Reviews

Signal to Noise by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

lblue19's review against another edition

tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

katieinca's review against another edition

4.0

As expected from other reviews: the magic was a light tough, and niftily done. Music (largely of the '80s) as an integral part of the setting = awesome.
Unexpected but very cool: main characters doing things that are really stupid but extremely believable.
Most of the story is told in flashback. The present day scenes felt pretty pale and thin in comparison, but I can live with that.

turtletats's review against another edition

2.5

This book was strange. It felt like every aspect was secondary - the romance, the coming of age aspect, the magic, the music, the family drama, the neighbourhood and school. The sum of all of these secondary/underdeveloped parts was something quite unsatisfying in the end. 

While I thought Mercedes and Sebastian were well developed, all of their character growth happened off page which was also super unsatisfying. 

The rest of the characters felt pretty hard to know. 

Meh

veganhitchhiker's review against another edition

1.0

Whew Chill-ay.

A tough read that does itself no favors.

Nothing feels organic, or fluid. Abrupt plot point to abrupt plot point to failing finality.

shannonm44's review against another edition

5.0

If I had read this book at 15, it would have become my whole personality instead of "The Catcher In The Rye" (which might still have become my personality because #teenageangst). *Stefon Voice* This book has everything: witchcraft, mixtapes, Mexico City, teenage misfits who are incredibly smart, will-they-won't-they romance, escapism, 1.5 chili peppers (but in a good way--it doesn't need to be over the top to be great). I could do without the fatphobia, //and// I think a 15 year-old's internal thoughts are generally never nice, so this is what we get. I wept a little at the end because it pulled me somewhere emotionally. Loved it!

shannonm44's review against another edition

5.0

An excellent book, over and over again. I loved it so much the second time around and will continue to read this book frequently and often.

hagiasophia's review against another edition

2.75

I'm not quite sure why this didn't work for me. I love many of Silvia Moreno-Garcia's books, but I think part of my issue with this one is that it felt much rougher than her more recent stuff. The prose felt incredibly clunky. While I've had issues with her writing in other books, it has improved greatly since this was published. We also didn't get a ton of character development, the characters felt the same in both timelines (in a bad way). The magic system was interesting and this was fairly easy to read, so I am giving it 2.75 stars for that alone.

jaredwill_'s review against another edition

4.0

Such an odd book. I'm not sure what I expected having read Moreno-Garca's more popular books but it wasn't this. I thought it would be some version of the Craft, a scary tale of witchcraft gone wrong. Any description on that vein is underselling this book.
It's a story about how awful we all were as teenagers, and lost love, and lost family and redemption even when we don't deserve it because, in the end, we all deserve it.

isabelle_rosewrites's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional lighthearted mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

readingwithcoffee's review against another edition

I have a physical copy I will now be reading from later :)