"I want you to ask yourselves something and really think about it. If I were to take away everything about you that you think is you, who would you be? Because that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to kill whatever you think is you. There's no room for you anymore. There's only room for us."

We like dystopian novels. Our inner pessimist/cynic looks at the world around us, extrapolates what we perceive to be deteriorating conditions into a worst-case scenario, and then nods in agreement as we see those events spelled out between the covers of a book. The young adult world has seen its share of dystopian works, but in recent years many come off like watered-down copies of 1984, shooting for menace but only achieving anemic mimicry. Then, a few years ago, FEED by M. T. Anderson hit the scene and became the first book in a long time to really tap into the modern zeitgeist and follow it through to a terrifying conclusion. Now, a worthy successor to FEED has emerged in James DeVita's THE SILENCED, and one only has to look around to see how chilling its predictions are.

THE SILENCED presents a nightmare given form, a totalitarian land that might just be America, governed by the Protectorate who seek to eliminate all traces of individuality in society. Liberties are revoked on a whim, and laws are changed at random to suit the immediate needs of the governing body. The work regiment of students is strictly enforced and observed by state-appointed instructors and administrators. And at the heart of this dark world is 16-year-old Marena.

Marena is haunted by scraps of memory from the night the government came to take her mother away for daring to speak out. She and her friend, Dex, forbidden by law to have a relationship, struggle to conform to the stringent demands of school and home life. She hordes small bits of paper --- the possession of which is a punishable offense --- to write down her memories of her mother. When her art teacher dares to question the Protectorate's policies, the teacher is taken away and the school is subjected to even harsher guidelines. Drawing on the knowledge that her mother resisted, Marena enjoins Dex and their friend, Eric, to form the White Rose, a secret effort to undermine the government's iron fist that threatens to crush their lives.

Based loosely on the true story of Sophie Scholl and a small group of German students whose White Rose resistance group sought to undermine the Nazi regime, THE SILENCED echoes not only the thought-controlling endeavors of that dark time but also evokes eerie parallels to current events. While it's hard to say there are direct comparisons to life outside your window, it's not a far leap to see how Marena's world got where it is. Officials flaunt executive powers, believing themselves to be unimpeachable. Quiet citizens acquiesce because they're being told that the removal of liberties is for the betterment and protection of the populace. It's Marena, paraphrasing Benjamin Franklin, who wisely notes, "People deserve whatever government they're willing to tolerate."

DeVita's talent lies in crafting this very dark world, a place that only recently has seen the changes that have restricted the rights of its people. This immediacy adds to the tension; we see the government crack down on those who still remember "the old days" and step up their efforts to indoctrinate those too young to recall life when freedom was more prevalent.

With the question of civil liberties at the forefront of many minds today, THE SILENCED stands out as an important work that concurrently thrills and forces the reader to think. I may be butchering the old saying, but the sentiment is the same: if THE SILENCED doesn't scare you, you aren't paying attention.