Signal To Noise
On sale
22nd October 2026
Price: £22
‘Haunting and beautifully nuanced’ Guardian
In 1980s Mexico City, Meche, an awkward teenager, discovers how to cast spells using vinyl records. With her friends Sebastian and Daniela, she sets about to changing their luck from outcasts into successes. But power has a cost.
Two decades after abandoning the metropolis, Meche returns for her estranged father’s funeral, reviving memories from her childhood she buried long ago. In the cynical present day, when magic is gone, can the distant past offer a path to a happier future?
Signal to Noise is a love letter to music, bouncing between past and present, between the extraordinary and the mundane, to tell the story of a misfit and the soundtrack of her life.
‘Vibrantly new . . . one of the most important fantasy debuts of the year’ Locus
‘It is a novel which doesn’t set out to shake the world but rather to present something that is personal and thoughtful; emotional but sometimes guarded. In this, it is much like the box of mixtapes I’ll always keep’ Vector
‘The book is this rich, elaborate symphony of awesome that defies simple definitions’ Kirkus
‘In many ways, Signal to Noise is a coming-of-age tale, but it’s also the tale of what comes after – and what happens when forces beyond our control, magical or otherwise, are better left that way’ NPR
‘Refreshing, lively and unique, Moreno-Garcia’s debut novel is a triumph’ RT Book Reviews
In 1980s Mexico City, Meche, an awkward teenager, discovers how to cast spells using vinyl records. With her friends Sebastian and Daniela, she sets about to changing their luck from outcasts into successes. But power has a cost.
Two decades after abandoning the metropolis, Meche returns for her estranged father’s funeral, reviving memories from her childhood she buried long ago. In the cynical present day, when magic is gone, can the distant past offer a path to a happier future?
Signal to Noise is a love letter to music, bouncing between past and present, between the extraordinary and the mundane, to tell the story of a misfit and the soundtrack of her life.
‘Vibrantly new . . . one of the most important fantasy debuts of the year’ Locus
‘It is a novel which doesn’t set out to shake the world but rather to present something that is personal and thoughtful; emotional but sometimes guarded. In this, it is much like the box of mixtapes I’ll always keep’ Vector
‘The book is this rich, elaborate symphony of awesome that defies simple definitions’ Kirkus
‘In many ways, Signal to Noise is a coming-of-age tale, but it’s also the tale of what comes after – and what happens when forces beyond our control, magical or otherwise, are better left that way’ NPR
‘Refreshing, lively and unique, Moreno-Garcia’s debut novel is a triumph’ RT Book Reviews
Reviews
Haunting and beautifully nuanced, Signal to Noise is a magical first novel
It is a novel which doesn't set out to shake the world but rather to present something that is personal and thoughtful; emotional but sometimes guarded. In this, it is much like the box of mixtapes I'll always keep
The book is this rich, elaborate symphony of awesome that defies simple definitions
In many ways, Signal to Noise is a coming-of-age tale, but it's also the tale of what comes after - and what happens when forces beyond our control, magical or otherwise, are better left that way
Vibrantly new . . . one of the most important fantasy debuts of the year
Refreshing, lively and unique, Moreno-Garcia's debut novel is a triumph
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
Numerous '80s musical references make this unusual story a welcome blast from the past
Perfect . . . full of appeal, diverse characters & setting, wonderful writing - and magic
If you like well-drawn characters, cool tunes and lashings and lashings of nostalgia, then you should check this out
Signal to Noise hearkens of old, new, broken, and mended love, of what it means to follow a passion and the bittersweetness of failure