Much as Jonathan Lethem accomplished with his Fortress of Solitude, the fantasy elements of Signal to Noise, while important, do not drive the narrative; rather, it’s the sensitive and lovely portrayal of childhood ideals mashing up against adult reality that forms the book’s heart. Meche and her friends are realistically flawed beings driven by a combination of childish wishes and adolescent hormones, finding themselves with an avenue into the fantastic and yet unable to reconcile this newfound power with any emotional maturity. Signal to Noise is about magic, but more importantly, it’s concerned with what lies beyond magic, when the fantasy has collapsed and all we can do is pick up the pieces and go on. In other words, magic itself isn’t important; it’s how we deal with its absence that proves who we are, or what we may be.

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