Signal to Noise was Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s debut novel, and I enjoyed it best out of all her novels that I have read so far (Mexican Gothic, Velvet was the Night and The Daughter of Doctor Moreau). It is a fantasy novel set in Mexico about a teenage girl who discovers that she can perform spells while listening to records.

Signal to Noise opens in Mexico City in 2009. Meche has returned to Mexico because her estranged father has died – and she cannot wait to leave again. Meche first left Mexico nearly twenty years earlier after her parents separated and she had a huge falling out with her two best friends, Sebastian and Daniela. Through flashbacks to 1988, when Meche is fifteen years old, the reader learns what led to Meche’s fractured relationships with Sebastian and Daniela, and what led to her parents splitting up.

Fifteen-year-old Meche is unpopular and considered weird because of her obsession with music. She does not think she is pretty and is always complaining about her acne. Sebastian and Daniela are her only friends and they are just as much as social pariahs as Meche is, with Sebastian being the awkward bookworm who is bullied and Daniela having an unhealthy obsession with the colour pink and who lives in her own dream world.

One day, Meche discovers that she can cast spells while playing certain songs on her record player. She tells Sebastian and Daniela, who are both skeptical at first, but they quickly get on board when they realize that magic is real. And as teenage pariahs are wont to do when they discover magical powers, they cast spells so that Sebastian can get the most popular girl in school to notice him, and so Meche can get the most popular boy to notice her. I get it: when I was a kid, I wanted to be a Teen Witch so I could use my powers to become the most popular girl.

But Meche’s grandmother, who used to be able to do magic herself, warns Meche about the dangers of magic, and of course it is magic that leads to the betrayal that ends Meche, Sebastian and Daniela’s friendship.

Meche’s love of music and records comes from her father, who is a radio DJ and an alcoholic. Meche has a special bond with her father, and she is often sent to the bar by her mother to bring him home when he has had too many drinks. She does not see what a terrible husband and father he is until she learns about the huge mistake he made which results in him leaving Meche and her mother.

I can relate to teenage Meche, but not so much adult Meche, who returns to Mexico City with a huge chip on her shoulder. I personally do not see the point in allowing things that happened during high school to leave a festering wound in your life. High school is only a few short years, it is nothing in the grand scheme of things! But that is the whole purpose of a dual timeline novel, to allow the protagonist, when reliving past events, to grow, to learn to forgive, and to put the past behind her. Signal to Noise is an enjoyable coming-of-age story with a bit of magic, and a lot of references to great music.