Signal to Noise
Signal to Noise is probably the closest I'm ever going to get to a musical in book form. (Well, until ebook technology and creativity mesh in exciting new ways that have to happen sooner or later). The story is about Meche, who is obsessed with music and, thanks to her DJ father, has a deep knowledge of a number of genres. She plays music constantly, flipping around to find a song that matches her mood. I knew most of the songs she referenced well enough to hear them in my head. More than once, I put the book down long enough to pull up the appropriate song on youtube so it could be the background for the scene I was reading. It made the whole experience much richer.
The story is split into two timelines. In 1988, Meche is a high schooler in Mexico City, hanging out with her fellow misfit friends and discovering the magic of music. And I mean literal magic. When they find the right record, they can make things happen, punishing their enemies, healing their friends, and coming across large sums of money. In 2009, Meche returns to Mexico City for the first time in twenty years, to attend her father's funeral, and it's revealed that she's estranged from nearly everyone she hung out with in the earlier timeline.
The earlier timeline is a bit like The Craft with an excellent soundtrack. Watching Meche's world fall apart had me riveted. And Meche herself is an interesting character: stubborn and selfish, quick to anger and slow to forgive. She's a little scary, and becomes scarier as she gets better at magic. Her friends try to rein her in, but she's so headstrong she mostly just drags them along with her. As the story progresses it becomes easier to understand how she could let twenty years pass without talking to so many of the people from her childhood.
The later timeline is more concerned with grief and consequences. It becomes a question of whether bridges can be mended with the maturity and hindsight that time can bring.
Overall Signal to Noise was a pretty great book, and an excellent addition to the current YA canon.
The story is split into two timelines. In 1988, Meche is a high schooler in Mexico City, hanging out with her fellow misfit friends and discovering the magic of music. And I mean literal magic. When they find the right record, they can make things happen, punishing their enemies, healing their friends, and coming across large sums of money. In 2009, Meche returns to Mexico City for the first time in twenty years, to attend her father's funeral, and it's revealed that she's estranged from nearly everyone she hung out with in the earlier timeline.
The earlier timeline is a bit like The Craft with an excellent soundtrack. Watching Meche's world fall apart had me riveted. And Meche herself is an interesting character: stubborn and selfish, quick to anger and slow to forgive. She's a little scary, and becomes scarier as she gets better at magic. Her friends try to rein her in, but she's so headstrong she mostly just drags them along with her. As the story progresses it becomes easier to understand how she could let twenty years pass without talking to so many of the people from her childhood.
The later timeline is more concerned with grief and consequences. It becomes a question of whether bridges can be mended with the maturity and hindsight that time can bring.
Overall Signal to Noise was a pretty great book, and an excellent addition to the current YA canon.
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