Review: The Project by Courtney Summers
The Project
by Courtney Summers
Thank you Wednesday Books and NetGalley for this copy.
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Publish Date: February 2, 2021
Kindle Edition
352 Pages
Standalone
Genres: New Adult, Contemporary, Thriller, Cults
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.
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 leader, Lev Warren and as Lo delves deeper into The Project, the lives of its members 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.
My Review:
This is my first Summers book and I've been hearing about this author for quite some time now - especially re her novel, Sadie (which I have, but haven't read yet like so many other books that will one day kill me ). I'm going to be absolutely candid here - I struggled through the first quarter of this book... but y'all... give me cults and I'M GONNA READ IT.
The first chapter with Bea finding about how she's going to be a big sister to not wanting to have ANYTHING to do with that and then to naming her little sister, Lo.... they have a little bit of a struggle bus of a relationship but like with (most) siblings, are bonded... so when Bea joins The Unity Project and cuts off all communication... well, what's Lo to do when given an opportunity?!
There's some alternate POVs and we go back and forth in time, but I never found any of this confusing and quite liked the way the story unfolded. I was intrigued but this doesn't play like what your typical thriller read would. However, the thriller aspect most definitely is there. It just slowly creeps up on you as you find out more and more and all your little hairs start to stand on end. This contemporary, new adult thriller gives us a bit of a less shocking cult but with so much impact. Is Lev really that intuitive? Hell, for a moment I was even questioning everything.
Look, I was probably still unsure how I felt about this read even at the 75% mark.. yet I coudln't stop reading and then I found my visceral reactions to certain moments towards the end telling me that, "Yep Chandra, you are fully invested." I truly appreciated the little nuances that still kept you going "hmmmm"... stick with this one my fellow readers. Just have some faith. 😉❤
★★★★
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