I really enjoyed reading Sadie so was looking forward to this. Also the idea of cults and how they operate is always something that intrigues me. This was a mixed bag for me The beginning and ending were nicely paced but I found the middle dragged somewhat and took me a bit longer to get through.
I enjoyed the change of POV from Lo to Bea and also the change in timeline kept it interesting however a few aspects of the story line did fall a bit short and were almost predictable.
Overall, it was an enjoyable read but didn't set my world alight.

The Project was my first book by Courtney Summers, but I've heard much about "Sadie" from friends and bookstagramers I follow, so when I saw there was the possibilty to apply for an ARC of this book, I signed up and received a copy.
Sadly, the book fell flat for me. The plot was predictable, the pacing run zig-zag all over the place and the shifting between the characters - as well as the shifting between past and present - was irritaring me. The main problem I had with that was because the shifts happened mid-chapter. The plot itself held no surprises to me - it was more or less obvious what was going to happen after I started to read the book.
I was very disapppointed, because I had heard a lot of great things about Courtney Summers's writing and I was excited about this book. Plus, I really loved the cover.
I liked Lo better than Bea - especially because Bea's plot line has a very ridiculous twist in the middle of the book and at that point, I skimmed, because Bea started to bore me and the plot itself lost my interest. The rest of the book was exactly what I expected from the pages I've read previously and the plot held no turns or surprises and was just dimpling about the farther I got along.
Maybe I'll pick up "Sadie" eventually, at some point to see why people hype this book so much, but for now, Courtney Summers and I are parting ways, bookwise.

I received a free ARC by Netgalley.

This is my third Courtney Summers book and I really enjoyed it! Kept me hooked the whole time and gave me goosebumps! The cult aspect was very interesting and I would definitely recommend to anyone who enjoys the same.

It is typically not a good thing when I struggle to write a review. The Project is one of these books that leave me with nothing much to say. It is not a thriller, not a mystery, not literary fiction. There was not all that much that even happened in the 380 pages.

The writing itself was great, but it did not move me. There was no real connection to the characters. I did not feel like I was given the chance to get to know them. The narration just left something to be desired that I cannot quite explain. Courtney Summers just skimmed the surface of things without really diving into the how or why.

The formatting was poor and led to feeling like there was an abrupt change that I did not know happened. There we not a new chapter, but there was a jump in time without a transition. Likely, this was fixed before final e-book publication.

Overall, I just thought The Project was okay - not good, not bad. The story was just meh and forgettable. I would only recommend this if someone I know is really searching for fictional books about cults.

This was really great. If I’m being honest, it took me a little while to get into it. Not because of the pacing, because that was good. But because it took me awhile to feel attached to the characters. But that attachment was able to form before the end.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed this more than the author’s previous book, Sadie. It was well paced and kept me engrossed in the story in both perspectives. I appreciated how distinctive Bee and Lo’s voices were, I never got confused. Can’t wait to see what else Courtney Summers writes!

Two sisters separated by a cult with a positive message but endless secrets.

Lo is determined to expose The Unity Project for the harm she suspects it causes to its followers and free her older sister from their control. However, her rookie experience as an investigative journalist does not prepare her for the trials she will face as she learns more about the Project and its leaders.

Readers will continuously question the cult and Lo as the story begins to unravel. This story was an exciting reading experience that left me reeling at the end. The characters are well developed and emotionally draw readers into their perspective. Seeing both sister's points of view was illuminating and added depth to the story.

I readily recommend this story to mystery and thriller enthusiasts!

Lo Denham has been on her own for a long time, as her parents died in the tragic car accident that left her with internal and external scars. A deal with a higher power prompted her sister Bea to join The Unity Project, a secretive community that does not allow even a glance to outsiders. Desperate not to lose a connection with her only immediate family member, Lo has spent the last six years trying to break through the walls set up by Unity and reconnect with Bea. Will an opportunity present itself for Lo to finally find out why her sister has been so silent?

I wanted to like The Project, as I have been a fan of the author's books in the past. The problem was that there have been many YA novels lately with a similar subject matter and The Project just did not stand out. I never forged a connection with the main character and found the holes in the plot to be too large to navigate. Though The Project should have been a quick read, I struggled to finish. For these reasons, I would be hesitant to recommend the YA novel to other readers.

Disclaimer: I was given an Advanced Reader's Copy of The Project by NetGalley and the publisher, Wednesday Books. The decision to review this book was entirely my own.

In The Project, a girl with no family but her sister struggles to build a life when her sister abandons her to join a mysterious group that may be a cult. While not as engrossing as Summers' last book Sadie, this is a well-paced thriller that will keep young adult fans of mysteries hooked.

I want to preface my review that I am not a big fan or reader of YA but I really hoping for the best because I love books about cults. This was definitely disappointing... there was so much more I wanted from this story and I kept completely getting the sisters mixed up so I have no clue which did what...

I love stuff about cults but this one wasn't for me. It struck me as strangely emotionless even though lots of emotional things were happening. Our main character seemed to be more of a device to move the plot along than an actual person. I got whiplash watching the way her opinions and behaviors changed to suit the story. The cult leader had no personality other than doing an occasional Blatantly Obvious Culty Bad Thing that hardly anyone recognized as such. Also, the mystery that the book opens with never actually gets solved? It finally ramps up briefly at the end but it was too late for me.

The Project was an enjoyable read with an intriguing concept that I think its' target audience will love.

After Lo Denham's parents died in the car wreck that left Lo scarred inside and out, Lo's older sister Bea joined The Unity Project. Feeling abandoned by Bea and not buying the charitable front The Project portrays, Lo has spent the last six years trying to prove something more is going on within The Project's walls. After a man shows up at the magazine where Lo works claiming The Unity Project killed his son, Lo finally has her opening to dig deeper into the group. When her investigation leads her to Lev Warren, The Project's enigmatic leader, Lo finds herself questioning everything she thought she knew. She never believed in The Project before but now she isn't sure she can afford not to.

The Project is told in alternating chapters from Lo and Bea's points of view. Lo's storyline takes place in the present while Bea's starts with Lo's accident and follows her life in The Project. In present day Lo works as an assistant at a magazine and has always had a dream to write. Her investigation into The Project was interesting and at times I found myself being convinced by Lev alongside her. The author did a great job writing Lev as an enigmatic leader who is great at charming people to his side. Bea is clearly searching for something after the accident and through The Project she begins to find it. Throughout her time there you see how her views of The Project develop and it was interesting seeing where she ended up. I liked the parallels between both Lo and Bea's experiences and found the ending to be quite interesting.

Ultimately my issue with this book was that I felt it never went far enough. Don't get me wrong, there are some dark topics covered but I felt they were mostly skimmed over. I'm guessing this is due to the fact the book is a young adult novel and therefore couldn't be as dark as an adult novel could. In large part a lot of my disappointments are just that I'm not used to young adult anymore and I expect my thrillers to be darker. The thriller aspect of this story is definitely on the lighter side and I do think it would be a good starting point for teens just getting into the genre.

Overall The Project was a good read that I think teens would really enjoy as it's a nice introduction to the thriller genre.

Bea and Lo Denham are inseparable sisters until their parents die in a car crash that Lo narrowly survives. Bea, depressed and desperate after the accident, falls into the arms of The Unity Project, a religious community that embraces her as she abandons her sister to the care of their great aunt. Years later, alone in the world after the death of their aunt and working as a secretary for a prestigious journalist, 19-year-old Lo is determined to unmask The Unity Project for what she believes it to be: a cult that indoctrinated her unwitting sister.

Full review on BookBrowse.

The Project by Courtney Summers is yet another suspense thriller from the best selling author of Sadie. I had heard so much about Sadie but never got the chance to read it due to other commitments. So once I knew this book was releasing, I read it right before reading this one.

Sadie was super thrilling as well as a full cast of audiobook made the book very very interesting as well as a great experience while reading it. Hence, I expected the same from The Project, but I must say I am slightly disappointed. The book wasn't as good as I thought it to be, but definitely wasn't bad as well.

Lo Denham is used to being on her own. After her parents died, Lo's sister, Bea, joined The Unity Project, leaving Lo in the care of their great aunt. No matter the plot is promising, but the narration and the writing style does not hold it's promises like Sadie did. However, I do not wish to compare books usually, but both of these being so similar in nature yet the outcome is so far from each other.

More than it being page turning and thrilling, it sounded like Lo's and Bea's sisterly story, which was the essence of the plot, no doubt but was over done. The characters being interlinked does not hold the essence of a family. However, the first part of the book is very boring, I felt that the second half was better.
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Thank You NetGalley and Publisher for the eARC in exchange for a honest opinion.

I have a feeling this title shouldn’t have been my first Courtney Summers. After how much I hype/buzz I had seen & heard about “Sadie,” I was really excited to read this one. Courtney Summers seems like an author so far outside of my normal genres, so I figured I would be gripped and entertained. Sadly, I wasn’t. The first ⅔ of this book was so slow, plot-wise, which definitely contributed to my reading experience. It also didn’t give enough information in multiple ways; I didn’t know enough about Lo as a person, her motivations, or her history, the way The Unity Project was explained via Lo’s conversations and Bea’s POV in the past left me very confused, and there wasn’t enough information about any other characters either, so I had a hard time remembering who was who, or caring about them.

So the pacing and length of the book didn’t work for me. By the time things started getting intense, I found myself rolling my eyes at the book’s twists - because I saw the twists coming and because they were unbelievable. I just found myself frustrated because I had no emotional or intellectual investment in it, and because I think Summers’ execution of this really cool story idea just didn’t quite fit.

I am no stranger to Courtney Summers' writing, having thoroughly enjoyed This Is Not A Test back in my hey-day of book blogging. Her ability to weave complex, multi-dimensional characters in dark, bleak worlds and tell a poignant story hooks me as a reader. While The Project has all the dark elements of Summers' storytelling ability, it is a story I felt I have read/seen before.

We are introduced to sisters Bea and Lo whose lives are upended after a fatal car accident kill their parents and leaves Lo in a very precarious position. Wrought with grief, Bea's life intertwines with Lev Warren, the prophet of the Unity Project, who cements Bea's faith in him and the Project when Lo miraculously recovers from near death. Years pass without communication from Bea, and Lo's attempts at contact are thwarted by the Project. Fueled after witnessing a member die before her eyes and utilizing her connections while working at a up-in-coming newspaper, Lo is willing to get to the bottom of what is really going on in The Unity Project and ultimately find her sister.

While reading The Project I was getting major deja vu. And then it hit me. I had watched the second season of The Sinner on Netflix which follows a detective looking into a cult in upstate New York. There happen to be many parallels between The Project and The Sinner that it is quite hard not to notice. Summers' addicting writing style and the overhanging mystery surrounding Bea did keep me invested in the story, but I was not able to connect to the cast of characters nor surprised by the outcomes of the novel.

The Project is an eerie tale of getting to the truth, understanding faith, and diving deep to topple a cult and it's prophet that makes a engaging read, but one that I have seen before. Fans of Summers' will enjoy another gritty installment by her, and new readers will have a harrowing, suspenseful read to enjoy.

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from the publisher and then bought my own copy. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: The Project

Author: Courtney Summers

Book Series: Standalone

Rating: 4/5

Recommended For...: Thrill seekers, mystery lovers, cult readers

Genre: Thriller

Publication Date: February 2, 2021

Publisher: Wednesday Books

Pages: 352

Recommended Age: 17+ (Language, Religion and religious trauma, Romance, Sex/sexual abuse from a religious authority figure, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Violence, Death, and Gore)

Synopsis: Lo Denham is used to being on her own. After her parents died, Lo's sister, Bea, joined The Unity Project, leaving Lo in the care of their great aunt. Thanks to its extensive charitable work and community outreach, The Unity Project has won the hearts and minds of most in the Upstate New York region, but Lo knows there's more to the group than meets the eye. She's spent the last six years of her life trying—and failing—to prove it.

When a man shows up at the magazine Lo works for claiming The Unity Project killed his son, Lo sees the perfect opportunity to expose the group and reunite with Bea once and for all. When her investigation puts her in the direct path of its leader, Lev Warren and as Lo delves deeper into The Project, the lives of its members it upends everything she thought she knew about her sister, herself, cults, and the world around her—to the point she can no longer tell what's real or true. Lo never thought she could afford to believe in Lev Warren . . . but now she doesn't know if she can afford not to.

Review: For the most part this was a good book. I like the world building and the character development of Lo and I really like the twist at the end of the book. I think the book is fairly well written and it kept me intrigued from start to finish. I loved how it was wrote from a dual POV narrative and how the timelines went back and forth between the two.

However, I did not like where the book went at times. I think that the book could have used a lot of trigger warnings because the book went into a lot of places that could bring up a lot of trauma for people especially religious trauma and sexual abuse trauma. Well nothing happened that was violent during the sexual parts, the person that our main characters we're having sex with was in a place of authority and was much older than them. When a person of authority has sex with someone under their care, that's not love it's abuse. And, in my opinion, with the abuser being much older than our two main characters, it gives off pedo vibes. There is also physical and emotional abuse in the book and it gets a bit graphic and hard to read because it's disguised as love. And that's what made this book really hard to read for me.

Verdict: It was good just hard.

Is anyone else a huge fan of cult documentaries? I'm probably the last person to watch The Vow, the HBO documentary about the NXIVM sex cult based out of upstate New York. Courtney Summers's YA novel The Project is a novel about the insidiousness of cult psychology, how anyone - even the strongest doubters - can be seduced into one, and what it takes to leave.

After 19-year-old Lo's older sister Bea joins a secretive group called The Unity Project,  Lo is determined to convince her to leave. Bea joined after Lo was in a devastating accident that took their parents, and has been distant ever since. A mystery swirls around why, but Lo believes its because the cult has her in their clutches. It all spirals when Lo, who works as a secretary for an investigative news outlet, sees a young man from The Unity Project throw himself onto the train tracks. She decides this could be the time for a viral story that will free her sister and shine a light on the cult, all at once.

What she doesn't anticipate is how seductive the cult actually is. Summers' writing and character development really shines in this slow thriller, particularly in its depictions of the cult leader, Lev Warren, and the members - both inside and the ones who left. You really understand why Bea joined - and why Lo begins to be sucked in.

I don't want to spoil anything, but the ending was satisfying and I loved how unapologetically interesting each female character was. This was my first Courtney Summers book, but it won't be the last, and I'll absolutely be picking up Sadie next.

Recommend for fans of the NXIVM documentaries, fans of The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly and The Girls by Emma Cline. Thank you to @WednesdayBooks and @NetgalleyR for the #gifted copy for review.

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After losing both her parents in a car crash and her sister to The Unity Project, Lo Denham must face life without a support system. For the moment she is just an assistant to the owner of the magazine she works at, but Lo dreams of being a writer. One day, a man comes in to her office distraught and determined to find the cause of death of his son Jeremy, who was a member of The Unity Project that committed suicide by jumping in from of a train right in front of Lo. Once she learns of the connection to the organization that took her sister away from her, she decides to dive deep into that world to see if she can learn the truth.

This is the second Courtney Summers novel I've read. Her writing is engaging and she knows how to slowly unravel a story. However, I did not feel as deep a connection with the characters as I did while reading her other novel Sadie. There was something about the development that kept me at arms length, and I never felt pulled into the narrative, which I think is necessary in stories involving cults. It's hard to fathom how people can be led in that direction and not feeling connected to the characters' motivations and inner feelings kept me from understanding how Lev could become such an influential leader with so many followers. While this one did not hit the mark for me, I look forward to reading future works from Summers.

I've never read a Courtney Summers book before this one, but after reading The Project, I will be checking her out. The characters in this book were particularly interesting, and I appreciated the way we were able to see how Bea (and other members) could be indoctrinated into The Project, especially with their message. I found some of Lo's later behaviors in the book to be a bit unbelievable, which was a shame because even though I was so annoyed with some of her choices earlier in the book, at least I could see how her loneliness and trauma played into her choices. I enjoyed the book though, and found it sad but realistic. 3.5/5 stars.