After a tragic accident that kills her parents, Lo Denham wakes up in the hospital to discover her older sister Bea has left her alone and in the care of her aunt. Lo has spent the last six-years trying to understand why her sister abandoned her and joined the Unity Project, a very private charitable organization led by the charismatic and charming Lev Warren. Although Lo has tried to contact Bea the organization has kept the sisters apart adding to Lo's suspicions that the group is dangerous and not what it appears to be. When a young Project member dies, Lo's investigation brings her closer to the Unity Project and the truth about her sister.

The Project is a captivating new mystery/suspense novel from author Courtney Summers. I am a huge fan of Summer's writing style and have enjoyed several of her other novels (Sadie, This is Not a Test, & Cracked Up to be). As with these other novels Lo is a strong female protagonist with a traumatic past. Lo has spent the last six years trying to understand why her sister Bea abandoned her and joined the Unity Project, a cult, run by Lev Warren a man who believes he is doing "God's" work. Much of the novel is spent exploring the sibling relationship between Lo and Bea. Lo's attempts to contact Bea, so she can explain why she left, have all been blocked by the Project's head members. Although she cannot prove it, Lo believes the group is dangerous and she will stop at nothing to expose the truth. The tragic death of one of the members provides Lo with an opportunity to investigate the Project from inside the complex but she is unprepared for what she discovers. Although this novel kept me intrigued and was well written I didn't find it as enjoyable as some of her other novels. I'm not a huge fan of cult novels so this probably wasn't the best fit for me. I did enjoy the characters but some of the plot felt a bit slow at times. The novel contains some disturbing content including: cult mentality, suicide, physical abuse, and torture/death. Overall this was an enjoyable and somewhat complex read which I think many readers will enjoy.

Another wild ride from Courtney Summers! I love how Summers approaches a mystery by weaving in the story of the characters. Two sisters-separated after a tragic car crash that killed their parents. Lo is hospitalized for a long time and Bea meets the leader of a local group though to be a cult. Lev, the leader, comes to visit Lo and "saves" her further confirming Bea's belief in the Project. Fast forward to the present day, Lo is a reporter researching the Project and trying to locate her sister. This story is captivating and unique. Young adults and adults will love this book! Can't wait for more books by Courtney Summers!

Courtney Summers has done it again. I read and fell in love with Sadie a few years ago, and knew I needed this book. She did not disappoint.

A page turning thriller, this story is told from two different timelines. Lo, an aspiring young journalist, and Bea, her sister who joined a cult, known as The Unity Project.

When a man shows up up the magazine Lo works for, claiming The Unity Project killed his son, Lo sees is as the perfect opportunity to expose the group and reunite with her sister. But as she spends more time with Lev, the charismatic leader of the group, and gets to know more about the members, it unravels everything she thought she knew about her sister and herself. She doesn't know what's real or true anymore.

This book was exciting, thrilling, and I flew through it in two sittings. Courtney Summers is an amazing writer, and knows how to keep readers intrigued. It was intense, emotional, and I highly recommend picking it up if you're a fan of thrillers and suspenseful reads.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve read books about cults before. They were terrifying yet intriguing. But after each read, I needed something a little lighter to clear my mind. Courtney Summer’s latest book had the same effect. I thought Sadie was her best work, but she surpassed my expectations with The Project. This story was told in different timelines by sisters Lo and Bea.

After suffering the loss of her parents in a car accident, Bea fervently prayed that her sister would survive that same accident and she would do whatever it took or was needed if someone answered her prayers. Lo survived and Bea fulfilled that promise. But it came with a price. All communication between the sisters stopped. They were no longer a part of each other’s lives, but the promise of always being sisters remained.

Bea was now part of The Unity Project led by the charismatic cult leader Lev. Before a cult member committed suicide in front of Lo, he whispered words to her. His words took Lo on a path to locate her sister…a path more dangerous than Lo thought possible.

Courtney Summers has a way of writing that demands your attention and doesn’t offer any respite. It felt like there was a cliffhanger of sorts at the end of each sister’s narrative. Then you read as fast as possible to get to the narrative’s continuing story only to find yourself in another riveting chapter ending. This captivating and engaging style of writing added to this intense storyline.

This was a very fast paced well written thriller.

An ARC was given for an honest review.

#netgalley #theproject

I was excited to read this book from the description. I really wanted to love this book based on the promise of a cult and the followers of the project. However, it just never grabbed me.

A thriller about cults and belonging, in which the protagonist is an easily-swayed and not terribly smart young woman seeking her sister. A lot of plot elements don't make a lot of sense, and the denouement was predictable. A round of developmental editing would have helped round out the characters more and made the author consider certain plot choices that seem arbitrary or irrelevant.

I had never read Courtney Summers before, but I am definitely going to be going through and reading her backlist titles. I know our patrons are going to love this book, so I'll be purchasing a few for our shelves. Thank you for allowing me to read it early.

2.5 stars, rounded up to 3

Thank you to Netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Two sisters, Bea and Lo, are orphaned after a car accident kills their parents. Lo survives the accident, but is left hospitalized and scarred. Bea leaves 13 year old Lo to recover with their previously unknown great aunt, and she runs off with the (supposedly charismatic?) leader of the Unity Project, Lev Warren.

I had so many problems with most of the characters in this book! Bea was looking for guidance after losing her parents and was taken in by Lev, but there was never any explanation at all for why she would just abandon her sister and never speak to her again. They were supposed to have this incredibly close relationship, even thought they were six years apart in age, but that is not how close sisters act when there is a crisis!

Lo was supposed to be dogged and determined and she just *knew* that she had to be a writer because it was the one thing that would give her life meaning, but when she was given the opportunity of a lifetime to write an expose about the cult that had kept her sister from her for years, she asks a couple of lame questions, writes nothing, and then basically gives up.

Lev is supposed to be this incredible, charismatic leader who everyone loves and wants/needs to be around, but he’s really just a self-centered asshole with a God complex. Everyone talks about how God speaks through him, but how do they not see that he thinks he *is* God? It is very plain in how he acts and what he says. His character was not written in a way that it was believable that people would leave their entire lives behind to follow him.

As Lo gets deeper into the story and more intertwined with Lev, everything we knew about her is no longer there - she’s no longer obsessed with her sister, she’s not dogged and determined and stubborn, she no longer has to write to feel alive - it’s just not a believable story arc over such a brief amount of time.

I won’t spoil the ending, but I will say that I felt robbed by the writing at the end. We don’t get an account of all of the big stuff that happens at the end of the book, we just get a “character wakes up and is fine but has undergone something dramatic and traumatic, but we won’t bore you with the details”. What? That was the reason I kept reading - because I wanted to know what happens in that exact scene, but I don’t get the specifics? What a ripoff!

I feel like this could have been much better if the first 80% of the book had been condensed down, and the last 20% of the book was fleshed out and described and explained and written.

After writing all of that out, I feel like 2.5 stars was possibly too generous.

(Not included in my review posted on Goodreads: There were a LOT of typographical errors in the ebook! There were so many words left out, and words or phrases that were repeated twice, that it became a chore to read after a while! I just wanted to take a red pen to it! I hope it goes through an extensive edit before it goes to print!)

After a horrific car accident takes the life of their parents, sisters Bea and Lo become separated as Bea joins a religious cult called The Project. Barely surviving the accident, a young Lo lives with her aunt before coming of age. Now, as an adult Lo, still misses her sister and has several attempts at talking with Bea again. As an aspiring writer Lo finds a way to get answers, and find her sister, by writing a story on the cult and a mysterious death of one of their members.

It’s during this research that the story changes pace. Lo’s strong character has an abrupt change. Overall, the characters needed more development. I didn’t feel a bond between the sisters. A brief explanation of past traumas is what we get from the other characters. This novel is listed as YA, but it doesn’t have a YA feel. I would say the audience is adults with crossover appeal for young adults.

And thanks to Courtney Summers for the new trRRaUmAAAaa! 🧚🏼💫 I would expect nothing less when Courtney puts out a new piece of work and this one just absolutely nailed it.

Bea and Lo are sisters and nothing for their family seems to come easy. Lo's entry to the world is hard, as a preemie fighting for her life, and Bea isn't quite ready to be a big sister. Eventually, Bea comes around and there are years of them building their sister bond, working on building the special secret place that their mom promised Bea when Lo was born. Then it all changes again when Bea's out being a wild teenager and her family gets in a car accident. Lo barely survives, and their parents don't. Lo's fighting for her life and Lo will do anything to save her. That's when she meets him.

Years later, Lo's working at a magazine and hasn't talked to her sister in years. But, it's a small word and it looks like there may be a storm brewing that would bring them back together again. Lo sees her chance and is prepared to take it but what if all isn't as it seems?

And then, what if the truths that revealed aren't exactly what they seem, either? Can anything be believed when it comes to The Project?

Another one-sitting read for me. 5 stars easy!

a very interesting read that got A LOT better towards the end. This book just isn't one that I would typically read, but I'm glad I did. It's very eerie and creepy, and it clearly wasn't a good decision to read this at midnight.....
The characters were decent, but I loved the writing. Honestly, Courtney Summers is an incredible author, so any book of hers is automatically at least three stars.

Summers’ books are always a must-read, but this one just didn’t do it for me. It is marketed as a thriller, but it really isn’t. There aren’t any twists or really much of a mystery. It moved very slowly until the last 20% or so, which then felt rushed. I also couldn’t reconcile how quickly Lo switched from hating the cult and wanting to save her sister to sleeping with the leader and then wanting to be a part of the Project. It was a complete 180 that happened in maybe 5-10 pages and just wasn’t believable. I’m giving 3 stars because I do love the way Summers writes and the cover is gorgeous.

This book was interesting and took me for a ride. The ending could've been better. I would read more from this author.

Courtney Summers manages to up her game with every new book, and The Project was no exception. I've been reading Courtney's books for a decade and I'm so thrilled that she approaches every book as a new venture. From high school drama to zombies to cults, she isn't afraid to break away from what she's done before and try something new. The Project is a fascinating look into cults through the lens of two sisters told across two different times. The way Courtney threads the two stories together and explores the nature of cults works really well. I highly recommend The Project.

4.5 Stars!

Instantly compelling, twisty, and fully of all the conflicting emotions and nuance that I've come to expect from this author.

Courtney Summers is excellent at creating spiky, angry heroines, and I love that about her books. I find that too often female characters are derided as "unlikeable", as if being anything other than perfectly adjusted is bad. Not every character should be nice and polite and apologizing. Some, especially those dealing with the traumas inflicted upon them by Summers' plots, really ought to be allowed to be angry and sharp and grieving.

And boy is there grief in this novel. Summers creates a cult with an appeal that you can see. They take in people who are hurting, they do good for the community, the have an excellent PR team. Even when you think you see the cracks, the fallibility of the members, its managed so deftly that you understand why these people are joining. As it goes on, growing more sinister and complex and raw, you see how you've been roped in and now it's too late.

Summers portrays in poignant yet simple prose how charisma and organization (perhaps especially through the form of religion) can take advantage of the broken and the hurting and lure them into its calling. And she doesn't take the easy route here. She adds layers and nuance and balance. The Project *is* doing good, even if they're also pushing their members down a sinister path.

The story kept me guessing the whole way. Every time I thought I was right, the story twisted in a way that I never saw coming, but that also feels perfectly right in retrospect.

Wow, wow, wow wow wow WOW! I mean I can't say wow enough. What a book this was. ! I've come to love Courtney Summer's books. All of them and this was a little different then her typical style, but it was an intense read!

The story surrounds two sisters, Bea and Lo. Right from the moment Lo was born, Bea always felt that she should take care of her and made a promise to her mother that she always would be a sister to Lo. A tragic car accident kills their parents and seriously injures Lo to the point where they are worried if she will pull through. She does but then she finds herself all alone.
Bea runs off and joints the Unity Project, a rumored cult led by Lev Warren. Now this is not your average run of the mill cult story. In you only really meet two people from the cult (Casey and Foster) in addition to Lev. I expected to right off the bat think that Lev was crazy. But he's so likable and charming that its easy to see how he gathered so many followers. In most books that deal with cults, it drives me crazy how obvious it is that the guy leading it is bad news, but Courtney gave Lev a lot of depth.
So the story really begins one day when Lo watches a man die on the train tracks and she finds out she knows his father. His father is convinced that the Unity Project killed his son and given that Bea ran away to join them, Lo decides to bring them down while, finding her sister. Its a world she never thought she would even want to be a part of and at first its to be closer to her sister (who has left) but then it becomes something else.
What a great book by Summers!
Thank you to #negalley and St. Martins Press for the e-arc in exchange for my own opinions.

Do you ever finish a book and just feel like the author punched you in the face?

Courtney Summers is so incredibly talented at making you care about her characters, who are raw and angry and lost in such compelling ways. Lo is a force of nature, and she's so steadfast in her pain, but I think the really beautiful work done here is her sister Bea: or rather, the absence of Bea. Lo's loss of her sister permeates every page, and Bea's refusal to reveal herself and explain what's going on is actively infuriating in the best possible way. You feel the way that Lo feels, and so every twist and turn (and there are MANY) feels like a personal offence to Lo and to the reader.

Just excellent. I'll be recommending this one like crazy.

This book was intense!

Of course, the whole time I was wondering: is it a cult or not? And if it is, is it dangerous or not? It's hard to tell when so many characters have their own agenda.

Lo is kind of a shell of a person ever since her sister left for The Unity Project. She says she's a writer, but she never writes. She tries to convince her boss, Paul, to move her up from an assistant, but she doesn't investigate anything to prove herself. What does Lo want?

Just her sister, Bea.

The setting is very palpable. I could imagine everywhere Lo went very clearly. The tension in the book, as well as the feeling of love that's in there, is also extremely tangible. It came through in the writing. I was absolutely held in suspense, and I wasn't even able to make a guess about anything. I wouldn't say this book has a twist ending like, Gone Girl, for example, but for me it was a "Wait, what?" moment.

Courtney Summers is a great writer. I really enjoy all her books and can't put them down. Unfortunately for this book, the characters seem a little shallow. As in, 2 dimensional. I definitely didn't get a sense of Lo as a writer or a journalist or even an assistant. And the reader only gets a little of Bea, because it's told in the 3rd person. I know Lo is stubborn, but she doesn't seem to be formulated into a person without her sister. Which would be fine if that was all her character was, but Lo seemed to have hopes and dreams too...they just didn't seem very fleshed out.

Likewise Lev, the leader of the UP. We only got a sense of him through other people's eyes. At the risk of sounding cliche, what's his motivation? We get his backstory, but it falls flat. When you find out the truth about the UP, I wasn't surprised. I was just, meh. I think I remember feeling something similar while reading Sadie - I don't think I was a fan of the end.

Surprisingly, the characters that I really got a good sense of were "background" characters, like Foster, Emmy, Casey, etc.

Still not sure about Jeremy + Bea. Didn't know what to make of that, unless I missed something extremely obvious. Lo made it sound more !!!! than I think it was.

I recommend this book and I look forward to more by Summers!

I’ve been a man of Courtney Summers for a while and initially came across her with her excellent zombie novel “This is not a Test” (2012) and since then she has written some varied YA which seamlessly moves around the genres, whilst staying on the dark side. Her latest thriller, “The Project” is no different, and is aimed at teenagers aged 14+ for its mature themes, older characters and relatively slow pace.

Aspiring journalist trainee, 19-year-old Lo, is looking for a scoop to climb the greasy pole of the magazine she writes for and after witnessing a suicide she connects to The Unity Project she returns to a part of her life she thought was closed. Lo was a great character and I’m sure readers will tap into her anger when they realise she has personal reasons for investigating The Unity Project; her sister Bea, a member of the Project who she hasn’t seen for some time.

I have read a lot of books about fictional cults and from an adult point of view The Unity Project offered nothing new, but teen readers should be gripped and pulled into its inner workings, revealed via Bea’s narrative. I loved the clash of narrative styles and the voices were incredibly clear and distinct. This is a very mature book and is aimed at strong teen readers and carries convincing emotional whack.

This book is a non-stop trip. Just like Sadie left you feeling slightly unbalanced throughout, this book does the same. The constant time jumps I would find annoying in other stories are part of the charm of this one--you need to have the story told in alternate past and present for it to make sense. I love the main characters, our narrating sisters, because I feel like they are both deeply flawed and it's refreshing to have heros that aren't super heroic. I also love the absolute creepiness of our main antagonist, Lev. He is disturbing in a David Koresh/Jim Jones/Ted Bundy kind of way. Charming but also terribly unsettling. I wish the ending had been just a bit clearer, but maybe it was also supposed to be unsettling? Or rather, unsettled? Summers is a talent that I think is underappreciated in the YA world. These books are very compelling for adult and teen readers alike. Although this one has several graphic depictions of sex, so maybe not the best for younger teens.