Review: "Silenced Voices" by Pablo Leon

Silenced Voices by Pablo Leon
Published September 2025 via HarperAlley
★★★★

Jose has never been all that curious about his mother's background—which is just as well, because she shuts down any conversation about her previous life in Guatemala. But when something sparks Jose's curiosity, he starts asking questions...and learns far more than he'd bargained for.

This is the second YA graphic novel I've read recently that is largely about a conflict—first there was Tall Water (partly about the 2004 tsunami, partly about the civil war in Sri Lanka), and now this. In both cases, they're major conflicts; in both cases, the conflicts were barely a footnote in my education. Most of this book is Jose's mother's story: growing up in Guatemala, her family, the incredible violence and loss wrought upon her community. We come back to Jose and his brother now and then, as Jose is trying to figure out what to do with this new information (e.g., the existence of an aunt he was never able to meet), but the crux of the story is about his mother.

It's a hard read, but one well done. I'm not sure why it feels to me less violent (to be clear: the telling, not the actual history) than Tall Water did—perhaps because the events in Tall Water are happening in the story's now, while in Silenced Voices it's happening in the story's past. Again, not a comment on the conflict itself, but this book might be a slightly easier starting point for a teenager reading about conflict. Overall, an excellent effort to amplify unheard voices, and makes me wonder what stories will be coming out in a decade or two that are happening now but aren't making the headlines.