i enjoyed the story in general, i feel like it was a bit underdeveloped in some ways, specially the setting, but i liked the magical realism and the characters. great cover change.

Silvia Morena-Garcia is one of those authors whom I will always pick up their books, regardless of how I felt about their previous ones. Her writing is some of my favorite and I love the worlds and novels she comes up with. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy "Velvet was the Night," the last one I read. I ended up rating it only 2 stars, so I was a bit apprehensive. However, I shouldn't have worried –– I really, really loved this book.

This novel is told from a dual perspective: 1988 and 2009. I think this model works really well for the development of the story and keeps the reader wanting to read more. When you're reading the 2009 section, you want to know why the characters are acting as they do and what happened in 1988 to make them that way, for example. It pushed the narrative forward and even though not too much happened over the course of the novel, it felt as if it had.

I also really enjoyed the magic system –– I thought it was super unique and meaningful to each of the individual characters. I loved how Garcia played on the idea of music having power because it absolutely does and she really highlights that in the book. I'm by no means a music expert and there were a lot of songs I didn't recognize but now I want to check them out!

Meche, the protagonist, is prickly and mean. I don't think that everyone is going to like her but I adored her. (Maybe I saw a bit too much of myself in her?) But she's a unique, refreshing protagonist and so complexly human. I loved seeing her journey throughout the course of the novel and how, even though she's changed over the 21 year gap, there are still some elements to her that were the same.

Beautiful storytelling. It was just right. Not too much, not too little. The ending was brilliant and put a smile on my face.
I did not want to stop reading, and I’m not a fan of the 3rd person POV what so ever. The flash backs were vital to the story, and are sure to capture and ensnare a reader’s attention from beginning to end.
I wanted to hug Meche, Sebos, y Daniela. Their journey is one I’m sure many will relate to.
First YA novel I read in some time, but I must say it is one that hits home. It also might be why the magic aspect went over my head. However, it was thrilling to read all the same.
Don’t usually have songs popping up to describe books, but I couldn’t help but think of Matilda x Harry Styles… just a teeny vibe though.
Overall great read and one for the shelf!

Signal to Noise is an intriguing take on realistic fantasy and coming of age story telling.

The writing is very spot on for Silvia Moreno Garcia. Slow to start, but quickly pulling in the reader and ending in a way that makes it impossible to put down for the second half of the book.

I loved the interesting take on music and how music and culture were blended together beautifully.

The use of time period changes/POV changes kept up the suspense in the two connected stories that were happening - the past and the present.

I did not find the main character Meche to be likable. In both adult and teen form, Meche was selfish and mean. Personally this made me more heavily invested in the other two characters, Sebastian and Daniela. And may have contributed to my never ending love for Sebastian. In terms of characters, the tension the slowly built between Sebastian and Meche was very well done and highly interesting.

Some of the phrasing was a bit confusing. Specifically in terms of some of the more action packed sequences. It had me rereading and hoping I was getting the imagery correct.

Overall, would I recommend? Yes, to a specific reader, not everyone.

Do I still want to read everything from this author? Fudge yes!

I loved the last book this author did and this one didn’t disappoint. Definitely had all the elements I was looking for in a book. I’d definitely recommend this to anyone

Signal to Noise is a historical fiction novel set in Mexico City in 1989 and 2009.

In 1989 Meche spent her days attending school and listening to music with her friends
Sebastían and Daniela, but in 2009 things are very different. Long gone are the days when they spent their days making magic with music and instead, Meche is back home for her estranged father’s funeral.

The story was okay, it is a cute story about friendship and magic on one side and strangers reconnecting on the other. I think that this book does a beautiful job of showing what Mexico really is like. Even though I wasn’t a kid in Mexico in the 80s I could still feel nostalgia for my childhood. There were also things like having “Honores a la Bandera” every Monday morning at school, eating candy like Pelon Pelonrico, bands like Mecano, and Timbiriche, artists like Luismi, and other songs mentioned in the story that made me feel all warm inside as I grew up listening to them because of my parents.

I had a few issues with this book, mainly with the main character, Meche, I understand that she is 15 but even as an adult I found her barely tolerable at times. The plot was also explained more than shown and we don’t know what happened in those 20 years. It’s glossed over but not explained fully, which I wish it were as it would’ve added more depth to the story.

If you are looking for a light fun read with light magical elements this is a great choice.

Signal to Noise will be published on September 13th.

Thank you Netgalley and Rebellion Publishing for sending me an Advanced Copy in exchange for an honest review.

I can't believe this is the author's debut novel.
It felt so magical and wistful!
The author perfectly captures a realistic teenage voice, which includes all of the optimism and confusion and annoying traits that all teenagers have.
The best part?????? Music !! I loved how the author has integrated it into the storyline <3

Signal to Noise follows Meche and her two friends as they discover magic and begin to harness it to bend the rules to their own will. The story alternates from 1988 when they were teens using magic, to 2009, twenty years after an abrupt end to their friendship, when Meche returns home to Mexico City for her fathers funeral.

I’ve read some of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s other works and really enjoyed them, and while I thought this was good, I was a bit disappointed by it. I could definitely feel in the story and writing that this was her first novel. The writing was not bad by any means but coming from her later works, I could see how much she had developed since writing this. The future pov didn’t add much to the story in my opinion, and honestly I think could’ve been cut out completely, as well as the romance between Meche and Sebastián. The two characters lacked the chemistry that I think they were supposed to have. In the end when they revealed that they had been in love with each other the entire time, I did not buy it at all. While I was reading this I found that not much happened for a majority of the book, it is almost 400 pages yet it doesn’t get very interesting until the last hundred pages. When it does finally get a bit interesting at the climax of the story, it ends. It ends fairly abruptly, leaving it feel almost unfinished. The climax felt like it should’ve just been the beginning of the action but was actually the end, which was quite disappointing.

Still, there is a lot about the book that I can appreciate. Silvia Moreno-Garcia is excellent at capturing an atmosphere, and the 80s Mexico City setting was very cool. The scenes that followed the characters wandering the city were great and I really wish there were more of them. The characters, particularly Meche, had so much personality and the parts where they were all hanging out and just being teenagers were very enjoyable. They made dumb choices with dumb motivations, and were occasionally mean to each other, but it felt like real dumb teenagers. Lastly, the magic and how it was harnessed was so unique and fit the setting of the story so well and I thought it was well done.

Overall, I didn’t love this book and wouldn’t necessarily recommend it to everyone, but I think it is still worth checking out for fans of Silvia Moreno-Garcia. I also think the story of teenagers using magic in the late 80s could be appealing to fans of Stranger Things or The Craft, so if that’s you, maybe give it a try. I gave this a 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4.

Like all of Silvia Moreno-Garcia's books, this is a deep and complex novel. It's intricately plotted. It takes place in the 80s, It is part coming-of-age story mixed with romance, morally gray characters and supernatural magic, It's about a fifteen girl who can cast magic spells using vinyl records in 1988 and who is returning to Mexico City two decades later as a grown woman for her father’s funeral. It's an interesting concept. A great book!

Thanks to the publisher for the arc.

I first fell in love with the writing of Silvia Moreno Garcia in 2015 when I read Signal To Noise. Since then, she has blown up in much deserved popularity (The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, Velvet Was the Night, Mexican Gothic). Rebelion books has reissued her debut novel and I am recommending it here !

In Signal To Noise we meet Meche (Mercedes) and her two outcast friends living in Mexico City and attending private school in the 1980's. When Meche discovers her power to cast spells via vinyl records, the fun begins! There is a bit of YA unrequited and mismatched love, a bit of revenge and of course supernatural flavors. As many debuts, there is a bit more of the "tell" than the "show" but this novel still spoke to me. Much like the mixed tapes of the 80's there truly wasn't a lot of international literature available to a willing reader and I ate up the descriptions of Mexico City. If you are a Sylvia Moreno- Garcia fan , Mexico City fan, or just love YA love stories with a twist, then Signal to Noise is for you!
#SilviaMorenoGarcia #SignalToNoise #RebellionPublishing

~Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review~
A whimsical coming-of-age story about a 15-year-old girl growing up in Mexico City as she discovers love, friendship, and, above all, magic. The banter in this story was AMAZING, especially between our main character, Meche, and her best-friend Sebastian. I loved that the duel timelines of this narrative gave the reader a sneak peek into Meche's future and that the changing of POVs (despite how many there were) gave the reader a new and necessary perspective into Meche's story. While I wish the magic that Meche and her friends discovered was better explained and utilized throughout the story, I can't deny how magnetic this story and its characters were, so much so that I devoured this book in a day! This was a great introduction to Silvia Moreno-Garcia and I can't wait to explore more of her works!

I have not read all of the works of Silvia Moreno- Garcia, but those that I have read have been favorites of mine. (Certain Dark Things, Gods of Jade and Shadow, Velvet Was the Night). Even though her books are NEVER the same, each of the three books that I have read so far has ended up being a favorite of mine. Now, with Signal to Noise, I can count that as FOUR favorites. This book was absolutely fantastic. Told in two timelines of 1988 and 2009, Signal to Noise is the story of Meche, a fifteen girl who learned to cast magic spells using vinyl records in 1988 and who is returning to Mexico City two decades later as a grown woman for her father’s funeral. During this return trip, Meche is forced to confront her broken friendships with Daniela and Sebastian, both of whom meant a great deal to her in 1988, but with whom she had a falling out in 1989.

This novel has music, magic, love, friendship, family, and a bit of nostalgia. Basically, there is a little bit of everything that I love in a book. I could not love this one more!

Personal rating:
4.25🌟, rounded to 4🌟


Favourite quote:
“The only problem is I don't stitch spells anymore.”
“Why not?”
“I hurt people, once.”
“Did they deserve to be hurt?”
Grandmother touched Meche's chin. “Don't they always, when you're a girl?”


This is surprisingly good? I'll be honest, when I first started the story, I was already slightly irritated because the formatting went to crap when I opened the PDF file on my Kindle. Not blaming anyone, just an unfortunate thing is what it is.

Still, despite that, I found myself very much enjoying the story. Even when Meche's being a music snob, I barely minded her endless music references, which is wild to me 😌

Plus, we were only given glimpses of the dad but he still managed to make my heart ache?? My feelings remain to be quite complicated when it comes to that sad, miserable man, which I'm sure is exactly what Meche (and maybe even her mom) feels towards him. Kudos to the author for succeeding in making me feel this way.

I do feel the ending is slightly too easy for my liking, though, which ended up impacting my enjoyment of the entire story. Reminds me all over again that endings do affect you quite a lot, seeing as they serve as stories' conclusions and all.

I still had a great time overall, can't wait to read more from Silvia Moreno-Garcia. She's on the fast track to becoming my new favourite author 💖

I love Silvia Moreno-García's writing, and it was no different in Signal to Noise. Everything felt so lyrical, so perfectly described, that it's like you're inside the story watching as everything unfolds. I did have an issue with it but let's start with what I loved first.

The Good
- While the summary does talk about magic, the book doesn't focus on that aspect as much. Since the timeline is divided in the past & the present, I think the present showed that sometimes mundane things can have magic of their own and I liked that.
- Daniela is an absolute sweetheart and she deserves the world
- Sebastián is so cool and he also deserves better
-With all of the songs mentioned in the book a playlist can easily be created and they're all bops
- Like I said before, SMG is something else when it comes to writing. I haven't read a book of hers that I didn't like

The Bad
- Meche, that's it.

It's hard when the only bad thing in a book is the main character, but Meche was just plain awful. Look, I love unhinged and unlikeable women in stories, yet there was something about Meche that I just couldn't stand. It felt like everyone grew up except her. She held a grudge against her friends over something that they truly saved her from because it was dangerous, and she held on to that anger for years. It's hard to love a character when they don't evolve in any shape or form. She sort of got better near the end but I couldn't root for her.

I'm still giving it four stars because the story is really good and it was easy to get past Meche's tantrums when the story offered other POVs.

This is a republished edition of her debut book and it is a work of music, magic, and love that shines. Set across dual timelines in Mexico City it is a fantasy, a love story and ax coming of age story rolled into a single beautiful book.

The characters are complex, flawed and totally relatable. The story is a tribute to great musicians and songwriters and of course Mexico in all it’s complex, strange and wondrous beauty.

There are no major occurrences or plot twists, but once again she delivers a story that is powerful in its own right.

An incredible read, well written with a captivating storyline, well developed characters and nostalgia aplenty. I really loved it,

Childhood friends to lovers. Second chance romance. Found family. Flashback scenes. Magic, music, and morally grey main characters. I love this book so much.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia did it again. She makes me fall in love with her stories every time I open one of her books, and even though this one is a bit different from what I have read from her before, it was no exception. The story is filled with music, magic and love. Sometimes these interwine and this mix creates and transforms everything we will be reading. Meche was such a complex character, I could relate to her on ocasions, and there were moments where I just wished I could talk her out of many things. The story does not have major plot-twists or great/grandiose revelations but it does not mean that it won't make you feel things, and that is very powerful.

This story, with its many layers of significance, deeply felt emotions, and real life characters felt so relatable to me that I felt spoken to in a soul level.

One of my favorites by an author that writes profound books.

Really fun book about adolescent love in every frustrating aspect of it. This novel is filled with magic, love,. and friendship like no other.