This book has an interesting dual timelines, Hazel’s present-day investigations and the haunted past of Oakwell Farms to explore themes of abuse, trauma, and institutional secrecy. The atmosphere is thick with dread, and moments of supernatural horror are balanced by the very real horrors of the “Troubled Teen Industry.” Which makes for a very interesting story. Loved it!

An interesting read for sure! Great characters and easy to read! Just wish there was some trigger warnings at the beginning.

The Silenced is about Hazel who goes to the abandoned Oakwell Farm School. with her old friend Becca for a school project. At the farm Hazel ends up falling and suffering from a concussion. Once she reawakens she fells different and sometimes feels like she is not in control of her body. The Silenced is about Hazel working on trying to find answers on what is going on to her and what happened at the abandoned Oakwell Farm School.

If you are interested in paranormal reads or tv shows like Ghost Adventures, you would like this book. The chapters about the Farm House explain how the teenage school operated before it was closed. This books does a good job at portraying what these schools were like before they were shut down. Parents thought they were sending their children to these schools to help “fix” them but in reality that was not the case. When it was jumping back and forth before it told you who the girl was and who young buck was you could figure it out from the characters in the present. All in all it was a good read and I would recommend this book to readers, if they are looking for a fictional read that told you how the troubled teen schools operated back in the day.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House for the ARC copy for an honest review.

This was an incredible book. Wallach manages to blend history and education into a great ya thriller. The backstory of the treatment of youngsters in the reform school setting is front and center in this amazingly researched story. A group of high school students working on a project visit "The Farm" a former reform school for girls. As events unfold, we are able to get a glimpse into the horrific conditions and treatment of students. This was a great entertaining and educational read.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Diana Rodriguez Wallach for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC for The Silenced coming out September 16, 2025. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I really enjoy this author’s writing! I think she does a lot of research and writes on some interesting topics. I thought it was a sad topic. I was hoping for more of the supernatural and horror without the real life events. I would check out other books by this author.

I absolutely loved this book! It’s a YA horror novel that does a deep dive into the Troubled Teen Industry. Aside from entertaining, and at times scary, the story provides a real learning opportunity beyond the surface level most are acquainted with from the mainstream. For that I am both grateful and appropriately horrified.

After reconnecting with an old friend, Hazel Perez joins her group for a class assignment in which they choose to highlight the former reform school for girls locally known as The Farm. The buildings burned down many years ago and have not been operational since. On a research visit to The Farm, Hazel has an unfortunate accident from which she wakes up in the hospital and not alone. She is haunted by the ghost of a girl who faced the horrors of the reform school.

Hazel’s haunting is terrifying. She experiences memories of the ghost while she was alive. Pulling her into experiencing the horror of what happened at the Farm and leading her to discover painful terrifying realities. The story unfolds through the perspectives of Hazel and the girl whose ghost now haunts her in their own timelines. As these timelines inch closer together with the girl’s ultimate death, the haunting gets more powerful, at times even possessing Hazel and forcing her to act impulsively.

To comment on how scary this book can get, all I can say is I read it while I was on vacation in the smokey mountains a few weeks ago and I was not ok. Kept seeing things in mirrors and the like. But you know, the farther along you get you really do learn who the real monsters are.

To conclude, just want to say that it is very clear how much care the author took in researching and discussing heavy topics. There is so much information on this in the book, please don’t skip it. The amount of time she put into this story to tell it with grace does not fly under the radar in a time where churning books seems to be the norm. Can’t wait to see the book world appreciate it too!

All I can say is wow! This book absolutely floored me. I honestly didn’t even register that it’s a YA novel because the writing is so sharp and immersive. From page one, I was hooked.

The story is told through two perspectives — Hazel, who survives a terrible accident at the Farm and begins experiencing hauntings, and Deirdre, the ghost of a girl who once lived (and suffered) there. Both voices are powerful, and the way their narratives intertwine pulls you straight into the heart of the story. You don’t just read about the abuse at Oakwell Farms, you feel it. The atmosphere is thick and unsettling; the descriptions so vivid you can practically see, smell, and breathe in the horror of what these girls endured.

Yes, there are ghosts and creepy moments, but the real horror here is the abuse, cruelty, and systemic neglect inside the Troubled Teen Industry. The novel does an incredible job of shining a light on those truths and forcing readers to confront just how much has been covered up. That’s what lingers long after the last page.

I also highly recommend reading the author’s notes and research. This isn’t just a ghost story, it’s a necessary act of remembrance, a way to give voice to those who were silenced. Heartbreaking, powerful, and completely gripping from start to finish. One of my top reads of the year. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an early ebook copy in each for my honest review.

What a stunning YA horror novel! The characters are relatable, and all the details of the former girls’ school are vivid and appropriately creepy, especially the smells and the sound and movement of the winds. I appreciated how the author wove in Puerto Rican culture, especially Espiritismo, and her author’s note at the end to explain this context and the context of the troubled teen industry. While I’m not the intended audience as a middle aged person, I’m excited to share this book with my teen daughters.

Thank you to Delacorte Press and NetGalley for the advanced reader’s copy.

Hazel Perez is working on a group history project with her former best friend Becca Mercer. Their topic revolves around Oakwell Farms School for Girls, or The Farm, as locals know it. After an incident during a late night visit, Hazel wakes up in the hospital feeling not quite herself.

The chapters alternate between a “resident”, for lack of a better word, of The Farm in 1995 and Hazel. I think this book read at a medium pace, some of the reveals took a bit to come to light, but it definitely didn’t detract from the story at all and keeps you wanting to find out what happens next.

This book was a great way to kick off spooky book season. The author clearly did her research on real troubled teen programs and I think wove fiction and plausible true stories together very well. I will definitely be thinking about this book for days to come!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read an early copy.

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.