2015 book 95

Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Signal to Noise
This was a cool book for someone who's both a book nerd and a music nerd to read, I have to say--there are musical and literary references galore. It starts with a woman flying from Oslo to Mexico City for her father's funeral--the father she hasn't seen in almost twenty years. But it soon flashes back to when she was fifteen, hanging out with her two best friends, who she also hasn't seen in almost twenty years--because they learned how to use music to do magic, and something broke them apart. YES, they learned how to do MAGIC WITH MUSIC, it's all so very Phonogram, except that it's really more Mexican folklore type magic. Either way, it's awesome. Moreno-Garcia does a good job keeping things moving while flashing back and forth between 1988 and 2009, and all the characters are pretty great. The teenagers especially felt realistic. I also really enjoyed the protagonist's relationship with her father, and how they primarily bond over music.  The end is maybe a little bit pat, but otherwise this was very enjoyable. B+.