Signal to Noise: Moreno-Garcia, Silvia: 9781781082997: Amazon.com: Books

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Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Signal to Noise Paperback – February 10, 2015

by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Author)

372 ratings

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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. The three friends will piece together their broken families, change their status as non-entities, and maybe even find love...

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. What really happened back then? What precipitated the bitter falling out with her father? Is there any magic left?

Print length

208 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Solaris
Publication date

February 10, 2015
Dimensions

5 x 0.75 x 7.75 inches
ISBN-10

1781082995
ISBN-13

978-1781082997
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Refreshing, lively and unique, Moreno-Garcia's debut novel is a triumph." - RT Book Reviews

I know it's very early in the year but I can already tell this is one of the Notable Reads of 2015. - Kirkus

"Haunting and beautifully nuanced, Signal to Noise is a magical first novel." - The Guardian

"Plenty of books use magic to talk about coming-of-age stories and the secrets that people bury... but few of them are as sad, or as evocative, as Silvia Moreno-Garcia's new novel Signal to Noise." - io9

About the Author

Mexican by birth, Canadian by inclination, Silvia Moreno-Garcia's collection This Strange Way of Dying was a finalist for The Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic. Signal to Noise, about magic, music and Mexico City, is her debut novel. She tweets @silviamg and blogs at silviamoreno-garcia.com.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Solaris (February 10, 2015)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 208 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1781082995
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1781082997
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 0.75 x 7.75 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,758,246 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,724 in Hispanic American Literature & Fiction
- #47,115 in Paranormal & Urban Fantasy (Books)
- #77,998 in Literary Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
372 ratings

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Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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Silvia Moreno-Garcia is the author of the novels The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, Velvet Was the Night, Mexican Gothic, and many other books. She has also edited several anthologies, including the World Fantasy Award-winning She Walks in Shadows (a.k.a. Cthulhu's Daughters).

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Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5

372 global ratings

5 star		53%
4 star		29%
3 star		14%
2 star		1%
1 star		2%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Mario A. Escamilla

Will magic improve puberty? Read to find out!

Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2023

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Another great novel by Silvia Moreno-García, about youth and adulthood with Mexico City as a background. Meche (short for Mercedes) is a 15 year old girl who discovers a powerful force with the help of her friends, Sebastián and Daniela. Together they navigate Mexico through the 80s, finding love, conflicts and breakups. In parallel, Meche comes back to the city in the late 2000s, due to her father's death, in modern times she will have to face the past and decide if she is ready to put it behind and rekindle her friendships. All this while finding what kind of person her father really was.

A very witty, inventive and moving read which navigates around Mexican witchcraft culture and folklore but adding a modern touch: vinyl records and the power of music. School bullies, family strained relationships, illnesses and more, are the constant threats in the kids' lifes, and how they react to them will have a permanent effect in their relationship and their future.

Extremely recommended!

Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2015

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A TOP SHELF review, original published in the May 1, 2015 edition of The Monitor

Some of us don’t make it out of adolescence and early adulthood unscathed. Our nostalgia for the lovely moments is forever complicated by the scars inflicted on us by not only our enemies, but by people we love and trust. I was reminded of this truth this week by a powerful book that explores complex issues of family, friendship, intimacy and identity.

“Signal to Noise” is the debut novel by Silvia Moreno-García, self-declared “Mexican by birth, Canadian by inclination.” In 2009, Meche returns to her native Mexico City to attend the funeral of her father, whom she hasn’t seen in years. Forced into re-encountering childhood friends, she begins to remember the period of time (1988-89) when their special circle found actual magic but then spun apart.

The novel alternates between these two eras, each chapter deftly informing the next. In the past, we see Meche — whose radio DJ father gives himself up to dreams that can never satisfy his demanding, uncompromising wife — struggle through adolescence with two other outsiders: Sebastián, a victim of child abuse who lives with his divorced mother and selfish older brother, and Daniela, child of overprotective parents who stunt her maturity because of the lupus she suffers.

When Meche discovers that certain LPs contain magic that can be unleashed and channeled, the trio imagines that their humiliating time at the margins of school society are at an end. But as Meche’s grandmother tries to warn her, magic has a cost. Sebastián and Meche, though each cares deeply for the other, end up at odds and their emotional clash has devastating consequences.

In the present, Meche deals with the aftermath of having left parents and friends behind at the age of 15. She discovers the complex depths of her father as she sorts his remaining things and she reconnects with Sebastián, who helps her to embrace the intense love that still crackles magically between them.

This book hit the sweet spot for me. Moreno-García effortlessly captures the spirit of a time and place (Mexico in the late ’80s — its music, people and popular culture) that resonates with me (and will with many of my friends: this does for roqueros what “Among Others” did for genre geeks). My regiomontana wife and I began dating around this time, and our conversations all week have been about how right this book gets things, how accessible the author makes it all for people unfamiliar with Mexico, too.

But the story is character-driven and without the palpably real figure of Meche — smart, crazy about music, conflicted about family and boys, loving yet fierce, capable of creation and destruction — the novel would not be as powerful. She mattered to me, her relationship with Sebastián was important to me: I suffered with them, wept with relief and joy when I read the final words.

A stunning exposé of the rich and magical complexities of life, “Signal to Noise” is the best debut of the year.

9 people found this helpful

Lisa M. Bradley

More like 4. 5 stars

Reviewed in the United States on March 11, 2015

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More like 4.5 stars; review copied from Goodreads

Music is magic, as any teen could tell you. In SIGNAL TO NOISE, the teen is Meche, who discovers she can work spells with her friends using vinyl records. Of course, the teens seek to change their miserable social lot through magic, with dubious results.

The teens' story is solidly set in 1980s Mexico City, expertly interspersed with chapters recounting adult Meche's return to Mexico City for a family funeral. The back and forth in time feels flawless, as deftly handled as the changes in point-of-view, which allow readers into all the characters' heads (teen and adult alike) without ever being confusing. While the teens' story ramps up to disaster, adult Meche's story is more about internal change. This is not to say the adult story is any less magical--even more so, perhaps. After all, it's easy to believe in magic when you're young. As we age, that faith gets kicked out of most of us.

Some readers will resist sympathizing with Meche, who has a prickly personality and tends to abuse her few faithful friends, even as an adult. But I enjoyed her strong identity and the fact that she is who she is. She grows and improves, but she remains fundamentally herself, which is an admirable feat for anyone, but especially for a female coming-of-age heroine. Her prickliness makes her moments of tenderness even more touching. For example, I loved her relationship with her grandmother, which was gentle but not sappy.

A subplot involving Meche's friend Daniela and a teacher, though completely believable, felt a bit pat to me. I would've preferred more focus on Daniela's self-perception as a person with chronic illness, especially when that illness seems cured, at least temporarily, by magic. But that's less a complaint than a desire for more of this world Moreno-Garcia has conjured. (Luckily, the author has provided a play list to let us live there a little longer: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... )

SIGNAL TO NOISE conveys the raw emotions of the teenage years without slipping too far into nostalgia or downplaying the emotional struggles of adulthood. It's a marvelous balancing act. I can't wait to see what Moreno-Garcia does next!

3 people found this helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Greatgreenbird

Looking forward to more from this author...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 27, 2020

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I picked up Signal to Noise when it was on sale, as I'd enjoyed a previous book by this author and wanted to check out her earlier work. It was entertaining enough but lacked a certain something for my liking, as I'm discovering I much prefer genre books which are actually genre books - this was contemporary with a bit of magic sprinkled over, closer to magical realism than works for me.

The basic premise is that our protagonist has come back to Mexico City after the death of her father, having lived for a number of years in Oslo where she works as a computer software designer. Meche is estranged from her father, a man whose slow descent into alcoholism she had witnessed, but who had instilled in her a love of music and especially music on vinyl. Meche lives her life with a constant soundtrack, whether that's from a battered walkman in the scenes from her childhood or an iPod playlist in the current ones.

Where Signal to Noise crosses into genre is about how music works here as a way of making magic. Meche and her friends discover that they are able to make wishes when they can find the right music to accompany them, starting small with a wish for money that's answered by the finding of a lost wallet. Things soon spiral out of control though, as both Meche and her friend Sebastian want to use this new-found power to cement a relationship with their respective objects of desire (both of whom are basically shallow but pretty). At least, that's Meche's plan originally, till she discovers something about her family and changes her mind.

Signal to Noise is well written and there's a very strong sense of place and time, especially with the flashback scenes, but it didn't 100% work for me. I didn't find myself caring that much about any of the characters and that's always an issue. Another contender for that category of 'books I'm glad I've read but won't be re-reading' and I look forward to seeing if something else by Silvia Moreno-Garcia completely does it for me.

One person found this helpful

Thomas Joyce

A great combination of thoughtful speculative elements and real relationship drama. I love this book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 2, 2022

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I loved this book. Wonderful depiction of the relationships between the main characters and Moreno-Garcia really captures the voices of the main characters, both as teenagers and young adults. The system of magic that she creates, its relationship to music and the power that special, personal items can contain is all wonderfully done. Combine these speculative elements with the very real familial drama and friendship dynamics and we have a wonderful, wonderful book. I'd love to see this adapted for the big screen. I think it would be a fantastic movie in the right hands.

Amazon Customer

Music as Magic

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 21, 2017

Verified Purchase

I did enjoy this book, as it contains one of my favourite ideas, music as magic as well as picking up on the thread of Latin American Magical realism in a more modern day concept.

I love Meche and Sebos as characters, sharp edges and all. It's interesting seeing Meche as an adult but without having grown up that much. Sebos seems less defined as an adult but we only see him through Meche's eyes. The book travels that thin line between having a female character who is difficult to like and does the wrong or unpleasant thing, while still making you care about her and the outcome.

Music to me has always been magic so it was good to read a book based around this. It does seem consistent and some of the most clearest descriptions are of the magic generated by the music and how it's visible in the air.

This book definitely falls into the magical realism category even though the magic is a bit more explicit than usual. The magic is merely a driver for the characters actions and resolutions, which in other books would have been achieved by direct action.

3 people found this helpful

G. D. Thompson

Mercedes

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 17, 2020

Verified Purchase

This is the fourth book by Silvia Moreno-Garcia I have read this month and like the other three I loved it.
What is basically a love story twists in a way I could not have expected.
Good to know teenagers are idiots the world over

2 people found this helpful

Kindle Customer

SF/Fantasy based in Mexico City

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 2, 2016

Verified Purchase

An OK story involving music, magic within it and within ourselves.

Entertaining, brief and different. The book is set in Mexico city, though being a teenager is beyond borders, which most people will identify with. Interesting seeing names of songs and musicians I heard when I was growing up.

Entertaining read

3 people found this helpful

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