This book will be perfect summer reading for our high schoolers. We often hear that “all religions are cults” from our students, but what does that really mean?

This book completely passes the Bechdel Test, brings up strong emotions, and really gets the reader to question what they would really do in this situation.

Young girls are subject to so much outside pressure, The Project will certainly get them critically thinking about what and who to trust.

Highly recommended.

This book totally met the mark! Courtney Summers continues to blow me away with her writing and character development with each new book I've read by her. This is a must read!

Very good book. Looking forward to reading another one by this author. Couldn’t put the book down. Hard to say a lot without spoilers. Great thriller!

A solid follow-up novel for Summers. Spooky season has us craving thrillers and this is a good one to pick up this season.

For so much of this book I thought there was potential. I thought that mayhaps this was going to be the Courtney Summers book for me after I was left disappointed with Sadie… and the more I read the more I realized that this just was not the case…

So much of Lo’s journey in this book felt stilted, that the book needed to be longer if it was going to make me believe that she was going to fall prey to the same events as her sister; who according to the book was seemingly groomed for far longer than Lo was. Especially when the Project had been as antagonistic to her as they had been for the better part of a decade. It felt too juvenile for a book about adults, even if it was marketed for a YA audience.

A lot of that I could have forgiven, but the ending? That ending? I’m sorry that was just horrible. It didn’t feel earned, because again this drastic character change is supposed to make sense and given all that was going on, it just didn’t. And then we did this let’s just jump past the climax to the resolution… It just did not work on any level. I can think of no one I would want to recommend this too honestly.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Wednesday Books and Netgalley, for providing me with a copy to read and review. After, taking time to really digest this book, I have to say with a heavy heart I was very disappointed that this was a 3-star rating. I really thought this book was going to be a 5-star hands down maybe a 4-4.5-star rating but sadly it was not. I found myself disconnected from the writing style, and because of that the intrigue was lacking outside of the mystery aspect. I guess I should blame myself because I went into this with such high hopes. The dark, suspense was there because of the cult leader aspect. As we all know cult leaders are very persuasive when gathering followers.
The Project we follow of main character Lo Denham who lost her parents to a car crash and her big sister to a cult all at the same time. Lo was in the car when her parents crashed but by some miracle she pulled through. That accident forever shaped the course of her life. Years later, when a good friend of her boss loses his son, Jeremy, to suicide, he blames The Project for driving him to his death. Looking through photos of the man's son, Lo stumbles upon one of Jeremy posing with Bea. Lo has been desperate to be in contact with her sister again and vows to do whatever it takes to make that happen.
The last quarter of the book started to intrigue me more, but prior to that I felt nothing; no passion, no intrigue, no curiosity, it was just sort of meh. As always, Summers includes a lot of hard-hitting subject matter and that's important.

Courtney Summers is an author who does not pull her punches. She takes on dark and hard to discuss topics and turns them into a narrative that pulls you in with characters that you can empathize with. Her naturally realistic writing style and plot progression make the hard hits of her this-could-really-happen narrative feel like you're reading a true survivor's story.
The Project follows Lo Denham after she realizes that the cult her sister disappeared into might just be more than she or anyone realized. We follow her as she finds herself falling deeper and deeper into the clutches of the charismatic leader and revelation after revelation lead her down a path of danger.
A psychological page-turner that makes readers question everything and everyone around Lo while slowly revealing the cracks in the world of The Unity Project. It's a powerful read that really makes you think.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the riveting read.

10/21- I went into this with extremely low expectations because of the reviews but I ended up really enjoying this. However, this is in no way YA. I don’t know why it was published like that but none of the characters are teenagers and that’s ok. I’ve watched the documentary on Scientology a bunch of times and this book reminded me of that documentary.

I really "enjoyed" Sadie so I wanted to give this a chance. The synopsis was intriguing. HOWEVER, I ened up absolutely HATING this. It started out pretty slow and nothing was happening. I wanted to give Lo, our main character, a chance but she was presented a certain way and then immediately made the WORST decisions. I mean they made ZERO sense. It just got worse from there. The writing wasn't necessarily bad just the plot was seriously lacking for me. I think if you want to try a Courtney Summers book check out Sadie but pass on this.


I received an ARC of this via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! This book.

I am a huge fan of Courtney Summers - Sadie is hands down one of my favorite books ever and I always recommend it to my students who love thrillers/suspense.

I was so excited to read this new book from Summers, and this book did not disappoint. If you're looking for a book about the relationship between sisters and the lengths they would go to for each other, then this book is right up your alley.

I have several students reading this one right now and they can't put it down!

Loved this book. Courtney Summers has written yet another gripping and interesting book. I love the cult elements and the investigative sleuthing. I can't wait until Courtney writes another book.

Anytime I see the word CULT I am immediately sold. Just don't ask me to join one ... HA!

I flew through The Project in one sitting. I thought the premise behind this story was really interesting and I immediately connected with the main character, Lo.

I'm a huge fan of Courtney Summers and can't wait to see what she comes up with next!

Thanks to St. Martin's Press/Wednesday Books and Netgalley for my copy!

A dark tale of the bond between sisters. Lo and Bea Lost their parents six years ago. Lo is in bad shape, but survives the crash. Bea having thought she lost her entire family gets in bald with a group called Unity. The group appears to do good on the outside but there is a definite sinister side. Now Lo is a journalist and not only wants to expose the cult but save her sister as well. This was just such an emotionally raw story about love between sisters and the sacrifices that they were both willing to make for the other. The story is primarily told from Lo’s point of view with Bea’s perspective occasionally sprinkled in. I felt so much for both of these sisters and was so concerned for both of their safety at one time or another. The ending was a bit out there, but overall a really well told story.

*** Big thank you to Wednesday Books for my gifted copy of this book. All opinions are my own. ***

When I found out The Project was READ NOW on Netgalley, I was so happy and excited, as I've heard only good things about Courtney Summers' work.
Her book Some Girls are is on my radar for some time now, and with Sadie being a huge hit last year, you can guess why I expected to be thrilled with her newest novel.

As time passed and life got in the way, unfortunately I picked up The Project after it's release, with my expectations lower then before, as many negative reviews pop up on my feed and in the book community in general.

My first problem with the novel was that, although with the theme it followed it sounded promising, the execution was just boring.
In matter of fact, this is one of the most boring, if not THE most boring book that I have ever read.
I feel like in the whole story nothing actually happened, and often I felt like I was behind the doors of a cult, listening to their preaching.

I expected some action at least close to the end, but when "big thing" was revealed I don't think anyone was shocked, as everyone and their mothers could have guessed it.
And if I am being honest, I didn't even care at that point.

I don't appreciate how this was marketed as horror, thriller, suspense, when in reality it is a drama about cult.

Publishers, please don't wrap a dull drama story in shiny paper called horror, it is so misleading and not okay.

I also don't understand why the author and publishers decided for The Project to be a ya book?
Was it because Sadie was that genre? Or maybe they thought it could potentially sell more copies?
Whatever the reason, I have strong opinion that if the book was aimed for adult audience, without restrictions it could have been better. Maybe not way better, but at least little better.

I feel like the story was inspired with Church of Wells. I could be wrong.
However, I just want to mention that I watched several videos about that cult, years ago, and I was more entertained and thrilled then I ever was while reading this novel.

The book is written in dual timelines, following two sisters, Bea and Lo.
Lo's POV was written in first person, and Bea's in third.
I also want to stress out that the prologue of the story has nothing to do with the story itself and it is misleading.

As for the characters... oh, Lo was so... unlikable, full of herself thinking her boss needs to promote her after she was there for a year, without right education in the first place, and she came off as the world owes her something.
It is still not clear to me who took care of her while she was left alone, while her selfish sister Bea ran off to cult while Lo was still in the hospital.
And where was the child service in this whole story??

Not to end this review on a negative note, I want to say I did enjoy some of the dialogues between characters.

After finishing The Project, I don't think I will read Sadie. I lost the will.

I did not know that I needed this book as much as I did. Summer impresses me with her ability to make a YA so meaningful, intense, and mature. She definitely writes on the line of YA and NA.

A very fascinating book that definitely plays with your idea of what constitutes a cult. I always appreciate it when an author can show how these organizations draw people in, and the emotional impact on families. Summers' writing is like an emotional gut punch.

Truly another incredible novel by Courtney Summers. If you haven't picked up any of her works yet, this one will have you hooked and want to binge all the others.

I don't know what it was about this book, but I just couldn't get into it. Which is a shame because most people loved this book. I made it about 30% in but still felt no connection to the characters or story so I did not finish this book.

This was a bit of a let down for me.

I was super excited to pick up a new book by Courtney Summers after how I much I loved Sadie. And while I did love the writing of this book thats about all I liked. Majority of this book left me extremely bored and desperately waiting for something to happen to then get reeled back in by a small revelation only to get bored all over again. I really would have loved some more depth as to the workings of Unity and it's members but I feel like we rarely saw any of that. I also really didn't care for any of the characters and wasn't a fan of how quickly Lo became one of Lev's groupies after spending so long vowing to expose him. I hoped that by sticking it out the ending would hit home and really pack a punch to make it all worth it but that also just ended up falling super flat for me as well.

I love Courtney Summers, all her books are so compelling. The Project is dark and twisty, and the story is so good that I could not stop reading it! I’ve always been a little intrigued by Cults and how they can get everyone to follow so blindly, so this book was right up my alley. Not even sure how Summers made me feel sympathetic toward a cult, but she is magical! Can’t wait for the next from Courtney!

Note: I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.