From the critically acclaimed author of Vox comes a suspenseful new novel that explores a disturbing alternate reality where the government has legalized eugenics. Elena Fairchild is a teacher at one of the state's new elite schools, where children undergo routine tests for their quotient (Q). Those who don't measure up are placed in the many state boarding schools that have cropped up under a new government mandate--Elena's daughter, Freddie, is one of them. In order to be with Freddie, Elena immediately requests to transfer to the state school. To her horror, she learns that the children are receiving the bare minimum of instruction. Instead, they spend their days making handcrafted goods--valuable commodities in the age of machine-made products. What began as a shock quickly becomes a nightmare as Elena discovers the terrifying atrocities inflicted upon the students. Not only have their test scores been tampered with, but they're also unwitting subjects of experiments, one of which tests a new method of chemical sterilization. The plan? To render all adolescents with undesirable quotients infertile...and Freddie may be next in line.