Cults are insane. Lo and Bea Denham are sisters. After their parents died, Bea joined a special group called themselves The Unity Project and left Lo in the care of their great aunt.

Lo is just 19 and she's already lost so much. Abandoned by her sister, Lo is trying to survive. She has a dream to become a writer. Lucky for her she got a job at SVO magazine company as a founder Paul tindale's assistant.

Lo already has suspicious about the motive of the Unity Project from the beginning. They manipulated a lot of people and Lo feels like this is just an act to cover their organization which she believes is just a cult. One day, Lo witnesses a suicide at the train station. What interesting is when the boy jumps on the train tracks, he calls Lo her name and saying a passage that I believed from bible. Lo makes her own investigation about the boy and she finds out that the boy was the son of her boss' best friend. She took this opportunity to dig more about this Unity Project.

Her mission becomes so interesting and what she's facing is tragic. The story was written very well. It was told from Lo and Bea point of view. The transition between the past and present were okay but just a little confusing if you're not paying full attention. The characters are very interesting and Lo's character is kind of similar as Sadie from Sadie (CS previous book). This book also explores different aspects of cults which is very interesting.

Stimulating and complex story. Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin Press/ Wednesday Books for sharing this copy of ARC with me in return for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this arc in exchange for an honest review.
Having loved Courtney Summers’ previous book, Sadie, I had pretty high expectations going into The Project, and Summers definitely delivered.

The Project follows the story of two sisters and each of their relationships with each other and The Unity Project, a group of religious followers of the mysterious Lev Warren, believed to be God’s redeemer. After a car crash that killed her parents and near-fatally injured her younger sister, Bea is desperate for God to save Lo. In this moment, she meets Lev Warren, and she goes with him to join The Unity Project in exchange for him saving Lo. Years later, Lo is on her own and hasn’t heard from Bea since the accident, despite her attempts to reach out to her. Following alternating timelines, we see Bea’s introduction to and new life with Lev and his community as well as Lo’s attempts years later to reconnect with her sister and release the secrets of The Unity Project, which she believes to be a cult.

This book keeps you on the edge of your seat in the best way. Starting with the prologue, you immediately feel for these two sisters and understand what a special relationship they have, before you quickly realize how much that bond has been broken after the traumatizing event they both went through. The two timelines give you just enough information before switching to the other perspective so that you are constantly wanting to figure out what will happen next. Every chapter has a new tidbit of information or an exciting moment so that the story never has a dull moment, and I frequently found myself questioning what was real or fake. Both of the main characters are fascinating. We get the story of The Unity Project from two perspectives: Bea’s utter faith and devotion as a new member as well as Lo’s hatred and disdain for the group that she feels is keeping her sister from her. This is a story about religion and cults and sisters and love and the extremes people are willing to go to when they have been beaten down by the world and those around them. This was an excellent story that I will be sure to recommend to readers.

This is my third Courtney Summers book, and the second that I have devoured during a Christmas season. Sometimes I come across an author that feels like a literary soulmate, and her style and voice suits me so perfectly. What I've read of hers have centered around grief and processing trauma, and she does so with a raw intensity that makes her work hard to put down. Heavy but rewarding, sometimes cathartic. I'll always recommend her books.

The project is the next novel by Courtney Summers but the first book I have read from her.
I was intrigued by the title and the plot, the story dives into the makings of a cult which I found was a pretty unusual topic.
I struggled to connect with the characters and the nonlinear timeline, I must say I got lost from one chapter to another. It seems the characters were in one place and then suddenly in a complete different one, it confused me a lot.
It was a quick and easy read though and I enjoyed the author’s writing.
Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book !

Great story and loved the slight romance. Really enjoyed the characters and how the plot moved and how the characters changed throughout the book. I would read this author again.

I received an ARC copy from NetGalley for an honest review.

This book is very intriguing. I was very intrigued by it. In the middle, you may be a bit confused on why the things are the way they are, but you’ll be intrigued and want to know what happens next. The back and forth of times, where it goes from Bea and Lo, kind of confused a bit at first. But once you continue reading, you’ll get more used to the style and like it.

There is so much unexpected, that once you read it you’ll be like wow...this is such a good book. When I was reading in the beginning and the middle I was thinking of giving it a 3/3.5 stars, because it confused me a bit. But if your intrigued by this book, trust me just keep reading it’s worth it. It may not be the ending you wanted, because this isn’t a fairytale but definitely an unexpected, interesting ending.

All the characters were interesting in there own ways. The only thing is I wished Bea reached out to Lo when she was younger. The only thing is it’s on the edge being called in the “young adult” genre.

This is my first Courtney Summers book and I will say that I am a fan now. I thought this was such a great thriller, it had me wanting more and needing to know what was coming next. I really like the 2 perspectives and thought it brought another suspense factor. Overall, this was a wonderful thriller and I highly recommend

I am the biggest Courtney Summers fan. Every book she write, I have to read. I was so excited when I first saw this synopsis and it completely intrigued me.

This book was SO GOOD! The twists and turns were so well done. I totally was pulled right in to Lo’s world and couldn’t stop reading.

My only issue was closer to the end, I felt a few questions weren’t answered and I would like to learn a bit more about how everything was wrapped up.

As a long time fan of Courtney Summers' work, The Project is unlike anything she's written, so I can see this book being one of those where you either love it or hate it. The novel has two perspectives: one from Lo Denham in the present and the other from her older sister, Bea, in the past. The Project is very plot driven, which is what makes this different from Summers' other novels. I've alway praised Summers for being a very realistic writer, and while The Project was very well written, I think she misses the mark with the realism for her characters. I couldn't connect with Lo or Bea, which is a first for me. Since there was a lot of focus establishing The Unity Project and setting up the suspense, I found the character development sort of lacking.

It was hard to root for Lo, since she was always angry and seemed a bit entitled. As a 19 year-old assistant, I don't understand how she thought she could be a writer for her company and expect her boss to give her an opportunity to write for them. While her trait of being a writer is mentioned throughout the novel, I felt like it was underused. I also felt like some of her actions were out of character and quite abrupt. I enjoyed reading Bea's sections more, but I still felt like she was lacking development since we don't really see anything new to her character until her later sections.

The Project also doesn't fall into the YA category besides the fact that Lo is still technically a teen. If this is Summers' intro into adult fiction, I'll be happy to read her next one, but I think this book lacked the insight into YA minds like her other novels.

While the cult story is compelling and interesting, it missed a lot of elements that I usually expect from Summers' novels.

I don't know why but when I read a book by Courtney Summers it takes me a while to really understand what I'm reading. I'm going to be re-reading [book:Sadie|34810320] to see what it is about her writing that is confusing me a bit.

That having been said, once I got into it. I was fully into it, hard-hitting feels and all.

This book is about two sisters. After Lo's parents die her sister Bea joins the Unity Project. Lo spends years trying to prove her gut-feeling that there's something wrong with The Project and its leader Lev, especially when her sister breaks off all contact with her.

The cult-like religion is well-loved in the region though and she can't find anything concrete, until a man walks into the office of the magazine she works for to let them know that his son has been killed by The Project. This fuels Lo's passion to dive into the subject matter to find out what has happened to her sister for once and for all.

Prepare to be shocked and amazed several times. I thought I could kind of foresee what would happen at the end, but I was wrong. Boy, was I wrong.

Lo is a great conflicted character to be following. She has lived through intense trauma after surviving the car accident that killed her parents; that in combination with being abandoned by her sister brings on an interesting vengeful spirit. It's difficult to read between the lines of her emotions and the truth.

The only thing I didn't fully enjoy was the cult/religion element. This is what most people will love when they pick this book up, but I've seen too many documentaries and TV series about this subject recently. I'm happy to report that even if you're a bit "cult-sick" it's still worth the read.

I think a lot of people will like this book and rightfully so.

First of all, thanks to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for a honest review.
You have to know English isn’t my first language, so feel free to correct me if I make some mistakes while writing this review.


TRIGGER WARNING: Isn't it enough that this is a book written by Courtney Summers? No? So I tell you there are cults, psychological and emotional manipulations, physical and psychological abuse and ... well, other things.

"When I think of Bea, I think of a girl held hostage by both her grief and the people who took advantage of it. But where is the line between what circumstances have turned you into and who you choose to be?"

The story opens with Bea, just six years old, waiting at a neighbor's house for her mother to give birth to her premature baby sister. Bea just doesn't want a sister, but seeing Lo it's enough for her - and listening to her mom explaining what it means to have a sister - to develop an unbreakable bond with Lo.

But then the years pass and one evening, when Bea is nineteen and out with friends, her parents have a car accident: they die instantly, Lo is pulled out of the wreckage on the brink of death. Bea has never believed in God, but she knows that to save Lo - all that's left of her family - she needs nothing short than a miracle.

And He appears.

In our present it's September of 2017 when, at the train station, a boy recognizes Lo and speaks to her quoting a verse from the Bible - only to commit suicide immediately afterwards. She is shaken, but even more so when she discovers that the boy's father is a friend of her boss and that Jeremy, as he was called, was part of The Project along with Bea.
The desire to find her sister awakens in her once again, after years of unsuccessful attempts - of public events from which she was thrown out, of phone calls intercepted by Casey (Lev's right-hand woman) who have always denied her any contact with Bea.

She's sure The Project is hiding something rotten, which is most likely being a cult as an article Vice wrote previously, but no one has ever been able to prove it.
Great is her dismay, however, when she discovers Bea is no longer part of The Project, that she has abandoned them just as she has abandoned Lo in a hospital bed.
And quite exceptionally, Lev Warren decides to indulge in the press, explicitly asking for Lo to write a profile about him - and Lo, who no longer wants to be just her boss's assistant but wants to write, accepts after a moment of hesitation.

Lo begins to dig deep into Lev's life, into the lives of The Project members, into the work they do and while everything else in her life and her beliefs seems to collapse, The Unity Project seems to be the only thing that stands firm and looks safe.


I'm telling you: I'm biased - after all, Courtney Summers is my favorite author.

The Project, unlike the other books, is not a book that "sbam-sbam-sbam, hits you with violence at regular intervals. This, more than anything else, digs: it erodes the readers little by little, it takes them apart piece by piece to get inside their head and then "SBAM!", the violent blow reaches you at the end - and if I still think back at the last line, I cry.
And isn't that a bit like what the cults do with their followers?

My knowledge of cults comes from TV shows like "The Following", "Cult", "The Mentalist", from real stories like the one of Charles Manson or, more recently, NXIVM.

I've always thought of myself as extremely rational, I'm the type who doesn't understand how a person can fall into it and not realize it - I'm the type who says it could never happen to her.
Yet something happened during the reading, there were times when Lev Warren's voice was truly caressing and he shone through as a reasonable and sincere person - despite the desire to shake Lo in more than one moment, I underlined so many of her thoughts and of her sentences because, really, sometimes you just need the ideal circumstances for you to fall into a predator's net.

The narrative slips between past and present, between the lives of Bea and Lo - two sisters linked by a promise who are lost while continuing to love one another, who become strangers to each other in more ways than one: Bea no longer recognizes her little sister after the accident, Lo no longer knows who her sister is after six years of silence.
Both have to navigate their life alone, one is guided by blind faith and the other only knows one version of the story because there isn't a different one at her disposal - and it's up to the reader to keep track of the discrepancies while, in some cases, past and present seem to be almost the mirror of each other.
It's Lo who takes the stage with her narration in the first person, but it was always the moments of Bea narrated in the third that broke my heart - which made me feel so sorry for her.

As it happens in Summers' books, not all manipulations and abuses are explicit - very often she subtly suggests, hints at what happens or has happened behind the scenes and the horror you perceive is the same as if it were actually written in its most gruesome details. As always, her characters are extremely real and defined - both main and secondary, but I think I had a strong preference for Bea.

Part of me still doesn't understand how people can join a cult and stay in it even when things get really bad, but there is another part of me that - as Lo later realizes - has empathized and now doesn't rule it out as strongly as I would have before because, really, sometimes you only need the right circumstances and the right people. And "right" is obviously to be taken with a grain of salt because in most cases those who fall into them are desperate people, who have lost everything in life and are just looking for something to belong to. With bigger connotations and of a different nature, maybe it's a bit like the dynamics of a toxic relationship when you can't leave the other person no matter what they do to you.

Lo is just a nineteen-year-old girl, always forced to fend for herself since even the last person she had left decided to leave because she couldn't bear the pain of seeing her in that state - I wanted to shake Lo so many times, but I can't blame her either: she is vulnerable, she is alone, she is tired.

Courtney Summers fits all the pieces together in the end - life within The Unity Project isn't described in all its aspects, but we know just enough to guess what's behind it and we get a creepy picture, especially when we discover certain things orchestrated to get Lo to that exact point in her life.
But cults are not the core of this book and that is why we as readers never fully discover the dynamics within The Project. No, this is a story of loss, pain, loneliness, desperate need to cling to something or someone, desperate need to belong and be welcomed, desperate need to find oneself in anyone or anything that can help us do it - sometimes even in the most unlikely places we could ever have imagined.

I have made many theories, wild guesses, hypotheses about what could have happened in the past and what would have happened in the present and in the future. I guessed some things because, as they say, if you think bad you'll certainly get it right, and others, despite having taken them into consideration anyway, they shocked me and then broke my heart.

What to say? I can't wait to have the actual book in my hands and I can't wait for Courtney Summers to publish another book.

The last line - how many tears. In general, the last 10% brought me to tears.
But I wouldn't want Courtney Summers' books any other way.

Musical tip? Mantra by Bring Me The Horizon.

'Sadie' is one of my favorite books, so I was very excited to read 'The Project'.

I have a morbid fascination for cults and cult leaders. The idea of someone being so charismatic and evil that they are able to talk people into 'drinking the kool-aid' ,so to speak, is just mind blowing. It makes me sad for the lost souls that just need someone to see them that they are so easily manipulated. This story gives you a look inside of these groups and shows how far some people will go when they truly believe it's for a greater good...no matter how twisted it seems from the outside.

'The Project' didn't leave me a sobbing mess like 'Sadie' did, but it was still a very emotional and compelling story. It follows sisters Bea and Lo in the aftermath of a horrible accident that destroys their family. The story goes back and forth between then/now and between each sister. My heart hurt for them both. I wanted so badly for them to find their way to each other.

Glory-Lo-Denham has had a hard life. Although she’s only 19, she’s lost so much. Her parents die in a car accident which also has left her scarred for life. Her sister Beatrice abandons her to join a “special group” that go by the moniker “Unity Project”. To top it off, her caretaker Aunt Patty passes away shortly after.
She dreams of being a writer and manages to land a job at one of the most powerful magazines as an assistant to the founder. The story that has already started to form on her mind since the day her sister left her for the Unity Project. She has always been suspicious about them. They may have won the hearts and minds of the people in the Upstate New York region but she feels like it’s a front and they are just a cult.

One day she witnesses a suicide. She finds out the boy, Jeffrey, was the son a very close friend of her boss. He says that his son was a member of Unity Project and they brainwashed him to take his own life. She uses this as an opportunity to learn more about them by writing a story exposing the truth. In doing so, she also hopes to reconnect with her sister. To do this, she has to face the charismatic and powerful leader Lev Warren.
He agrees to meet with her and she is a step closer to accomplishing her goal. But what if everything she knows about her life is a lie. What if her sister she remembers is now a complete stranger? What if there is more about her survival? Could she be wrong about them? Does Lev Warren possess supernatural powers to heal people?

You think you know how the story will end and everything is so predictable. Not true as nothing is as it seems. This is a gripping, complex novel that is well written and soul stirring.

Now you may think the book is only about a cult. I guarantee you it’s not. It’s about losing your way, looking for something to believe in, grieving and ultimately finding yourself.

I usually love Courtney Summers’ books but this one felt flat. It didn’t incorporate the writing style she usually gives. The writing and flashbacks seemed choppy and maybe that’s what she was going fro. However, I did feel as if her descriptions of The Unity Project portrayed an a accurate reality of cult culture.

The new publishing trend for 2021 must be cults, as a lot of novels with this theme are going to be released next year. But no one will deliver you a more chilling experience than Courtney Summers. This author is notorious for never having a happy ending and pulling all the punches. When you read a Courtney Summers novel you know you’re going into it with the notion that you will be emotionally wrecked once you get to the end. The Unity Project is much on par on delivering exactly that.

Lo has lost her sister, Bea, to the cult of The Unity Project headed by a very charismatic Lev Warren. Lo lost her parents due to a car accident, in which she was also a passenger in. Bea is convinced that Lev brought Lo back to life, and this begins her fascination and loyalty to the man and his visions. Lo, blames Lev for taking her sister away from her when she needed her most, and is hellbent on exposing The Unity Project for what they really are. But what if Lo is wrong?

This novel will have you question whether Lev is really the evil mastermind that Lo is convinced he is, mostly because from the moment we meet him, he’s described with very Jesus-like qualities of acceptance and compassion. But this being a Courtney Summers novel, we know that the horror will come, and when it will, it’ll be brutal. Without being spoiler-y, this novel is an emotional rollercoaster where you begin to question who to trust. If you’re going to read one book about cults, make it this one, as it had everything I’ve wanted and expected from a book about cults, a charismatic leader and some very disturbing scenes, but also perfectly depicting how anyone, even intelligent people can get sucked into cults.

*Thank you so much to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for Young Readers for the digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy of "The Project" by Courtney Summers. I loved "Sadie," so I was really excited for "The Project" and I was not disappointed. This was a story about a fictional cult, which was both disturbing and entrancing. It was told in dual timelines by two sisters, whose relationship was so raw and real. Somewhat surprisingly, there were some very real depictions of pregnancy, labor and delivery, and postpartum in here that is something that always gets me. I guess I just think it's something we always need more of in literature and it's a way I'm able to see myself and something that really important to me in books. Most importantly, the mystery behind the cult in this story pulled me along, building momentum as I went until I couldn't put the thing down because it had me by the throat. It was a darkly beautiful story that dealt with strong, painful emotions. It portrayed the lengths people will go to find meaning and healing and a sense of worth, and the people who take advantage of that. I highly recommend.

The story is compelling, but the main character’s action at around 60% seemed so convenient for drama and not in a good way, in a forced way. I was also a little thrown by it being a religious cult and just how prominent religion (Christianity) would be in this book. The ending was a bit rushed and, again, convenient. I can’t deny how interesting it was to read, but I also can’t deny that I wasn’t excited about picking it up again. I think people who are comfortable with the idea of reading about a religious cult, who love a good cult story no matter how it plays out, will have a decent time. I think of the two sisters perspectives that we got, Lo (the main one) was the least engaging. Bea’s was more compelling and I looked forward to those sections the most. I’m not sure I would recommend this book, but I also wouldn’t not recommend it. I think part of it was great concept, ok follow through and part of it was it was too religious for me.

Unfortunately not my favorite Courtney Summers title, but it’s a high bar to meet again and again. A lot of it just felt unrealistic to me: the way Paul and Lo talked to each other, the complete 180 in Lo’s thinking that felt very abrupt and then was fairly quickly turned back around, Lo’s intense obsession with writing when it seemed like she’d never actually done any? This one just wasn’t for me, but I certainly hope to be in the minority and I will always, always eagerly read everything Ms. Summers releases.

I really enjoyed this book. This is the second book I have read by this author and both of them drug me in and kept me captivated right up until the end. In this novel, the main character has lost her sister to a group called the Unity Project and a man named Lev. She isn't sure what is going on but they have lost contact with each other and her sister refuses to take her calls. This is her story of finding out just what the Project is all about and what happened to separate her and her sister. The characters were so life like in this novel that it really kept my attention and I wanted to read all the way to the end to know what happened!

3.5 stars -- Can we just pause and stan what an impressive stylist Courtney Summers is? I always enjoy her prose and the authorial posture she brings to her projects. This is another great book from a great author, and I definitely enjoyed her take on a thriller based on taking down a cult. For me, as is often the case, this book's only weakness was that I strongly preferred one of the dual timelines to the other, which always dings a book down for me overall. Still, this was a disturbing but gripping book & would definitely recommend

CW: cult & religious abuse; physical & emotional abuse