February Read: Signal to Noise

For some reason I've delayed reading this book for over a year.  No clue why as Signal to Noise has also been on my To Read list for over a year.  Maybe it's the promise of coming-of-age magical realism, which I've found all to often disappointing.  Or maybe it's just I'm always in the middle of too many books I need to read.  Either way, I have a copy in hand and it's this month's book pick.

What I can say is that Moreno-Garcia has a lyricism that serves her fiction well.  All of her story concepts grab my attention, and I'm repeatedly torn between reading reviews or just staying with the teaser text.  I don't want expectations and third party descriptions to ruin the text, though if you're looking for a review, NPR does a decent job of handling it without destroying anything.

At this point I'm a few chapters in, but reading with a slight reluctance as I wait for the hammer to fall.  We're warned early on that "magic will break your heart," and that the first instance of magic is serious injury bodes poorly for their later ventures.  It's a good read, don't get me wrong, I just know things are going to go poorly, tempers will rise, and things will be said that will be regretted.

I do enjoy the poetry of the name, something I'm reminded of every time I do a google search for "Signal to Noise" without indicating the author or book.  From Wikipedia: "Signal-to-noise ratio is a measure used in science and engineering that compares the level of a desired signal to the level of background noise. It is defined as the ratio of signal power to the noise power, often expressed in decibels."

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