I was so excited to read this book. I loved "Sadie" and when I read that this book was exploring cults, I couldn't have been more interested. Alas, because of this, I feel my expectations were way too high.

Bluntly, this was a disappointment. I found it slow to the point of boring, lacking character development, and at times it was hard to follow. I found myself not interested in reading it and that led me to taking far too long to finish the book. Although I found myself not wanting to read it, I kept pushing ahead to complete it for the NetGalley review.

This book is about a young woman named Lo whose sister, Bea, has been entangled in The Unity Project, a religious 'cult' founded and led by a man named Lev. After Lo witnesses a shocking event with relation to The Unity Project, a man comes to the magazine office where Lo works claiming that The Unity Project is responsible for the death of his son. With Lo's sister involved with The Unity Project, Lo takes a special interest in investigating The Unity Project, even though it's not her job and her boss doesn't want her to be doing this work. While Lo is trying to figure out if The Unity Project has ulterior motives and is actually a cult and attempting to find out where her sister Bea is, she becomes entangled in Lev and The Unity Project herself.

The book also jumps back in time to Bea's perspective and how she became involved with The Unity Project and Lev as a young woman dealing with loosing her parents in a car accident that left Lo in critical condition. Bea immerses herself with Lev and The Unity Project in the subsequent years.

Bea's past chapters lead up to Lo's chapters in an intriguing way. I kept wondering how they were going to intercept. Additionally, I was genuinely curious as to what happened to/where was Bea.

I didn't understand Lev's magnetism. It was hard for me to imagine the 'miracles' he was conducting as they were never fully detailed. I felt like Lo and Bea were not well-developed characters. WHY were they interested in The Unity Project? WHY were they interested in Lev? I didn't understand it.

I feel like this book would have been much better as an adult book instead of a young adult book. I think the author was toning down things to keep it in the young adult genre. Overall, the potential for a great adult literary book was there, but it just ended up being an unremarkable young adult read.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC for an honest review.

Two sisters lose their parents in a car accident. Younger sister Lo, who was severely injured in the accident, struggles to survive while older sister Bea joins the Unity Project, led by its charismatic leader Lev Warren. Once healed and beginning her career as an aspiring writer, Lo seeks to find her sister and learn more about the Unity Project. Is it a charitable organization/commune or a dangerous cult? Lo is witness to a suicide and learns that the young man was a member of the Unity Project.

Lo’s story is told in present day and we learn about Bea’s journey several years in the past as she falls under the spell of Lev. The author does a good job creating doubt about the Unity Project. Is Lev a good man or an evil manipulator?

The Project is targeted for a YA / Young Adult audience. While I found too many unanswered questions in both sisters’ stories to be fully satisfied, I’m attributing that to my not being the intended reader. Courtney Summers’ writing is excellent. Teens should find The Project, with its suspenseful storytelling and the search for identity and family, very appealing.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/ Wednesday Books for the opportunity read this absorbing book in advance of its February 2, 2021 release.

Rated 3.5 stars.

First of all, that COVER is fantastic! I wanted to read it right away for the cover and of course the author of "Sadie" wrote this book.
Lo witnesses a strange suicide in the very beginning of the book. They are connected by Paul. She lives in a town outside of New York and dreams of becoming a writer, while she works for a magazine. Yet she is only the assistant of Paul and he won't promote her. The beginning is kind of slow as the story unfolds.
Lo has a sister, Bea. We get two POV's, Lo's which is in first person and Bea's which is in 3rd person. There is a complex sister relationship there, as we find out. Bea joined The Project and Lo hasn't seen her sister since. The Project is the epitome of a creepy cult.
Strangely, the book has no chapters, which I was not fond of. But the story is fascinating and the writing is gripping and beautiful. I recommend this to all readers, not just YA. 4 stars.

I was so excited when I got this book as an arc because I absolutely loved Sadie. If you have never read Sadie before, I highly recommend the audiobook version because it’s amazing! Needless to say, I was more than happy to get my hands on this book.
This story follows a girl named Lo, who felt alone her entire life. She lost her parents in a car crash when she was younger and the only person she had left by her side was her big sister, Bea. Lo was in the car with her parents when the accident occured and she was severely injured, but she survived against all odds. But right after the accident, Bea left Lo to join a very famous cult named The Unity Project, and they never saw each other again. This organisation is well known in New York for helping people in need and for their community outreach. But Lo is not convinced they are as good as they claim, and she believes they are hiding secrets that would reveal their true nature. After some suspicious activity, she decides to do her own investigation on what is really going on and she becomes even more determined to find her sister.
To be completely honest, I didn’t love this book. There were two main reasons for this: Firstly, I don’t usually find fictional books about cults and/or religion very interesting - and that’s on me, I know -, so overall I found the book a bit boring. Secondly, there was a point near the end where things just started to make no sense. This is due to the fact that there was a big change in the plot near the end that didn’t work very well, so unfortunately that part felt very rushed and misplaced.
On the good side, I really think this book has a very interesting take on religious cults and leaders in general. The story is very unique and I think the author did a great job combining this topic to a mystery novel.
This is only my second book from Courtney Summers so I don’t know that much about this author from her work, but if sibling relationships are her part of her style, she sure does a great job portraying them. I saw this before in Sadie, and I also see it clearly in this book.
I absolutely loved Sadie, but this didn’t work as well for me. I think it’s a great book to pick up if you are interested in mystery books or books that talk about cults and faith.

Courtney Summers does it again! Summers delves into the world of cults and how they prey on those who need something or someone to believe in the most. The Unity Project and its magnetic leader Lev bring in two sisters at two separate times. Bea prays to a higher being, begging whoever is listening to save her sister from the horrific accident that killed their parents. And someone does listen. Lev. She is indebted to him and finds solace, comfort, belonging after her world has been shattered. But in doing so, she leaves behind Lo. Fast forward to Lo as a young adult who has never given up searching for her sister. And this path leads her straight to The Unity Project.

Courtney Summers you've done it again. The Project alternates between two sisters perspective, and how their difficult life effects them in different ways. Summers shows how when someone hits rock bottom it's so easy to latch onto anything that gives them the slightest bit of comfort, even if that comfort is in a cult. While I was able to easily anticipate what was coming next, I still was so invested in watching everything pan out. This book confirmed my disdain of organized religion and I nearly through my kindle across the room around the 75% mark in frustration.

I want to start this review by admitting that I just requested this book because of it’s beautiful cover. I would also like to state that it wasn’t until after I had started reading this book that I realized that this is the same author that wrote Sadie. I have yet to read Sadie but it’s a book that has been very high up on my TBR. Now upon finishing The Project, I NEED SADIE!

What to say about this book other than: I want to sing its praises. This book is everything I needed at the moment. Having fallen into a bit of a slump and having started 5 other books that really weren’t holding my attention I decided to start this gem. I just had a feeling about it. And it didn’t disappoint.

In The Project we are following Lo, Bea, and The Unity Project. Lo and Bea are sisters. Their parents died in a car accident of which Lo was also a victim of. Somehow Lo survives but her life after is never the same. Bea obviously is distraught at the cards that life has dealt her and decides to leave the world behind, including her sister, and join The Unity Project. This group of people have the hearts of the people in NY. They do AMAZING things for the community. Lo doesn’t like them very much because her sister left her for them. So, naturally she sets off on a quest to uncover some things involving this group and a death that’s somehow linked to them.


The beginning of this novel hooks and grips you in such a way. I was instantly drawn in by Bea’s story and how she came to find out about and accept her new little sister, Lo. I loved the bond between them so much. I truly thought this novel was heading in a whole other direction (I don’t read synopsis prior to reading) but was pleasantly surprised when it didn’t. As the novel unfolds I find myself really invested in Lo finding her sister, really feeling her despair. Summers does such a great job at unfolding the different layers within the story. This novel is told in different timelines, it toggles A LOT between the different years that the events transpire in. At first I thought I was going to be heavily confused, which I was, but this quickly restores itself leaving you with a clear picture of what’s going on. The mysteries and secrets are so interesting and the author does such a great job of uncovering them, making this a page turner. I just couldn’t get enough of the story, and the characters. I needed to know the truth! And the truth I got. It was the perfect ending, IMO. Also, the sceneries in the book were so amazing and so vivid that I felt like I was physically in those scenes.

Ok, I'm going to stop rambling on and on about this book. If you love novels about cults, family secrets and beautiful winter scenes, then this book is for you!

Lo is a 19 year old secretary for a CEO of an up and coming magazine. She's an aspiring writer with a difficult past. When she was younger, she was in a car crash that killed both her parents and left her older sister completely broken. Her sister, Bea, finds comfort in a man named Lev, who leads Bea to believe that he brought Lo back from the dead. Bea falls into Lev's world of The Project and cuts off all ties to Lo and their great aunt Patty. Years later, a mysterious boy speaks to Lo telling her to find the truth before taking his own life in front of her. With no family left, Lo is desperate to find Bea and help her out of this cult. But not everything is as it seems. Lo finds herself wrapped in the world of The Project and may not be able to find her way out.

I wanted to like this book. I saw so many people raving about it. But I think I was let down by all the hype.
The book itself is well written. There's no doubt that Summers is an amazing author. But it wasn't until I was about 60% through that I started getting interested in the book. I usually like cults, but The Unity Project wasn't interesting in my eyes. I also wasn't a big fan of the main character, Lo. I found her to be boring, weak, annoying, and cocky. I usually like a two person POV but this one, along with the time changes, made it very confusing as some points.

I'd just say that I am indifferent with this book. I didn't hate it, but it didn't do anything for me.

I have been very interested in cults since watching a couple detailed NXVIM documentaries and this story hit on exactly what I find fascinating about cults. The timeline in the story was confusing, but I liked getting perspectives from both sisters. Very interesting cult story!

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Lo Denham hasn’t seen her older sister Bea since she joined a community called The Unity Project six years ago, just as Lo was recovering from a near-fatal accident that left her broken, scarred, and alone. Lo has been trying to prove a darker, more nefarious intent behind the charitable organization ever since, especially now that she’s nabbed a low-level job at a high-profile magazine. When a friend of her boss begins to claim that The Unity Project killed his son, Lo sees a golden opportunity. What she didn’t expect was charismatic Unity Project leader Lev Warren to welcome her investigation with open arms. The project has no secrets, he says, and while he can’t force Bea to communicate with Lo, he can clear the suspicion surrounding his life’s work.

Told from the perspectives of Lo in the present day, as she dives deep into her work with the hope of destroying a cult before finding a world more complex than she imagined, and Bea six years earlier as she tumbled through trauma and into the embrace of The Project, Courtney Summers whips up another devastating contemporary. While it didn’t hit me quite as hard as Sadie, this book is here for you if you’ve ever been fascinated by cults and manipulation. It’s also a great look at the bonds of sisterhood and the way family shapes us.

Summers does a great job creating two distinct but equally interesting narrators. Lo is, of course, the more relatable of the two. She’s cynical and angry at times, but it’s very easy to understand why and she’s still got plenty of wit to her. Bea is at a very vulnerable point in her life that’s certainly interesting, but a little harder to swallow. You recognize early on that she’s falling into something and that nobody is going to save her. It’s only through a slow burn build-up of both points-of-view that the truth is unveiled, making for a compelling mystery throughout. However, it’s all very character-driven, so if you’re looking for action, this may not be for you.

Despite finding it a very engrossing tale that does a great job unpack why cults exist and often thrive, I did have a few small qualms with it. In particular, the last third or so of the book felt rushed. There were some really crucial moments in there, including Lo wholeheartedly believing in and joining Lev and The Project, that felt like they weren’t fully explored because the characters made major, life-altering decisions very quickly. It was frustrating in Lo in particular, because she’d be built up as someone “street smart” and able to survive on her own terms prior to it.

Summers also ends this book with a trick she used in Sadie: A cut scene. For me, it was far more effective in her previous novel. In The Project, I needed to see the culmination of Lo and Bea’s dark journey play out before any other change could feel real. Not seeing it was a bit dissatisfying, but again-- this is still a very good book and I recommend it to anyone who loves a good mystery thriller situation.

Lo Denham, magazine assistant and loner, is looking for her sister, Bea. Six years ago, Lo's parents died in a car crash, and while Lo was recovering from her own injuries, Bea left to join The Unity Project. On the surface, The Unity Project and it's leader, Lev Warren, look charitable and positive. But Lo knows there is something not right about them, and she's determined to prove it and finally reunite with her sister after years of silence. When her investigation puts her closer and closer to Lev, making her question everything she thought she knew, she will have to find the truth before it's too late.

THE PROJECT has everything you look for in a Courtney Summers novel: tough family situations, a girl more than a little haunted, and an angry, nearly aggressive search for answers. In this latest title, you get all that and a fascinating exploration of cults.

THE PROJECT highlights many ways someone can get drawn into a cult but primarily focuses on the paths of Lo and Bea. For Bea, we get a timeline several years ago, while Lo's is in her 'present' (2018). When many people think of cults, they tend to jump to the aftermath of them: the deaths, the deceptions, the lies unveiled. It's common to be on the judgmental side, wondering how no one could have seen the warning signs or questioning what sort of person would want to join a cult to begin with. When Bea first encounters Lev Warren, she is at the end of her rope, desperate to find a path out of the pain she's feeling or maybe if not an answer, a reason or a cause to put her pain behind. You see how she falls in love with Lev's charisma and with the ideals the Unity Project claims to represent. She finds a community in the middle of her heartache.

Fast forward several years, Lo, now a young adult, believes something is wrong with The Unity Project, no matter how many reporters have investigated them and returned with nothing. She hasn't seen or spoken to her sister in years, and every time she goes to the Unity Project, she's turned away. She arrives like many of us may imagine we would: immediately skeptical, on guard, and defenses fully up. Her change is so gradual that it was halfway into the book before it really started settling in. It becomes extremely easy to see how, when life is throwing punch after punch at you and you keep falling down, even while trying to get up, you could oh so slowly be drawn into a person who has only been kind and gentle, even knowing they have strange beliefs. Lo starts to doubt her own judgement, and once she, like Bea before her, reaches the end of her rope, she finds Lev at the bottom.

The plot moved slowly for me the first half, but once it hit that halfway point, it took off. The last fourth or so had me particularly consumed. There's rarely any neat and tidy ending with a Summers book, but we do get more answers than I was anticipating (no spoilers).

After finishing, THE PROJECT left me feeling emotionally wrung out with a bittersweet aftertaste and in complete amazement of Courtney Summers' talent once again.

I was sucked right into this book and didn't want to put it down...but at times I had to because the subject was heavy.

Courtney Summers knows how to draw me into a story that I know won't have a happy ending but still makes me hope for one.

The Project was an intense and heavy read. I had to put it down many times because I found myself getting mad at Lev Warren and overwhelmed by the circumstances of the book. Still, this book was well worth the emotional toll.

I loved that the author chose to tell the story from both Bea and Lo's perspectives in different years. It added another dimension to the story and really built up the anticipation. It was a crazy experience both delving into The Project with Lo and being in the thick of it with Bea.

I knew I was in for an emotional read but I was surprised by how frequently I found myself having to take breaks throughout the book. I was still thinking of the book every time I took a break, and this is one that's going to stick with me for a while.

Last year, I had the pleasure of reading Courtney Summers YA novel, Sadie. It was gritty and bleak, but full of emotion. I loved it. Summers' latest novel, The Project, is equally powerful. Lo is such a compelling character, and her need to connect with her sister is heartbreaking. This is another novel full of suspense that will keep you up late at night, reading.

What I Liked:

Characters:

Lo is all alone in the world. Her parents died in a car accident (which left Lo severely injured), and her sister, Bea, has left to join a church called The Unity Project. Her life is further complicated due to the large scar that dominates her face. It's all most people see when they meet her, and becomes a litmus test, of sorts, for who she will let into her life. Needless to say, most people do not pass the test.

I don't know if it's because of COVID, but I connected to Lo's feelings of isolation and loneliness. I could see how important is was to her to regain a relationship with her sister, even though Bea abandoned her. And I could see how she might be open to manipulation by others.

Bea, feeling overwhelmed by the sudden responsibility of dealing with her parent's deaths and Lo's injuries, just wants to escape. The Unity Project seems like just the place for Bea to regain her self-esteem. She wants to have a purpose and be useful, and The Unity Project fits the bill. Instead of trying to parent her younger sister, she takes on the smaller responsibilities at The Project. It was easy to see how she could get sucked into this cult.

Story Themes:

Both Bea and Lo want to find purpose in their lives, one in a church, the other as a wanna-be investigative reporter. Bea is asked to cut out everything in her previous life to dedicate herself to The Unity Project and it's charismatic leader, Lev. Lo works insane hours at a magazine with an equally mesmerizing leader. Each young woman yearns for the approval of these men. Slowly, over the course of the story, we watch as Bea and Lo wake up to the realization that the only person they need to impress is themselves.

Suspense:

The story centers on Lo's determination to speak to Bea, even though The Unity Project won't let them meet. As she puts pressure on them to give her access to her sister, strange things begin to happen. The magazine's office is ransacked, and is she being followed? Other people who have left and spoken out about The Unity Project disappear. Is Bea all right? could she be in danger? What has happened to people who speak out against The Project? The story gets scary as Lo becomes involved with Th Project in order to find her sister. I stayed up really late at night because I couldn't stop reading.

*3.5 stars

After Lo's parents die in a car accident, her older sister Bea joins The Unity Project, a mysterious organization run by the equally mysterious Lev Warren. Years later and now an aspiring journalist, Lo comes face to face with a man who claims that The Unity Project killed his son. Hoping to reunite with her estranged sister and uncover what's really going on behind closed doors, Lo decides to investigate the Unity Project herself.

I was admittedly floored after finishing Courtney Summers' SADIE last year. The characters, the format, and the ending, all held me at the edge of my seat and refused to let go. So when Summers announced her follow-up, THE PROJECT, which promised an insidious deep dive into cults, I was more than a little excited. However, as much as I wanted to love THE PROJECT, it failed to grab me in the same way. Which may be my own fault for overhyping myself. Something about the general pacing and structure never quite clicked for me. The main storyline doesn't fully start until 25% in, and even after that, is a slow-moving train toward the end. The point-of-view switches between Bea in the past and Lo in the present, and often left me more confused than intrigued as I couldn't always tell the two sisters apart based on narrative voice alone. All in all, while not my favorite Courtney Summers novel, I still enjoyed the spine-tingling concept and her breathtaking prose.

(Pine Reads Review would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for sending us an ARC in exchange for an honest review.)

It’s taken me a while to sit down and write this review, because once again Courtney Summers has left me reeling. After reading Sadie, my review states that I came away feeling “raw” and “unsettled” and that’s exactly how to describe my feelings after binge reading The Project. Yet The Project evoked these feelings in a much more subtle and insidious way.

The Project follows protagonist Lo who is estranged from her sister who she hasn’t seen in years due to her involvement in what is pretty obviously a cult called “The Unity Project.” Lo gets tangled up with The Project again thanks to circumstances that arise at her job at a magazine, and when her boss doesn’t uncover enough in his investigative reporting to write a scathing exposé, Lo decides to take matters into her own hands.

I’ve read my fair share of books about cults, but I’ll admit that this one really got me. As Lo continues to dig and dig to find the dirty underbelly of The Unity Project, her resolve and judgement very slowly and very subtly begins to cloud as she witnesses all of the “good” they do, from offering shelter and hot meals to the homeless, crisis counseling, medical help to those who can’t afford it, etc. After a while I was starting to think perhaps the novel was going to take an alternative route and reveal that The Project wasn’t a creepy cult after all…but Summers had just made Lo’s descent into their mind frame so subtle and nuanced that you don’t realize until almost too late who they really are. It’s masterfully done, especially since Lo started off the story with such an axe to grind with them.

Mixed in with Lo’s current day narrative are flashbacks to her sister, Bea, and her time with The Project, including how she became involved with them. It exemplifies how organizations prey on young people in time of desperation and weakness to indoctrinate them and fuel a sense of devotion and reciprocity to them. It was intriguing to see how Bea and Lo’s paths were so different, yet their fates were almost so similar as well.

Overall: It’s hard to say more without spoiling what is an excellent story, but Courtney Summers really knocked it out of the part with this slow burn, subtle tale that leads to horrifying consequences. In true Courtney Summers fashion the ending is not 100% neat or clear, but it was one heck of a ride. I can’t wait to see what topic she covers next!

The Project by Courtney Summers is an intense read.
****
Lo lost her parents in an accident and while she was in the hospital recovering from her injuries she also lost her sister, Bea, to the Unity Project. Led by their enigmatic leader, Lev Warren, the Unity Project expresses itself as a community outreach program as well a faith based project. Rumors abound of Lev’s skill at foretelling the future, raising the dead back to life, and many other tales.
Unity Project itself is mysterious despite all the work they do, no interviews have been given, particularly by Lev, in years after one particular rumor claimed that the project is a cult, and Lev, the cult leader.
Lo may not believe the other claims, but this particular claim she does because she’s spent the last six years trying to get in touch with Bea, and at every step of the way someone from the project blocks her way to her sister. When a young man with ties to the project throws himself in front of a train after recognizing Lo she is determined to find the truth and reveal all and when Lev gives her the chance to interview both the project and him Lo is convinced she can pull the rug out from under him and reveal him for all he is.
Unfortunately the longer she spends with him the more she finds herself confused by what is true and what is false. She wants to believe in her sister but the secrets revealed by Lev point to a side of her sister she doesn’t want to think exists. Is everything a carefully constructed lie or is the truth uglier than Lo is prepared for?
***
You ever pick up a book and start reading it with a feeling of dread already sinking into you? Because while I had some suspicions of how the story was going to go I was terrified of all the ways it could go and it made me dread getting to the conclusion of the book.
Told in an alternating style the story jumps back and forth between Lo present and Bea past and leading up to the present and the conclusion of the story.
My heart was in my throat the entire time and I both loved picking this book up and dreading picking this book up.
It’s a tense story of what two sisters are willing to do for the love of one another and the price that comes with it.
***
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher I was able to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

My first Courtney Summers book — and I can say that the hype most definitely has lived up.

THE PROJECT is a book with many layers. Told cleverly in two different perspectives and in different timelines, THE PROJECT is a twisting and morbidly compelling narrative of two sisters who try to claw their way back to each other, only to be violently yanked back each time.

Lo — 19 years old and the present-time narrator — is an aspiring journalist. Six years ago, she was in a devastating car crash which claimed both her parents, and a part of her soul that she has not yet found — leaving nothing but a scar on her cheek as remembrance. When Lo woke up from the accident, she was hospitalized: plugged up to tubes and barely holding onto life. And alone.

Bea — a loving older sister — has not been heard from in the last six years. All Lo has to remember of her are the memories of before — before the hospitilization, before the car crash, before Bea joined The Unity Project, a cryptic, strangely private and intensely religious organization that, on paper, organizes charity and helps needy.

Lo is convinced it's a cult, and after a man claims that The Unity Project is the reason behind his son's suicide, Lo is entangled within the sinister world of the Project and it's leader, Lev Warren, who claims himself to be the Redeemer of mankind.

Told alternatively in past and present, THE PROJECT is subtle in its suspense, which builds and builds, but is ultimately underestimated when it crashes with sudden intensity, revealing exactly what's going on with The Unity Project. At it's heart, THE PROJECT is the story of victims. It is the story of those whose desperation is taken advantage of. It is the story of the victims of physical & emotional abuse and religious manipulation. It is the story of two sisters, who are broken by all of the above.

THE PROJECT is as compelling as it is sickening — and I recommend it to all those who are interested in this type of novel. However, I strongly encourage everyone to take a look at the content warnings & trigger warnings before starting (something I unfortunately missed to do). I assure you, THE PROJECT is darker than whatever you have in mind.

This book was so rushed. Our main character hates the cult for about 60% of the book, and then does a complete 180 and there is no time for us to feel like it's gradual. I wish Summers had built it up so when she finally decided to be loyal to Lev and the cult, it felt organic. This was so rushed, and by the end I couldn't really care less about anyone or anything. I also really don't like the whole "God did it" excuse, especially for a way to end the novel. How was the bad guy defeated? God. It feels so cheesy and such a cop out. I loved Sadie, and I'm so sad this wasn't a great follow up.

I was blown away by The Project. I started it thinking I was gonna read a bit and put it down for tomorrow but that was just not possible. I devoured it within a few hours and I’m so glad I did! It’s my fourth book by Summers and she keeps amazing me and leaving me gasping at the pages. This is definitely gonna be one of my favourite books of the year. It is magnificent, hard and maddening.

The Project got me screaming at the pages and its characters, it also got me crying, and that is enough to tell you how talented Summers is. She has this way of weaving words and stories, it’s a real talent. As usual, her characters are flawed and you can’t help but root for them while also not liking them fully. But that’s why Summers’ books always resonate with me so long afterwards, because they’re far from perfect and could be any one of us.

When it comes to the story, I can say it’s simply amazing. I kept thinking I knew what was gonna happen or what the twist was, only for Summers to take me into a complete new direction and. I just. I really loved this book. And being a reader and seeing the mechanics of a cult was the most frustrating thing ever as I wanted to shake people and shout at them. But it was done so brilliantly, I still can’t believe it.

Honestly this review is a mess but just remember that this book is a masterpiece, Courtney Summers is a very gifted writer and you should definitely get your hands on a copy of The Project as soon as you can.