate and to see if Meche every truly regretted her actions.

Overall I enjoyed my reading experience and felt the atmosphere in my soul. I attribute much of my connection to the story to the excellent narration.

I am a die hard fan of this author. Her books are my "drop everything and read" books. So of course I was going to jump on an audiobook immediately. Especially when I also like the narrator!
I love Meche. I also love the other characters but especially Meche. These kids are just trying to seize power but they are too young to understand the consequences, or the reason for things being the way they are. It is also kind of romantic.

I’m happy to read almost anything Silvia Moreno-Garcia writes.. We follow the dual timelines of our main character Meche from the 80s and the mid-2000s. In this storytelling, we can see how much has changed for her, and how family relationships and friendships have been fractured. She has a brain for numbers and is obsessed with music, and it’s through these passions that she begins to believe magic can be found. While this wasn’t my favorite Moreno-Garcia, and our main character was very unsympathetic, I found myself engaged throughout. The fact that this was Moreno-Garcia’s debut speaks to her caliber as an author.