The Silenced by Diana Rodriguez Wallach is another brilliant ride from an author I’ve loved for years. Wallach’s talent for crafting tense, gripping plots and fully realized characters shines through once again. The story hooks you from the first page and keeps you on edge, blending mystery, suspense, and emotional depth in a way only she can. Her previous books set a high bar, and The Silenced easily meets—and even surpasses—it, leaving you turning pages late into the night and thinking about it long after the last one.

This book blends haunted institutions, buried trauma, and ghostly revenge into a gripping exposé of the troubled teen industry.

A haunting story about the Troubled Teen industry and the victims of it.

When Hazel visits the grounds of Oakwell Farms School to do research for a group project, she leaves with more than she came with. Hazel has to navigate high school and a haunting, both horrific. With help from her family, and maybe even a love interest, is she strong enough to bring history to light?
Great read going into spooky season!

I received an arc from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Even though this is categorized as YA, I cannot believe that it’s a debut novel! It’s absolutely perfect to kick off spooky season. I instantly fell in love with our FMC Hazel, and this book is perfect for fans of The Reformatory or anything written by Tiffany D. Jackson!

Diana is such a fabulous writer! I love how easily I can connect with her characters, and her writing style just flows so flawlessly. I ended up devouring this one in a single sitting!

The Silenced follows Hazel as she works on a school project about Oakwell Farms School for Girls. She assumes it will be a regular assignment. But on a late-night research trip to the Farms with her group mates, she winds up injured and unconscious. When she wakes, she finds she has violent urges and hallucinations of a girl on her back. Hazel dives deeper in the Farms history and uncovers horrific events. She must find a way to stop her haunting and expose the Farms once and for all.

This has the perfect vibes for spooky season! The writing was so atmospheric. The setting is absolutely haunting and eerie and terrifying. The whole concept of the Farm is so scary and rage-inducing. The exploration of the Troubled Teen Industry was as fascinating as it was horrifying. I really liked the twist throughout the novel and how the haunting was connected. It’s a very powerful story that explores a lot of important themes while being really engaging and fast-paced. I was hooked from the start!

I really liked the main character, Hazel. She goes through a lot but still has a lot of heart and love for the people around her. She really holds her own even when there’s seriously scary stuff happening to her. Her relationship with her sister was really sweet and I loved how they worked together. I also really enjoyed the exploration of childhood friendships that go sour and the miscommunication and complex layers that linger. I especially enjoyed the resolution to this. And of course, there’s a cute romantic subplot which was a nice layer of levity. I loved that we got to see the perspective of a girl in the Farm. I really enjoyed those chapters and found them so scary and sad.

If you love haunting stories with themes of feminism and female rage, I’d definitely check this one out!

Thank you to Penguin Teen CA and Netgalley for the arc!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy

The Silenced by Diana Rodriguez Wallach is a mixed first and third person dual-POV YA horror set in the present day and 1995. Hazel is a dedicated student who tries to keep her head down and is fine not being seen. But when she sticks up for her former best friend, Becca, in class, she finds herself becoming intertwined in Becca’s family once again and discovering secrets both families are keeping. In 1995, Deirdre is sent to The Farm by her parents after she comes out as gay in an attempt to change her.

The chapters set in 1995 have to deal with a troubled teen establishment, particularly one that takes in teen girls including Queer ones, in order to ‘fix’ them when their parents claim they are out of control. There have been a lot of conversations in the past few years about the industry and it never gets any easier to hear about these programs and the things that happened in them. Diana Rodriguez Wallach puts the homophobia, misery, anger, power abuse, and more that you would expect from the premise all on page though it is toned down for a teen audience.

The horror elements were quite well done. Sometimes when I read horror, I can immediately see why the story works better in prose because so much of it doesn’t really work in visual media because it requires imagining the unimaginable and letting that horror of not knowing how to picture something do a lot of the work. This is more visual-reader and visual media-friendly concept but there are a few details, such as when Deidre and Hazel first come in contact, that works best within prose.

Between Hazel and Deidre, I think I preferred Deidre’s narrative. While it is much harder to read and depicts some brutal moments, there is something very raw in her chapters and a lot is done in a very short amount of time. There is no escape for her and she knows there isn’t and it only increases her fury at the mistreatment she and the other girls are feeling and that anger carries over into Hazel when they make contact.

Content warning for depictions of abuse and homophobia

I would recommend this to fans of YA horror who enjoy horror centered on real world issues and readers of supernatural horror who want a YA

4.5 stars
I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.
I really enjoyed Diana Rodriguez Wallach’s previous book, so picking up her next book was a no-brainer. But The Silenced was particularly impactful, as it touched on an issue that has increasingly been coming to light, thanks to the work of Paris Hilton and many other activists to highlight the abuses of the Troubled Teen Industry, not to mention its overlap with other awful institutions like the residential schools that historically worked to oppress, assimilate and eliminate Native American children. And with a compelling subject matter, the narrative delivers.
There are two timelines, one following Hazel as she conducts her school project research into the Farm and its heinous past, and another delving into the past and the happenings on the Farm itself in 1995. These two perspectives work well together and inform one another. Hazel is a compelling modern protagonist, and I appreciate how the story highlights her very real challenges as a teenager, while also reckoning with channeling the rage of those of the past in such an ominous way.
The story is engaging, and it kept me invested throughout. It’s a bit of a slower burn, especially initially, but the second half especially made all of it worth it.
This was an impactful read, and I’d recommend it to readers in search of an atmospheric thriller-horror that attempts to shine a light on an important social issue while also telling an engaging story!

#TheSilenced by #DianaRodriguezWallach is a phenominal read that is hard to put down. Loosely based off from Glen Mills a boys reform school in Pennsylvania that was shut down in 2019, Diana through a work of fiction explores what it may have been like at the girls reform school about 20 miles away. While this novel is a work of fiction these types of places exist even today where atrocities are commited under the guise of correcting children or leading them back to the proper path. These places are not closely monitored by the state or governments that they are located within and because of that are able to get away with things that should never occur. With #TheSilenced it brings to light the awful things that can happen, have happened and are happening even as you read this review. So upon reading this book I hope you take to heart what you read and that someday we can find a way to stop these things from happening ever again.

Hazel Perez has felt invisible since her older sister Angelina passed away, since her best friend and their family started acting as though Hazel and her family no longer existed. She has drifted through school and life since not knowing why Becca her once best friend has become her enemy. In a class that Hazel has with Becca they are given an assignment for history and of course its a grou[p project. As usual Hazel finds herself without a group but after coming to Becca's defense she finds herself in a group with her once best friend. Hazel is out voted on the subject of the project and finds herself at The Farm. A place own by Becca's family, a reform school that has been closed down for years now after a fire broke out.

Deidre wakes one night to find two strange men in her room demanding she get up and come with them that they are here to fix her. She screams for help from her parents as she is dragged from her home but she is stunned to see her parents sitting in the dark in their living room ignoring the entire thing. After a drive to the middle of nowhere she gets her first look at The Farm the place where unbeknownst to her, her entire life is going to not only change but end.


The Farm is full of dark secrets and malignant spirits. A palce steeped in so much anger and pain is bound to be harboring dark energy. Hazel learns this first hand when just like Deidre The Farm changes her life forever, not only hers but those around her as well. The truth tends to come out and after getting hurt at The Farm Hazel realizes that something or someone came home with her. She feels things that aren't her own, she has headaches and feels as though something is constantly clutching at her. One look at her reflection is enough to confirm that something is terribly wrong. A grotesque person is attached to her back, bloody, emaciated and very angry. Hazel begins a fight for her body but also a fight to learn the truth and uncover so many buried secerets of not only her family but Becca's family as well.


I cannot thank #Netgalley and #DelacortePress for the chance to read an Earc of #TheSilenced by #DianaRodriguezWallach in return for a fair and honest review.

As a queer woman with a non-existent relationship with my father and a less-than-healthy distrust in men, this was almost a cathartic read. I say almost because above that, it was devastating and beautiful. There were moments that I was jumping and gasping -- because it is a horror novel afterall, and I did read it at night mostly -- and also moments that I was literally crying. I've read and watched news surrounding the Troubled Teen Industry, and I know how reform schools terrorized young people, but reading this story -- even just a fictional one -- was heartwrenching. When it became cathartic were the moments when the girls fought back. Against their fathers, against their abusers. I felt so connected to them. I only wish I could have seen a certain H-named character (not Hazel) in the Epilogue, but even without it, it was still extremely satisfying of a story.

What also feels so moving in this story is just the way that it's crafted. I deeply enjoy a shifting narrative and a shifting POV, especially when the two come together. The hints and reveals came together so perfectly, that even though I was figuring things out a page or two before they were revealed, I was still shocked and surprised when they came to light. I will always say that that is a hallmark of a fantastic storyteller: when a reader can connect the dots and still have the intended emotional reaction to the reveal. There is, however, one thing about how it was crafted that tripped me up (though nowhere near enough that it's that big of a deal): I do not know what year the book is set? I've been referring to it as the "relative present," because with confirmed ages in the 1995 chapters, it doesn't fully track that Hazel's chapters are in 2025. It's such a small, and ultimately meaningly detail, but still something I noticed.

This book was absolutely amazing. Five stars. No notes. I am very grateful to have gotten an ARC.

Unsettling. Yes, there was the creepy factor, but the depictions of what went on behind the scenes of the Troubled Teen Industry were disturbing. I found some of the characters to be a little boring.



Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Children’s for the opportunity to read this book.

'The Silenced' offers a shocking look at the Troubled Teen Industry. The conditions the teens faced are truly horrifying. In some ways, they are scarier than the actual haunting within the book. The abandoned school setting was great for a ghost story of the teenes who died there. The book follows two timelines: Hazel in the present and a teen from the past. I might read 'This is Paris' now to see how Hilton was affected by her time in institutional reform. 5 stars.

The setting reminds me of kiddos who will always hold a special place in my heart. They deserve better than the resources they were given.
The spooky factor worked out well and kept me from being able to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

“We don’t just teach manners. You girls know that. We teach fear.”


This was such a haunting paranormal thriller in more than one way. Not only do we have the trauma of the past tense POV’s, the girls who were actually at the reformatory farm, but we see the generational trauma that comes with the family members finding out what truly went on at those places, and the familial trauma of grief from losing a family member.

The way that Diana Rodriguez Wallach wove this tale was beautiful and sad, full of emotions and lessons. I had no idea of what truly went on in the real life schools that this book was based on, and Pennsylvania is one of my neighboring States to NY. While an extremely difficult topic to swallow, I appreciated the delicacy with how Wallach presented it to bring awareness all while still providing a fictional tale that kept me as a reader engrossed and in the edge of my seat.

This was my second novel by Diana, having read Hatchet Girls in the summer of 2024, and I have to say I truly enjoyed her storytelling! I highly recommend this tale to horror/thriller readers who equally enjoy paranormal tales and stories inspired by true events.

The Silenced by Diana Rodriguez Wallach was such a fun thriller! I really enjoyed it.
Wallach masterfully blends suspense, horror, and mystery, keeping readers on edge with unexpected twists and deeply drawn characters.
This was a quick, very entertaining read that mixes horror, supernatural, creepy and thriller.
The author does a fantastic job of creating a unique story and atmosphere.
I think this book will make a wonderful spooky October read.
If you enjoyed Hatchet Girls you’ll really enjoy The Silenced.

Thank You NetGalley and Delacorte Press for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7890435026

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-silenced-diana-rodriguez-wallach/1146866144

the execution didn’t fully live up to expectations. Some of the character development felt rushed, and I found it hard to connect emotionally with the main characters. The pacing fluctuated, fast in some parts, dragging in others, and a few plot twists were predictable.

When a group of teenagers go to an old reform school to do research for a school project, one of them is injured and odd things start happening. She will need to find out what happened at the school to get back to normal. The Silenced is the perfect spooky season read. It’s a horror book with a super compelling generational mystery. It kept me hooked from the beginning and will keep me thinking about it.

The main character and her family are so likeable. The book felt spooky at times but never in a scary way. I was surprised to enjoy both the book content and truth research on the troubled teen industry at the end of the book. I was engaged through the entire book. It managed to keep my attention and make me root for certain characters.

This was an incredible book! I always enjoy Diana Rodriguez Wallach’s work and the intersection of Latinx heritage and feminism that she explores. This was a quick read that I got through in less than 24hours. Highly recommend for fans of the YA horror genre.

The Silenced by Diana Rodriguez Wallace is a gripping revenge-driven YA ghost story. Hazel Perez gets stuck in a project group with her former bestie Becca. The subject of their research is Oakwood Farms, a former reform school for troubled girls that now sits in ruins. Oh, and it was founded and run by Becca’s family who still own the rundown property. When the students go to check out “The Farm”, Hazel hears singing and smells smoke. Is it just a prank by the others in the school group? Things get serious when she falls through the roof which lands in the hospital with a concussion and a broken wrist. But who was it calling Hazel and why are they now haunting her? As she digs deeper into the history of the farm, Hazel literally unearths some deeply disturbing facts and long held secrets.

The narrative switches between Hazel in the present day and the traumatic and abusive events suffered by the young girls at Oakwood Farms 30 years ago.

The novel brings to light the reality of the troubled teen industry that is still making news today. You need to follow author Dianna Rodriguez Wallock on socials because she actually walks you through the graffiti covered abandoned reform school that inspired her novel. Super creepy! Warning; the book and the author’s videos are sure to bring nightmares.