Courtney Summers has made a name for herself writing dark YA thrillers and The Project does nothing to change that. After Lo's in a terrible car accident, her sister Bea joins The Unity Project, leaving her alone with her aunt. While Lo is convinced there's something terrible going on at The Project cult, its charitable outreach and public image mean that the rest of the world sees them as a weird, but harmless religious group. The book is told through dual narratives - Lo in 2017/2018, years after the accident and after her estrangement from Bea, and Bea starting right after the accident. The shifting perspectives make it hard to find your footing and unsettling to read. They also cause the plot to drag a bit at times, since the narratives move forward at different paces. Lo and Bea are complex, but I wish there had been little more depth to some of the supporting characters. I definitely had no idea what was really coming next with this book and can see teens devouring it like Summers' other work.

As always, books about cults grab me right away. Courtney Summers has another great read in The Project. Lo and Bea are estranged, thanks mostly in part to The Unity Project. But is The Project to blame for everything? Or are they truly enlightened?

Writer Lo Denham is left scarred for life both emotionally and physically after a car crash years ago that claimed the lives of her parents. While she was hovering at death's door, her older sister Bea prays for her survival in the hospital chapel. A man appears before her promising he can save Lo if Bea commits her life to the service of the Project. When Lo finally awakes, her memories are unclear and her sister is gone. Lo goes to live with her Aunt until her aunt's death. Now nineteen and alone, Lo begins a mission to infiltrate and expose The Unity Project. Although the Project is highly esteemed for its charity work and outreach program, Lo believes they are a cult holding members against their will - including her sister. Lo becomes obsessed with getting inside and interviewing the charismatic leader Lev Warren. Members sing his praises and once Lo meets with him under the guise of writing a magazine article, she begins to fall under his spell. Was she wrong about Lev and the Project? Is Lev a Villain? Hero? Savior? Or is the man who stalks her dreams the devil she first believed him to be? The longer Lo remains around Lev, the more she doubts her own feelings, judgment, and eventually . . . mind. What's happening to her?

As this story unfolds, readers are privy to both Lo and Bea's state of mind via both points of view and two timelines. Short, choppy chapters serve to keep readers off-balance, feeding the volatile atmospheric setting while building suspense throughout. Summers excels are creating dark, complex characters who are searching for something or someone to anchor them - to pull them back into reality. In The Project, both characters and readers are challenged to find their way through a multitude of twists and turns, through a world filled with hallucinations and dreams, back to reality . . . whatever that may mean. Dark, raw, gritty - The Project is another masterpiece by the talented Courtney Summers. Highly Recommended to fans of young adult suspense.

I went into this not knowing what to expect, I haven't read anything by Summers before, just knew I usually enjoy a good religion/cult novel. I was not disappointed!
I will say that the POV switching in this one got to me at times and I found myself confused - who i am hearing from, Lo or Bea and wait a minute, which one is in the cult again?
Once I got going, about 1/4 of the way in, it flowed better and was more natural.
I enjoyed the twist of the cult leader "bringing Lo back to life' aspect.
The struggles were real, well detailed, and I loved the ending.
Great one!

I've never read anything by this author, but the summary sounded interesting. However, I struggled a bit with this. I had a hard time staying engaged, and I didn't find the characters to be as developed as I usually find in novels. Therefore, I didn't really connect with them so I didn't care that much about what happened to them. Things felt choppy with the cult, overall, the pace was too slow for this genre, and the "suspense" just didn't cut it for me.

Lo and Bea Dunham are sisters, but haven't talked in years. When a car accident killed their parents and put Lo in the ICU, Bea turned to The Unity Project to help her cope, leaving Lo behind with their only other living relative, their great aunt. Now, 6 years later, Lo works for a small magazine as an assistant and Bea is still with The Unity Project. Lo has repeatedly tried to contact her sister, but is always blocked by The Project. They are well known and loved all over the New York area for their charitable work, but Lo knows that they are not what they seem. When she is given the rare opportunity to interview Lev Warren, the leader of The Project, she knows she can't refuse. The interview could not only help her finally reach her sister, it could give her the experience needed to become a real writer like she's always dreamed. But as Lo digs deeper into the philosophies and actions of The Project, she begins to wonder if maybe her sister was right all along.

I really, really loved Sadie and I wanted to love The Project. It was good, but it just seemed to be missing that little something that makes it great. Maybe the story just wasn't as compelling. I also felt like I didn't know the characters well enough to care as much. They were very one dimensional, and there wasn't much backstory on their relationship or upbringing, so I found it hard to really connect with them or understand their connection. The plot itself was pretty good, but I really wanted a little more action and character development.

I received this ARC courtesy of Netgalley, in return for my honest review.

Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
The project is told in dual POV from two sisters, Lo and Bea. Lo's chapters are in current day as she is trying to track down her sister after Bea has become involved in the Unity Project a religious organisation that Lo believes to be a cult. Bea's chapters are flashbacks. The narrative structure works really well for this story as it slowly reveals the full story. Courtney Summers does a fantastic job of making the project seem both a nefarious cult and then a chapter later perfectly reasonable, it really shows how perfectly intelligent reasonable people end up being sucked into the orbit of cults and cult like figures. The atmosphere was great and there was a sense of unease throughout the book. Lo is determined and easy to root for and I thought the sister relationship was complex and well done. There were a couple of plot points that I found a bit convenient and contrived, such as chance meeting with someone with the exact information needed. Overall I really loved this and would recommend.

The Project pulled me in. It kept me guessing the whole way through. I enjoyed the way it was written from multiple perspectives and I had to consistently wonder whether the narrators' views were reliable.
Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan/Wednesday books for providing me the opportunity to enjoy The Project! I will be on the edge of my seat, awaiting Courtney Summer's next project!

I’ve always been fascinated by cults. From Jim Jones, to Manson, the Branch Davidians and Lea Remini dragging Scientology, there’s something about them that fascinates and terrifies at the same time. So when I read the synopsis for Courtney Summers new book I was anxious to crack it open. The book starts promising enough with the parallel stories of two sisters, Bea and Lo, orphaned as young teenagers when their parents and Lo are in a horrible accident that leaves Lo with a permanent pronounced facial scar.

While Lo recovers, Bea finds herself embraced by The Unity Project, a spiritual center that contributes to the community and is led by the charismatic Lev Warren. The dueling narratives run in two different time lines, Bea’s as she begins her involvement with the Project and years later as Lo sets out to find out where her missing sister is.

All of this should have been wildly engaging, but sadly it wasn’t. The book begins with a suicide Bea witnesses that sets off the investigation into the Project, but is merely track being laid to get into the meat of the story, as for the reason he does it is never revealed. I also found myself asking rudimentary questions about things like character motivation, Lo’s actions in particular ricocheting between normal and wait-what?
Unfortunately there were absolutely no surprises here, and I found myself annoyed at how gullible both these ladies were. (Although 74 million ppl voted for a pathological insurrection inciter so what do I know about gullible?)
I noticed when I finished the book is being classified as YA, and maybe for that audience this could be a compelling thriller. For me, it was a miss.

The Project is the new book from Courtney Summers..

"After surviving the car accident that claimed the life of her parents, Lo Denham goes to live with an aunt. Her sister, Bea, joins the Unity Project and disappears from Lo's life. When someone shows up at the magazine where Lo works and claims The Unity Project killed his son, Lo sees an opportunity to expose the group and reunite with Bea."

Lo wants desperately to write the stories she sees - and to reignite a relationship with her sister. She's feisty enough to push back against the charismatic leader of The Unity Project - Lev. Summers shows us the positive parts of the cult with just a few hints of the dark side - and the dark side is pretty terrifying. There were some big David Koresh vibes (especially similar to the Netflix special)

The ending is a crazy with a little sadness. Summers does not do a "happy ever after" ending. Another great story from Summers.

Lo is in a terrible accident at the age of 13. She loses her parents and goes to live with her aunt while her sister, Bea, joins The Unity Project after Lev brings Lo back from the dead. Lo finds herself after years of being pushed from the Project in the center of the establishment and learns the true meaning of what the project stands for. Summers does a great job with swapping between Bea and Lo to give the reader the best understanding of everything that happens behind the scenes.

Thanks to Netgally and Wednesday Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I'm going to preface this review to say that I've only ever read Sadie by Summers. I've never read any of her other books, but from what I've gathered, she doesn't tiptoe around the hard stuff. It's the same for The Project, a novel that touches on loss, grief, the bond between sisters, trauma, and how all of that can be the perfect set up to be enticed into what you believe will lead to paradise. No more suffering. No more sin. Just perfect absolution and happiness. And for Bea and Gloria Denham, happiness is something that has escaped them both when Bea is 19 and Gloria (Lo) is 13. They spend six years after a tragic accident to come to terms with their collective and individual trauma, but as Bea thinks she found the answer in a close knit community, Lo continues to spiral deeper and deeper into herself as she feels all but abandoned by the one person who meant everything to her.

We start off with Lo who is working as an assistant for this very hotshot reporter guy. She wants to be a writer, and thinks this is her way of stepping into the game with the big dogs. She's 19 and alone. The only family she had left died a year or so ago, and now she's trying to navigate a world where her sister, Bea, is no longer in her life. Six years ago, a tragic car accident made Bea and Lo orphans, left Lo fighting for her life in the hospital, and Bea wondering how she was going to remote care for her 13 year old sister when she's barely 19. Lo never understood why Bea would leave, but she knows where she is, with The Unity Project, a group of spiritual people who are doing good things in the community lead by their leader, their savior, their personal Messiah, Lev Warren. We see Lo trying and trying to reach her sister, only to be constant rebuffed by Lev and his right hand woman, Casey. After a suicide that Lo witnessed by a Unity Project member, she's finally given insight into the project under the agreed assumption that she's writing a profile for the group.

It should be pointed out that Lo's and Bea's ages when they first meet Lev is important. Them being as young as they are is crucial to understand how they could be swayed by a man "who is just a man". That is not to say that if they had been older, circumstances would have been entirely different, but I think them both being 19 when they each have their fateful encounter with Lev is not a coincidence. Throughout the whole book, we see the parallel between Bea and Lo as they navigate through their own grief and trauma, and how Lev exploits that. We see Bea finally waking up from the spell she's under then Lo becoming entranced by the promises that Lev has made.

Summers does a great job at making you question the Unity Project at first, at least for me I did. I kept going back and forth between "Damn, you are crazy, this is totally a cult" to "Well, you make sense and this isn't exactly cult like". I almost began to understand Lev to a point when he discussed the way the world was at how he's just trying to make it better. But that's how cult leaders work. They make you start questioning everything that you knew. They prey on the vulnerable, and I wouldn't be surprised if members didn't all have the same story: I was going through XYZ, and Lev saved me.

The format of this book was a little off, but I figure that's because it wasn't the final edited version. It went back and forth between Bea's perspective in 3rd person and Lo's perspective in 1st person. The change of scenes were abrupt, and it would take me a moment to adjust to where the characters were now. There was no discernable marker to show that we've switched scenes, but again, this isn't the edited version.

Unlike Sadie, this book does have closure. I wouldn't say it has a happy ending, but it does have a rather satisfying ending that fits the tone of the book. I warn you though that if you have sisters, you have experienced loss, if you are sensitive to mentions of abuse, then tread into this book lightly. All in all, if you enjoy Summers' writing, then I definitely recommend The Project.

A tale of two sisters searching for each other, one through spirituality and one through a mystery of a disappearance. This book is not quite what I expected after reading early reviews. I was expecting a little more tension and horror. The story switches perspectives and timelines, which at times is hard to follow. Overall the story was interesting and enjoyable, but there wasn’t anything new that I haven’t read in countless others.

The Project by Courtney Summers was a very intense, heart wrenching story about broken survivors, trying to find an anchor or some hope in life. This was my first Courtney Summers read and if not for NetGalley, I wouldn’t have picked this book.

This book has very beautiful mesmerizing cover. I really loved the depiction of the cover to the story❤️ Gloria Lo Denham, main protagonist in the book portrays the character of a girl who shows us how to cope with grief and losses in life. No matter how intense and sad the story unfolded, I was in awe of her courage to fight and to believe in truth.

Lo who is 19 years of age has lost her parents during the car accident of which she was a passenger too. She spent a lot of time in hospital recovering with her elder sister Bea along her side. When she has recovered and ready to go home, her sister has left her. The story revolves around Lo figuring out where to find her sister and when she learns her sister is part of a cult named Unity Project, she wants to uncover their truth and bring her sister back.

Along her journey in doing so, she unravels many truths, her belief and faith takes a U turn and she is hypnotized/ made to believe a false truth. Please get a copy of this book to find out, if she will follow her sisters footsteps or will she make a different path for herself?

Thank you @netgalley, @stmartinspress & @courtneysummers for a free copy of my eARC in exchange of my honest review!

After Sadie last year, I was interested to see what Courtney Summers hand on her hands with this story discussing religious cults. Although it is not something I am normally interested in, I was intrigued by the story and decided to give it a try.

First off, I was pulled in by the story of sisters. This is always personal to me and the relationship between Lo and Bea was believable and endearing. Both characters elicited sympathy and emotion almost every step of the way. Characters surrounding these two girls were given exceptional detail and most burst from the page.

This detail is where I think I lost interest at some points though. I’m not sure if the final print will be in the same form (and I certainly hope not), but this was broken into only five sections that seemed to drag on and on. The were paragraphs that had no space between them that should have been chapter breaks and were jarring to the reader. Summers lengthy descriptions of a small action were great for the visual, but exhausting in the end. It is always great to get into the mind of the characters, but I felt that this had too much in it that became repetitive and droning at times.

The subject matter was definitely jarring at times. It can be a hard subject to delve into and I do think that this author did well in handling the material. I don’t think that this was life altering or changed my mind on anything, but it was an interesting read. I think for a reader who is interested in the subject or wants an in-depth psychological read, this could be great. But, to an average reader looking for entertainment, this was too slow and droning.

My expectations for this book were pretty high given how much I liked the author's previous book, Sadie. Both books involve storylines with two sisters. While Sadie was a gripping and haunting read with characters I felt invested in, this book missed the mark and was more of an average read rather than something special.

After surviving a car crash that killed her parents, Lo Denham goes to live with her aunt. Her sister, Bea, is old enough to take care of Lo, but instead joins The Unity Project which has garnered praise for its charitable works. However, Lo believes it's a cult and is determined to expose the group and be reunited with Bea. But things go topsy turvy when Lo meets with The Unity Project's founder, Lev Warren.

I find the subject of cults fascinating and so I'm baffled why The Unity Project was kinda boring to me. The potential for an interesting story was there but yet it managed to be lackluster. It's pretty much the same case with the sisters. They have the setup of an intriguing background but yet I didn't find myself caring much about the either one. Neither character appeared fully fleshed out and there were times throughout the story when I didn't understand their actions and motivations.

At the very least the author's writing talent was present, but the story as a whole wasn't a winner for me.

Gripping, haunting, tightly-woven, thought-provoking. As someone who could not "get into" Courtney Summers's previous work, I was wary when beginning this one. However, I was sucked into the book from the first page. Dark and atmospheric - and also deeply disturbing - this is the kind of book that sticks with you.

What makes Bea, who is close to her sister Lo, just up and leave with no word? It would have to be a fairly compelling reason. Especially considering they’ve both been through something traumatic. Poor Lo, close to alone in this world, is just trying to make sense of Bea’s disappearance. The deeper she digs, the worse things get.

I admit I sympathized with Lo more than Bea because she walked away from her sister. Had they not been close, had there been some sort of friction, I might have liked her more. But this is what cults do, though. They seek those who are easy to manipulate, those who are going through trauma or loss, and they separate them from their families. Lev was good at what he did, and he had a lot of help doing it. And of course, this story wouldn’t have happened had she not walked away.

Even though I favored Lo more than Bea, the chapters from each of the sister’s perspectives are written well. They both made some poor decisions along their journeys. I like Summers’ writing style and how she pieces the story together. It’s chilling and realistic. Nicely done. Thank you, St. Martin’s, for sending this along.

I have never read any kind of cult books, fiction or non-fiction. This was definitely a new topic for me. I thought this was well done in the fact you get to see a cult from the inside and how easy it is to be manipulated against your beliefs. That's one thing I have always disbelieved about cults. I do not understand what being brainwashed is like, and I feel like this could not happen to me. This book put it into a better perspective for me. It described the feelings in a real way.

I didn't care for the main character, however. I couldn't connect with Lo in any real sense. She annoyed me. I also didn't like her nickname. Lo is a nickname essentially used for a lot of people named Lauren. Why? I don't know. However, there was Lo and a character named Lauren so it confused me at times as to who was who.

Overall, I thought the beginning was slow, but after you hit the 50% mark it really picked up the pace and became quite interesting. I would recommend this book for anyone who is interested in cults or for those that are disbelieving in cults. It was certainly an eye opener for me.

I gave this book 3.5 stars, rounded to a 4.

A fast paced read with your typical Courtney Summers gut punch at the end. I’ll be thinking about this one for a bit!