“I suggest you look into your own neurotic behavior.”

64. Signal to Noise – Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Meche is not the most likeable of misfits in 1980s Mexico City. She’s obsessive, disagreeable, and doesn’t really make great decisions a lot of the time. She also manages to develop magic through music along with her also socially awkward friends Sebastien and Daniella. And their intense teenage bond is messy and dramatic and very realistic regardless of spell casting.

Meche stays her disagreeable self into the 2009 timeline, in which she’s left Mexico entirely for Norway and has to come back because her father passed away. She bonded with her father over music as well, of course, because that’s kind of the only opportunity she had to bond with him while her parents’ marriage is essentially dissolving.

Signal to Noise is Moreno-Garcia’s debut novel and it’s a story that uses the magic minimally in favor of the drama of family life and being the kind of socially awkward kid that Meche is. If you’re the type that grew up frowning a lot and just not really that keen on pretending to be happy so that others liked you, it’s quite nice to see this type of character represented. It’s not a super fun story by any means, but it did resonate with me because I also care a lot about music and nostalgia and I liked experiencing that through the lens of 1988 Mexico City.

 

It may or may not be obvious from Danger Crumples’ naturally extravagant hair, but he’s my one guinea pig who actually did like 80s music. My first guinea pig liked to nip through my headphones cord. She did it several times.