This book just didn't work for me because of the format. There were no quotation marks or chapters. It was really confusing. I think the content was good but the organization was too off for me.

I am not sure if the full release will be any different, but I doubt they are going to add chapters. Maybe they will add some kind of separate though. That would be helpful. Even if it is just a space or dots.

So, I picked up the The Project because I had read the author’s Sadie a couple of years ago and thought it was one of the best thrillers I’d ever read - so the author’s follow up garnered big expectations for me. I know what this author is capable of, and I was really excited by the premise, and that’s why I felt so let down by The Project.

Mostly, this whole book just felt under baked. I could totally see what Summer’s was trying to do here, but it just seemed to all be executed with a lack of skill or nuance. When I know this author has the ability to write something as incredible as Sadie, this just didn’t hold up.

I found a lot of this book to be really dull. There were probably 100-200 pages worth of irrelevant ‘religious’ jargon that I honestly ended up just skimming over because it got so difficult to slog through and lent nothing to the story.

There was a very prominent element to this book of romanticising and abuser. I think Summers was attempting to give us an unreliable narrator style of writing, where we see the story unfold through the eyes of someone who does romanticise an abuser, and therefore that is why the characters portrayed the way the are - but this just wasn’t done well enough to pull it off, and therefore so many elements of the plot and characters felt icky.

I felt that there was no element of empowerment to the females in the story. Our main character doesn’t let herself be pushed around by men throughout the story, but then just ends up giving in and ending back where she started. This wasn’t at all satisfying to read. The MC also had a lot of past trauma that was prominent in her character, but it wasn’t dealt with at all. Overall, I just felt like Lo didn’t get any real character arc or development, which was really disappointing for a character with such potential.

There are many specifics I could bring up, and I’ve got a lot I could critique about the ending, but I do want to keep this spoiler free. So, I’ll just say that whilst the ending was pretty decent and had a lot of potential, it was just like the rest of the story - it felt like it was executed without any nuance. Just all round wanted a lot more from this book than I got!

"I am redeemed. My life has purpose. I live with hope. I am complete. The Unity Project now offers that same opportunity to you."

The Project tells the story of Lo Denham, a young woman with a traumatic past who dreams of becoming a journalist. She thinks she's found her opportunity to start writing when she discovers that a local religious cult ("The Unity Project") may be to blame for a recent death that looked like a suicide, so Lo launches an independent investigation. The issue is personal for her, because her sister, Bea, has been a member of The Unity Project for 6 years, and Lo hasn't seen or heard from Bea since she joined.

"I think you're poison. I think the world needs to know... There is more to The Unity Project, and Jeremy's death, than meets the eye. I will not rest until I find out what it is."

Permeated with themes of trauma, loss, faith, belief, credibility, and the search for truth, The Project explores complex issues and raises good questions about what it means to belong to a family, to have authentic faith, and the extent to which we are responsible for how our lives turn out.

"Where is the line between what circumstances have turned you into and who you choose to be?"

The Project is a hard book for me to rate. It's beautifully written - Courtney Summers is truly a master of poetic storytelling. The timeline & perspective shift often enough to keep things interesting, but not so frequently that you get lost in the narrative. But the story and the telling of it are two different things, and while I loved Summers' prose and writing style, the story itself left a few things to be desired.

"If you tell a story - something real, something true - you get to be alive in other people."

I found the inner workings & relationships within the cult to be fascinating, yet infuriating. I absolutely could not relate at all to anyone who would fall for Lev Warrren, the cult leader, and his manipulative behavior, and it disgusted me to see Lo herself being duped by the insanity of The Unity Project. As an aspiring journalist, I wanted her to have better judgment, more maturity, less bias, and, frankly, a sound mind. Alas, she had none of this. I wanted to pat her boss, Paul, on the back, for not giving her the writing job she wanted, early in the story. She's clearly not ready for that much professional responsibility! Good call, Paul. But I digress.

"There has to be something after the hurt and the anger. These things cannot sustain you."

I also felt let down by the ending. The entire book exists on the premise that Lo is going to write this big investigative exposé, and show the world what The Unity Project really is. In the end, the reader doesn't get to experience the payoff of her work. We don't see the article get published; we don't see the journalism world have an "aha!" moment as the truth is uncovered; we don't even get the satisfaction of seeing the scales fall from the cult members' collective eyes as they accept the reality that they've built their lives on a false narrative. The lens is so narrowly focused on Lo, and I would have loved a broader view of how her discovery makes a bigger impact.

"All good stories serve a purpose."

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Thank you to Courtney Summers, St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

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Follow @letteredlibrary on Instagram!

I wish I could say "Courtney Summers did it again," but I felt like The Project lacked the emotional punch of Sadie. I know the story is supposed to be all about how cults "get" you, but I felt like Lo's sudden acceptance of Lev Warren's teachings was unrealistic; and I say this as an ex-cult member. I know how cults recruit; I've experienced it and I've done a lot of research on it since then. This seemed like a fantastical and unrealistic depiction, which is really too bad from an author like Summers.

The Project is a story about cults, sisters, and trauma all wrapped into one. The Unity Project seems like a cult in everything but name yet no one has been able to prove it. Enter Lo Denham, whose sister left her for the Unity Project after an accident that left Lo hospitalized and their parents dead. Years after the accident, Lo works for a newspaper and has a chance to make a name for herself investigating the cult.

As someone who is absolutely fascinated by everything cults, I was super excited for this. I enjoyed parts and dragged myself through others but overall, it was just ok. It had a few twists I wasn’t expecting, and the last 20% redeemed the book from being 1 or 2 stars. The beginning of the book felt slow and overly preachy which made me struggle getting through it.

I also read Sadie by Courtney Summers and just as her previous book, she does a fantastic job of weaving in emotional connections into her mysteries. You truly feel Lo’s hurt as her sister’s abandonment and her desire to reconnect.

If you enjoy Courtney Summers other books, I’m sure this one will be a hit as well.

I received this book free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Okay this is going to kill me to write because I have been interacting with Courtney Summers on Instagram and she’s a doll! Let’s start off with the good.
The cover.. perfection. The actual writing is very well done.
The bad... the slow burn of the story. Literally the first half of the book was very boring and nothing was happening. A lot of god talk which always bores me and makes me uncomfortable. Also so many reviews were talking about all these twists... literally maybe half a twist and it wasn’t even a good one. Like I could see this stuff coming from 10 miles away.
The characters were fine but I didn’t really connect with any of them.
I think if you liked Sadie, skip this one. And if you haven’t read Sadie just read Sadie instead.

Wednesday Books is killing it this year! I feel so blessed, as a blogger, to get to read 2021's biggest releases before they're out to the world. It's so thrilling for me to get to scream about these wonderful novels and have mine be one of few voices in the air. Among these books is Courtney Summers' newest release, The Project.

This book is so twisty and filled with intense revelations as Lo investigates The Unity Project. Summers weaves in two timelines, so that we see Bea and Lo's relationships with Lev and The Project unfold in real time. Nothing about this book is predictable, and I read it over a feverish two days in an attempt to live inside the magic forever.

The real core to The Project is how it made me, as a reader, honestly question the objective truth I thought I knew going in. By the middle of the book, I wasn't sure if The Unity Project qualified as a cult or not, despite the book overtly being about that. Your awareness of truth and lies, manipulation and earnest helpfulness gets challenged at every turn. This book messes with you, but also offers real characters to ground yourself throughout it.

Lo has been dealt one of the worst hands in life. Orphaned by a car accident, abandoned by her sister, and working what she views as a dead-end job at a magazine, but she's still searching for meaning (and for Bea). She carries this story with how she engages with her community and the loss of her sister so actively. As much as The Project holds cult intrigue, it's also about grief and how we deal with being left behind.

If you've read Sadie, you know sisterhood is a big theme in Summers' work, and that continues in The Project. Bea isn't in Lo's world, but we get to know her through the alternate timeline. Both of them have such complicated feelings about each other and the meaning of family. I was aching for them to get to see each other again, even though it seems like the whole universe was conspiring against that. Even through all the missed chances, pain, and sorrow, Lo and Bea clearly still love each other, which honestly just makes some of the stuff that happens to them all the more tragic. I don't want to spoil this book for you! Or turn you against it. I guess... if you like getting your heart ripped to shreds (as many readers do) then The Project is for you!

I'd recommend The Project to any thriller/mystery fan, especially if you liked Summers' previous novels. 4.5/5 stars.

* 3.5 stars. I tore through this in one night, but nonetheless have some mixed feelings about it. I really wanted to love this - I'd been looking forward to it, because I'm fascinated by cults and haven't seen much fiction around the subject. The Project is intriguing, compelling, and unsettling enough, and the layers of trauma, grief, and identity issues on top of the general premise are complicated and really enhance the novel. The book also shows the various forms manipulation and abuse take to maintain a cult. The split perspectives worked well, explaining so much we wouldn't see otherwise and slowly giving the reader more information.

While the cult investigation is interesting, the first 3/4 or so of the book are drawn out, and then the last act happens too quickly. Lo's major change in beliefs felt especially rushed and jarring, and I couldn't quite buy it. The following action and .tragic reveal felt over in almost a blink, and all of a sudden Lo is essentially back to how she was when we first met her.

There was a lot of potential in The Project, and some elements that really worked for me, but I am somewhat disappointed. Summers is a strong and interesting writer, though, so I do want to go back and read some of her earlier work. I'll also just note that this novel feels more like NA than YA.

Overall, this is a compelling, yet tragic story of loss, longing for connection, and the ease of exploitation of those who are hurting. The story alternates between Bea and her little sister Lo’s childhood up to the accident that destroyed their family, and the present time where Lo is desperately trying to reconnect with her sister, who has become involved in The Unity Project and subsequently shut Lo out of her life. The bonds of sisterhood and family resonate throughout this story.

Wow. What a wild ride this novel was, I seriously could not put it down! The Project is unlike any YA novel I’ve read, mostly because of the cult subject matter, but also because of the depth and true value each character had on the story being told. Underneath the mystery and intrigue of “The Unity Project” is truly a story of family and sisterhood. This one is addictive - highly recommend!

I was spellbound by this book. The moment I picked it up I was hooked. It is not my typical read, I like to stick with good old fantasy, but Courtney Summers is a highly acclaimed author and so I wanted to try it out. I am glad I did, this is my first book by her and I'm already kicking myself over not having read Sadie yet. Gonna have to rectify that.

I loved the writing- it is both beautiful and relatable. You get to read from both sister's POV, Bea set in the past and Lo in the present. Bea is the sister who became part of the Unity Project, as she was almost hypnotized by the project's charismatic leader Lev Warren. In order to be a part of the project you have to leave all attachments behind, including family. In the present Lo is bitter that her sister abandoned her for what she thinks is a cult, and once there is even the slightest excuse for her to bring the organization down she takes it.

The Project deals with heavy issues in a very realistic way--abuse is definitely one of the main components, manipulation... Lo is a very vulnerable character who hides behind her cynicism--it is very interesting how things ended up and kind of surprising. I was expecting a twist, but at the end the path chosen is the more crunchy in terms of the human condition and the things we will do in order to be loved and accepted.

A lot of the time I honestly didn't know if The Unity Project was a cult or even bad--the reader has no real insight, and we go in the same ride as Lo in trying to figure our what gives with this organization that seems to have taken Bea away from Lo. Maybe it isn't the organization at all and it was Bea all along who wanted to stay away, not be responsible for a child at only 19 years old. Maybe Lo has created a reality in her head that just isn't the truth...and Lo is all about finding the truth. It is genuinely interesting seeing cults from this lense, as you get to see the appeal and why so many people decide to join into this world. Or maybe Courtney Summers can just make anything work with her magic writing. Could be.

PS; Just going to point this out... THIS IS NOT YA. The MC is 19, her sister is 25. It does not read as YA either--It reads like new adult. New Adult has a bad rep at the moment; as far as I can tell the market is mostly over saturated with heavy romance or erotic novels, which makes it hard to market this kind of book to the adults who like reading YA so The Project is ergo being marketed as YA (also the author has a YA history). It is like saying ACOTAR is YA when we all know it is NA.

It kills me to rate this so low. Because the book had such potential. I did like the alternating perspectives and timelines, but was SO bored by the story overall. It just didn't work for me at all, and the only reason I didn't DNF is because I got an ARC copy from NetGalley, and needed to write a review.

Aspiring journalist Lo is determined to save her sister, Bea, from The Unity Project. Due to its community outreach, many believe the group helps the community with its charitable works. Lo believes there is a sinister side to the cult-like group. Lo is determined to get to the truth and reunite with her sister.

Lo’s dogged investigation into the group earns her an exclusive interview with Lev, The Unity Project's charismatic, insightful leader. After interacting with Lev, Lo begins to question what she knows about herself and the group. She even wonders if she had a misconception of what the group is. Lo begins to believe in Lev.

The Project depicts how a cult takes advantage of the vulnerable and our innate human desire for belonging and connection. There are many parallels to the current events in this country. The Project is a timely, compelling look at how information gets dismissed and the extreme actions individuals are willing to take to maintain their basic need for a sense of belonging.

Bea and Lo both make heartbreaking choices that they believe will help the other. I found myself sympathizing with them even when I felt they were making the wrong choices.

The Project alternates time periods and the points of view of Bea and Lo. The shifts between the characters and periods were abrupt at times. I found the quick changes jarring. While reading The Project, I questioned whether the shifts were intentional changes in flow. After finishing the book, I think it served the purpose of keeping the reader off-balance, much like the characters were. I felt the same way about the novel's pacing. At times, I struggled with the slow pace. In hindsight, the deliberately slow pace matches well with the systematic way that cults work.

The Project is a fascinating tale of sisterhood, belonging, and cults. Definitely worth the read.

It is time for me to be sad. I don’t think I’ve ever given a Courtney Summers novel a rating lower than 4 stars, but there was a fundamental plot twist in The Project that did not work for me at all. But first, the positive…

The writing captured my attention right away. Summers did an amazing job at setting up Bea’s perspective as a child and young adult and perfectly set the tone for the book. Lo’s point of view was filled with emotion and it was very easy to get lost in her chapters as she struggled to make sense of her place in the world and her relationship with her sister.

The world-building and development surrounding the cult was also very well done. It was obvious Summers took inspiration from some real life known cults and their leaders, but still gave it a unique spin that was chilling and intriguing on its own. How that all came crashing down was my favorite point in the novel, though I do wish we had learned a bit more about what was really going on in The Project.

Now for the fundamental twist that didn’t work for me because it… didn’t make that much sense. Big spoilers ahead:

SPOILER: I didn’t buy that Lo came to be with Lev after she learned of his involvement post-car accident. The vague memories she had of him were always framed through the perspective of fear and nightmares. For her to believe he performed a miracle, without question, and fall head first into the cult mentality and into a relationship with him was very abrupt and missed all of the marks for me. I couldn’t make sense of it and couldn’t overlook it considering the history she already had with the cult because of Bea. END OF SPOILER

I did like the ending very much, even though it was super sad. It worked very well with the story Summers was trying to tell and it still left me with a bit of hope that the characters were going to be okay.

Publisher’s Blurb:

“The Unity Project saved my life.”

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.

“The Unity Project murdered my son.”

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 charismatic and mysterious leader, Lev Warren, he proposes a deal: if she can prove the worst of her suspicions about The Unity Project, she may expose them. If she can’t, she must finally leave them alone.

But as Lo delves deeper into The Project, the lives of its members, and spends more time with Lev, 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.

Welcome to The Unity Project.

My Thoughts:

I had high expectations for this book after reading and loving Summers’s last book Sadie. The main problem I found in The Project is the shifting point of view just shifts too much and too quickly. Sure, it was interesting to follow the characters from different points in the timeline, but the constant flipping back and forth between time and character turned out to be distracting and didn’t add to the tension or mystery as it was probably intended.

I definitely need to point out that some of my review of this book is “it’s not the book, it’s me.” I just read another book about a cult called The Children of Red Peak by Craig DiLouie. And while Summers description of The Unity Project in Upstate New York was engaging, my interest started to wane towards the end. There’s a good deal of “promised land” and “The Kingdom to come…” too. That tends to also grind on me. Ultimately, the book came down to two sisters with The Unity Project stuck right between them. Is it Lev that is keeping them apart? Is it the corruption inside The Project or is it the corruption in the real world?

I don’t want to take too much away from Summers’s writing. Bottomline, I’m still a fan and will be looking forward to her next book. I just didn’t connect with this one.

3 out of 5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley, Wednesday Books, and the author for an advanced copy for review.

The Project is a hard-hitting thriller about the insidious dangers of cults- how they suck vulnerable people in, isolate them, and may abuse them. It's a lot, and certainly not one I would recommend widely to teenagers who aren't prepared for the content, even if it's technically YA. That said, I think it's extremely well executed and really gets into the mental and emotional state involved in victims of these groups.

It follows two sisters: Lo and Bea.

In the past: Their parents died in a car accident and Lo nearly dies in the hospital from severe injuries and infection. Bea prays, promising anything if her sister will live. A man comes to save her sister's life. He is the magnetic leader of The Unity Project, a religious organization dedicated to redeeming humanity through good works. Bea is sucked in deep.

Now: Lo is 19 years old, working as a secretary in a journalism office when she really wants to be a writer, cut off from contact with her sister for years. She is there when a member of The Unity Project kills himself, but first he recognizes her. Now she's determined to uncover what this organization really is and find her sister.

Throughout you get two timelines as Lo investigates and we get to see what happens to Bea. It's...a lot. If you need content warnings, do look below, but note that they are spoilery. I will say that while there is a lot of difficult content, most of it is not graphic on-page depictions. That said, I thought this brilliantly handled the issue of cults and the messiness of blurred lines between religion and abuse or obsession. I received an advance copy of this book for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Content warnings include emotional, physical, and psychological abuse. Religious abuse, abuse of power including sexually, brainwashing and manipulation, keeping someone from their child from infancy, attempted murder, murder, grief, death of family members, hospital/medical trauma.

This book absolutely floored me and I inhaled it in a single day. It's a brilliant and haunting book that cuts right into the power and pain that cults are centered around. Courtney Summers has the ability to write incredibly compelling characters and the girls who her stories are centered around are given the chance to be messy and hurt, but yet still find their inner power and strength. The girls of The Project are no different, and Lo and Bea's story is deeply compelling and traumatic and real. Where the book really shines is in how it pulls both the reader and Lo into this world of the Unity Project until we too begin to buy into them, or at least until we begin to truly understand why anyone would join such a group, including Bea. The horror and the abuse that underlie cults, like in real life, is saved for later until you've already been drawn in too far. The characters of the Unity Project too are all deeply complicated and again, a masterful portrayal of all the different people involved in allowing cults to continue and succeed. This is ultimately a book about pain and grief and the things we do to try to heal and feel whole, even when the paths that puts us on are deadly.
I really loved this book and I can't recommend it enough. Bravo to Courtney Summers.

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I wanted to like this book. I think cults are fascinating and wonder what makes someone so susceptible to such. This book was very disjointed and I didn't even get a real feel for the cult until almost 80% into the book.

I went into this book knowing only that it was somehow about cults. I’ve read and enjoyed other of Summers’s novels, so I was eagerly waiting for this one. While I ultimately liked it and will recommend it, especially to people who enjoy reading about cults, there were a few things that kept this from being a five star read for me. First, I thought that knowing that it’s about cults (even just a little) undercuts a lot of the central question of the book. Lo spends much of her time trying to figure out if The Project is a cult or not, and the structure of the book encourages the reader to question that as well. I never had much doubt about that, since “cult” is baked into the pitch, and therefore I didn’t find the questioning very believable. Related to that, I found Lo to be an extremely frustrating and naive character, despite the objectively horrible things that happen to her. Finally, the pacing of the book felt a bit off to me (again, perhaps because the big reveal wasn’t all that shocking if you go in thinking “cult”). In particular, the competing plot with Lo’s employer and magazine publisher came in at jarring moments and for frustrating reasons.

Again, this will appeal to a lot of readers, especially YA ones. With the pacing issues, however, I don’t know if it will have as much crossover appeal for adult readers as Sadie does. 3.5 stars