The Project by Courtney Summers

TW: physical abuse, emotional abuse, manipulation, toxic relationship, cults, death, medical trauma/hospitals, talks of suicide

Lo misses her sister. She misses her sister after she lost her to the popular cult, The Unity Project. And the only way to get her sister back is to enter the belly of the beast and learn to trust the one person she never thought she could: Lev Warren, leader and founder of The Unity Project.

I was so excited about this book when I heard about it. But after reading this book, I can see that my expectations were too high. This book wasn’t lousy perse; it was just average. Everything was just flat, and the pacing did feel rushed.

The character work wasn’t bad. I actually like Lev’s character. Well, I didn’t like him; I liked how he was written. Lo was a little boring, but she was a good character. There were no glaring issues. The side characters were also well done.

The storyline was good. Again, nothing too special, but it was good. I liked how we went back and forth in time to help uncover answers. The main plot felt predictable. I love cult history and documentaries, so reading this book didn’t have anything new. If you know nothing about cults, you may find this book more exciting, but for me, it just wasn’t.

If you like books about cults, it won’t hurt you to pick this up. There are no significant issues, and it does nothing wrong; it’s just a bit dull. I was not surprised by any of the events that took place. If you don’t get to this book, you’re not missing out on anything. It’s just a middle-of-the-road novel.