The Project A Novel

Maybe it's because I listened to this but I found this needlessly confusing and I truly didn't care about anybody by the end! Yes, even the baby! Who cares!!!!

eARC provided by NetGalley The story focuses on the narratives of two sisters, Bea and Lo, as they slowly unfold the truth behind a religious community - The Unity Project, which is, allegedly, a cult, and on how this organization impacted the siblings' relationship. I remember reading an article on how Courtney Summers often has different approaches to her characters from other YA authors. Well, I can guarantee that's true. Both the sisters are so unlikeable to me. But that's part of the book's appeal. Another is that it has one of the most garbage, disgusting, detestable, manipulative sickening, punchable fucks I've ever had to read about. From what I saw, the book is tagged as 1) Young Adult, in which I'll say: It's not. Recategorize it.; 2) Mystery: This mostly failed for me because the plot twists were too predictable (If Summers wants to manipulate her readers, she needs to try harder). And 3) Thriller: Well, Part Four and Part Five of this book were really gripping. So at least we have that. I myself have little experience with cults but the way it's described seemed quite realistic and disturbing to me. Some details were so morally questionable that I had to discuss them with my friend to clear things out. Anyway, great theme, bad execution.

When I finished this book I thought "I've already read over 350 pages?" It totally flew by. I also expected there to be an acknowledgment at the end about Courtney Summers experiences with a cult as it felt like she 100% experienced all this and knew what she was talking about. She made it so easy to believe the cult leader and think that maybe he was genuine. I loved Lo and hated her decisions at the same time. I pulled for her and for everything to work out for Lo. I think I liked this one even better than Sadie. I received a copy of this book from NetGalley.

Cult dystopia, psycho thrilller, heart racer.

Good YA realistic fiction about two sisters, torn apart by a fatal accident and a type of cult. This one will keep readers hooked. I recommend it for high school and adult readers.

womp. this was one of my most anticipated of the year and wow, this fell sooo flat. was so bored the whole time and im very disappointed!! ugh

Uh, let's call this 2.5 stars. It's not great but it's pretty readable and if you've read any articles or watched the documentary on Nexium then you can see that Summers gleaned many details from that cult to this book's cult, The Unity Project. I think I'll stop reading Courtney Summers books as I'm rarely impressed by them, yet somehow they always find there way into my library holds list.

Very interesting read!! There was a few shots that seem a little rushed but over all this very interesting!!

This book was a thrill to read, and helped me out of a reading slump. I wanted to know where Bea was and what happened to her as much as Lo. The way we slowly see Lo succumb to the charm of Lev Warren was well done, and the entire time I was thinking "no, no not Lo too", especially as it paralleled with Bea starting to realize what was truly happening. Courtney Summers is definitely becoming one of my anticipated authors.

*2.5

cult books scare me

I read this a little while ago so I am struggling to remember everything about it except that I loved it. I do remember thinking thriller isn't the word I would use to describe this. I was mysterious and vibey and a bit weird, but not a thriller in my opinion. But that's just me. The atmosphere this created was so great. I also think the ending was lacking something, but I can't place my finger on what that is anymore. (I should've reviewed this a long time ago...oops). Also, I only read this in September and I'm still struggling here. lol **spoilers kind of** I still stand by my 5 star review for back when I read this book. It was super intriguing and I definitely didn't want to put it down. I was immediately interested because of the cult-like vibes. I have never read a book of that nature so I was interested to see if I liked it and I did!

2.5 stars... Those extra .5 are just because the last paragraph made me sad. I don't know what I expected, but I absolutely loved Sadie so I hoped this one will receive a similar reaction. It's just okay.. it might have been a solid three but I had to remind myself to read it and not to put it down after five minutes. The story's not bad. Just somehow basic, nothing new. The cover is gorgeous.

Honest to God- the most heartbreaking but also suspenseful novel I've ever read. The best kind of love story- the love story of someone who will fight tooth and nail for someone else. Read it.

this was just okay, the only reason it's above a 2.5 it's because at the 80% mark it starts picking up speed; but i think it's too much waiting for the book to get interesting

** spoiler alert ** Rating: 4⭐️ Thank you to the publisher for sending me an Arc via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Trigger warning for religious cult activity, abuse, torture, car accident, trauma, ptsd - - - - - - - - I knew going into this book that it was going to deal with a cult-like setting but I didn’t think it was going to be very religious. As someone who is not religious, I found I was rolling my eyes at some of the things said that The Unity Project would preach. I liked Lo’s character as she’s driven to find out what happened to her sister. What she discovers along the way though - her sister having a child, being Lev’s “miracle”, Bea’s murder - was very predictable in my mind. I was able to guess all the “twists” well before they were revealed. I feel bad for Lo though since she didn’t really get to know her sister before Bea disappeared. She still had hope for her sister though. I wasn’t a huge fan of the dual timelines as I felt it pulled away from Lo’s story. I understand why Bea’s story was included but I couldn’t really connect to her character and I often found myself falling bored during her chapters. I really loved Sadie and wanted to love this one just as much but it fell flat for me. Overall it’s a decent read, it just wasn’t my favourite.

This was a good cult book. Also quite disturbing though.

** spoiler alert ** She kisses him hard because she want to taste God. The writing is so strong that at some point I started questioning if The Project was actually a cult and it made me feel feel nauseous to feel the same as people feel when they join these types of things, but gratefully from an outside perspective. The ending was very rushed and unfulfiling. I don't like that it ends in a note about how "God" made Lev die, and although I felt the pain reading Lo being tortured by Lev at the end I feel like it should have been avoided. I understand that she is on the younger side, but she acts too immature even for her own age and this frustrated me, although this is understandable in the point of view of the amount of trauma she faced and not having anyone on her life to guide to better things. I hate that she came back to work for Paul in the end. I also hate that Lev just "drowned", after we learn that he was such a bad person after all it feels hollow to have him not face the consequences of his actions. By far the most disturbing thing are the parallels, how at some point I was not even sure there were two sisters anymore and I was starting to believe it was only one person. Both of them fell to Lev's manipulation without questioning and what haunts me the most is this. How Lo, as a wanna-be journalist, though her trauma is what caused the accident and not once even doubted that one of The Project's members might have tempered with her card. Lev breaks her phone and she never once wonders how that might have happened, she just accept it was found broken and doesn't question it. And I don't think it's sloppy writing. I think this is people seeing what they want to see, and Lo, being broken (literally and figurativelly) by her past and so desesperate to find something good for herself willingly engages in a sexual relationship with the man she is trying to debunk, and completely forgets her sister was once in the same situation, her sister also had sexual relations to him. This is so many levels of fucked up and it took my breath away reading it.

3.5

** spoiler alert ** *I was kindly sent this in exchange for an honest review via Netgalley* After a very tragic car accident in which both of her parents die and that leaves her sister Lo in a coma, Bea is desperate, and recurs to the leader of The Unity project who will “bring her from the dead” if she joins them. Several years later, Lo hasn’t heard from Bea since shortly after the accident, and is determined to expose the Unity Project and recuperate her sister. I just got into cult novels in 2020 and I am very happy to end this year in such a positive note. This was a great novel. The characters did not feel plain at all, and it was so intriguing getting inside The unity project and unveiling it little by little. I really liked Lo (except for the period of time where she is in the cult herself) and I sympathized with her a lot! Bea’s character was hard for me, I didn’t know where to stand with her at the beginning, but I ended up really liking her by the end; and Lev gave me creepy vibes for most of the novel but he was an interesting character for sure. Overall, the plot itself was not difficult to predict, but if the novel is well written this doesn’t need to be a bad thing necessarily; I still enjoyed the ride that it was unveiling the cult and there were definitely some things that I didn’t see coming/was completely wrong about. Also, not related to the plot, but the art cover was so beautiful!

1.5 ✨ Summary of review: I feel like the relationships in the book weren't as developed as they could of been. I also felt that the last 30% of the book was very rushed. (view spoiler)[ I'm not gonna lie, I didn't like this book. I watch a lot of cult documentaries and I always find it fascinating how the members came to be in the cult and what happens after they leave. I thought that this book would be similar, but with a more personal perspective. My biggest problem with this book is how some things just went unexplained. Like the reason why Jeremy killed himself, how Lo was able to kill Lev, how Foster was able to escape, if Lo was sent to jail for killing Lev, and so many other things. I also did not understand how Lo went from hating Lev to loving him within like .5 seconds. There was no build up and seemingly no connection. Literally one minute she was angry and the next she had slept with him. I feel like the book should have spent more time with Lo in the cult. It just felt like there was so much time spent on her life before her joining it that when she did it was too abrupt. I don't think that the relationships and story were as developed in some areas. I didn't feel that Bea had a full relationship with Foster or that Lo had a full relationship with Lev. Like Bea slept with Foster because she thought it would appease Lev, but then all of a sudden she was like I love Foster, but we didn't hear much about it. I was just really confused. I also just did not like the ending. I wish Bea made it, but I understand why she did not. I think a more cathartic ending would have been better. The last like 30% of the book was sooooo rushed. If there was more action in the last scenes of the book, I feel like it may have been more final feeling, but it was just so anticlimactic. It went from oh Lo is drowning to her being at a train station and now Lev is dead. (hide spoiler)]

** spoiler alert ** Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. The Project was a gripping and extremely interesting read, and I’m sure it’s one which will stay with me and many other readers long after finishing it. It was beautifully written and I was kept on the edge of my seat throughout. The book did start out fairly slowly, and at the beginning I was slightly confused by the dual POVs and time leaps but by the end I came to love that element of the novel, as well as the two sisters, Bea and Lo, who the story follows. Reminiscent of Will Hill’s After the Fire, The Project explores a religious cult called the Unity Project, and while reading we learn about it and the impact it has had on various members, Bea and Lo included. Learning about the two sisters and their journeys throughout life was fascinating, as was the rest of this book. The Unity Project in itself was also extraordinary interesting, and the mystery-like element of this book relating to it had me struggling to put the book down. I won’t lie, when I started this book I wasn’t quite sure what I would be getting into, and one thing that I was not happy about while reading is that nowhere in the book are there content warnings. Yes, The Project is an extremely powerful novel, but with that comes a fair share of content that readers could find upsetting or triggering. I have included a list of content warnings at the bottom of my review, and advise potential readers to look after themselves first and foremost, and read this book with caution. Content warnings: death of a parent, death, suicide (on page and mentioned), rape (mentioned), injury, injury detail/gore, abuse of a child by a parent (physical), self harm (mentioned), physical abuse, torture.

trigger warnings: — prologue chapter 2: car accident (graphic), parental death — part 1: suicide, train crash, religion, cults, gaslighting, mental abuse — part 2: religion, suicide mention, cults, sexual content, manipulative behaviour, blackmail, childhood abuse (descriptive), car accident, mental abuse, gaslighting — part 3: car accident (graphic), sexual content, manipulation, deceit, gaslighting, mental abuse — part 4: abuse (descriptive), deceit, manipulation, gore (minor), torture (graphic), gaslighting, mental abuse, death mention rtc.