Boys are being trained at one school for geniuses, girls at another. Neither knows the other exists-until now. The New York Times bestselling author of Bird Box invites you into a world of secrets and horror. J is a student at a school deep in a forest far away from the rest of the world, where twenty-six boys are being molded into prodigies of art, science, and athletics. Their life at the school is all they know - and all they are allowed to know. They think of the school's enigmatic founder as their father, and of one another as family. But J suspects that there is something out there, beyond the pines, that his father does not want him to see, and J is beginning to ask questions. Meanwhile, in a school on the other side of the forest, a girl named K is asking the same questions. As K and J uncover the lies, they discover a more thrilling mystery than they ever expected: each other.