I received a free e-ARC of The Project thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are solely my own.
When I saw that Courtney Summers had a new book coming out, I was so excited. I read Sadie and I enjoyed it and gave that one 4/5 stars. I’d heard such good things about The Project and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it.
We follow Lo as she searches for her sister Bea, who has become a member of The Unity Project after a tragic accident left them parentless. Trying to expose The Unity Project as the cult she believes it to be, Lo goes to work investigating and asking questions. But when she gets close to Lev Warren to expose him for who and what he is, she begins to question everything she thought she knew.
The synopsis sounded good and I know I already like Summers’s writing style. Unfortunately, the execution of it didn’t pan out for my personal tastes.
The Project: The Scoop
This is being marketed as a thriller, and it is about a cult. Honestly, I didn’t get any thriller vibes at all. It felt too dry. There were times where I think it could have been trying to lead up to that point, but it never really got there for me. There just wasn’t enough suspense built.
In regards to the cult aspect, I wanted more. We are told that people in The Unity Project are engrossed and enthusiastic members. We only really got to know a handful of people and how it’s impacted them, so I just wanted more detail. I also wanted answers to some of the questions that Lo went in search of but were just kind of forgotten about.
Most of the characters were kind of flat for me, so I didn’t care about most of the characters. Some of the character traits didn’t make sense for the roles.
Overall, the story wasn’t terrible. If it hadn’t been marketed as a thriller/mystery, I personally would have enjoyed it more. As it stands, there wasn’t anything wrong with the story, it just wasn’t for me.
I know that I have an unpopular opinion. Although this book was a miss for me, I will still read other books by Summers. I encourage you to read some of the other reviews about this book, especially those that did enjoy this book.
Publication is set for 2/2.
