Signal to Noise By Silvia Morena-Garcia
Signal to Noise was recommended to me by a Goodreads friend as being similar to 'The magicians', alas it was not but still good. The story follows three teenagers growing up in the 80's in Mexico City. Meche (short for Mercedes) is the leader of the group, a feisty young woman with a passion for music. Daniela who comes across as the quiet side kick with little to no say in the group dynamic but tags along as shes thankful to have friends and lastly Sebastian, a strong willed and temperamental young teenager.
The story begins with Meche realizing that when she plays a song on her vinyl player and wishing for something it comes true as if by magic. She quickly enlists both Daniela and Sebastian and between the 3 of them they form a coven of sorts. They experiment with different music and different spells, usually the spells are to try and evoke what every teenager desires, to have their crush fall in love with them, an infinity pot of money and to be free from acne.
The story has a lot of ups and downs as certain members of the 'coven' develop their magic skills faster than others leading to jealousy and them trying to hex each other with powerful black magic.
The main things i enjoyed about this was the setting, ive never read anything set in Mexico before and it was an interesting twist to the story and a different interpretation of not only typical family life but also the schooling system. I also really enjoyed the magical elements of the story, i found the concept to be so unique and i really liked how the record was hot to touch when it was 'full of magic'. The side characters such as Isadora and Constantino were down very well they werent over done or annoying and there was a perfect amount of them in the story without them taking over the main plot. I very much enjoyed Sebastian as a character, he is interesting and unique and i would have preferred if it was told in his point of view.
I didnt care much for Meche as a protagonist, she is temperamental and whiney at best. She complains throughout about her parents splitting up and how much it affects her... so what? a lot of peoples persons split up (mine included) you just have to get on with things, I found her temper to be very accurate of a teenage girl battling with puberty but her mood swings and the way she treats her friends and family was a little bit too much for my reading tastes.
The overall story was very good and i loved how it was told on flashbacks with a few chapters being present day. This book isnt well heard of and doesnt have many ratings on Goodreads, it deserves a lot more acclaim really. I highly recommend.
