* 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

One of the best books I’ve ever read was Summers’ previous book, Sadie.
I haven’t had a young adult thriller based around crime (or cults in this case) even come close to what Sadie did. However, once again, Courtney Summers has done it.

I couldn’t stop thinking about this book as I read it; it felt as if The Project had sunk its claws into me and I couldn’t get out.

The writing was incredible, and I really loved the way it actually felt as if I was in the characters’ heads. While the pacing was slow, I think it really matched the sinister, slow paced way cults actually work. It was just incredible.

Thank you to NetGalley, Courtney Summers and St Martin's Press for the free e-book in exchange for an honest review.

After reading Sadie, I had really high expectations of this novel and I think that lead to me being a bit disappointed. I loved the idea behind the novel and I loved the back and forth between past and present, but I found that the pace of the novel was a bit on the slow side for me. I really didn't enjoy many of the characters and I enjoyed the cult aspect of the story. It was definitely a unique novel and I can see a lot of people enjoying this one, but it wasn't for me.

If you know my reading tastes, then you'll know that I am always in to read anything that has to do with cults. The fact that an individual can be so charismatic and intuitive, and then use those skills to create something so sinister, is fascinating to me. My favorite kinds of stories are always about those on the inside looking out. Those who were lured in, and then realized that they had to escape. So when I saw the premise of The Project, I knew that it was going on my reading list. It hit all those little reader buttons inside my brain, and I was thrilled. Perhaps my excitement was a little too high though, because this book and I had some problems with one another.

Starting with the kudos, I have to say that I was immediately won over by the relationship between Bea and Lo. Although it wasn't ever "perfect", what sisterly bond ever is? Their connection felt realistic to me. I felt for Lo so deeply, as she tried to get back the one person that she had left in this world. I struggled not to tear up as her only living relative constantly ignored her, and pushed her away, in favor of the cult that ensnared her. In the same vein, I had so much love for the rawness that was Lo's character. Not only had she lost so much around her, but she'd lost a portion of herself after the accident. I understood her pain, saw her fault lines, and wanted to comfort her.

It is the pace of this story that I truly struggled with. The first third, where Lo was digging into the history of the The Project, was perfect. I'm generally not a fan of alternating points of view, but in this case I couldn't get enough of flashing back to Bea's story and slowly uncovering what was really going. As the book neared the middle though, things drastically slowed down. This is also the point where I started to feel like Lo's character was sliding uncomfortably into someone to pity instead of support. I truly felt like she had been built up to be someone who, despite everything, was fairly strong. Or at least that she put up a good front. Which made the latter half of this book extremely upsetting for me.

The other issue was that I never truly believed in Lev Warren. As a cult leader, I expected him to be larger than life. Someone who others were enraptured by, and wanted to follow. Instead, he felt a bit hollow to me. Like the idea of what a leader of this kind should be, without the actual flesh on the outside. I had a hard time believing that anyone would want to give their lives up for him, much less that he would be able to sway someone like Lo to his side. It felt manufactured, and I can't deny that this made me sad. I was fairly sure I knew how this book was going to end by the mid point, and I was right. So I also felt like I missed out on any surprises.

I'm rambling, I know. My feelings about this story are all over the place. On the one hand, The Project is excellently written. Anyone who has read Courtney Summers' stories before knows exactly what I mean. Bea and Lo were real people to me, and I was invested in their story. On the other hand, this book just didn't deliver what I was hoping for. Maybe it's because Sadie, Summers' last book, completely broke my heart but this one fell flat for me.

The Project is incredibly hard to put down while reading, largely due to its structure of alternating narratives between Lo and Bea. Just as something Big happens with each sister it switches to the other PoV and you've just got to keep going to find out more. The structure worked especially well where you'd frequently get an "ah ha! moment in the Lo chapter for a reveal that's confirmed in the next Bea chapter. However, this might just be an issue with me, but if I had to step away from the book, I didn't feel that immediate need to come back to it. It keeps momentum well while reading, but just wasn't compelling enough to think about when I was doing something else.

If you're into media about the dangers of cults, I highly recommend it. If you're not interested in the topic, maybe give it a shot, but don't prioritize it over something you're more excited about..

The Project is the latest by Courtney Summers. It is being advertised as a Young Adult/Teen book. In my opinion it should just be in the adult category. Ms Summers tells us the story going back and forth in time, in the viewpoints of two sisters. Ms Summer does let the reader know what year they are at, but jumps from scene to scene without any notice. I found myself backtracking in my reading to see if I missed something. I want to thank NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an early copy to review.

This is a phenomenal book, but it does come with a lot of content warnings for physical abuse, grooming, borderline sexual coercion, emotional abuse, extreme gaslighting, PTSD, and general trauma. It's a fairly heavy book, particularly for a YA-designee, but it delivers and isn't quite as misery/despair-focused as it could be. Also, that cover is gorgeous!!

I really enjoyed the other two Courtney Summers books, so when I found out that this one was about a cult, I was excited. I liked the idea of two sisters torn apart by a religious cult, but I struggled with the format. The way that it shifted between the two sisters along with the time frame constantly was confusing and unsettling. It made it hard to get lost in and even understand the story.
I loved the characters and the writing, but the story structure made it hard to enjoy.