Book Review: The Project by Courtney Summers

The Project by Courtney Summers
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

After listening to Sadie in Fall 2019, I was excited to listen to this latest novel from Courtney Summers. Similarly to Sadie, The Project tells its story through the lens of two sisters' experiences. Lo, the younger sister, is the sole survivor of a tragic car accident that kills her parents and leaves her with long recovery and both physical and mental scars. Older sister Bea, who was not in the car, grapples with her sister's injuries and recovery and becomes enmeshed with the Unity Project, a group offering salvation in the form of a charismatic leader, Lev.

Summers alternates the current day story of Lo's budding journalistic efforts to infiltrate the Unity Project after witnessing the suspicious suicide of a member with flashbacks to the time immediately following the car accident and to the years leading up to the suicide. Both sisters' stories are told, and the narration in the audiobook version is effective, drawing the listener into the story. The novel is well-paced, but I ultimately found the story not that compelling and super predicable. After Sadie, I expected something ... well... different and interesting from The Project.

Spoiler alert: while the story is solidly crafted, it's just the same old cult story. I kept expecting something more interesting. Maybe the Unity Project isn't really a cult!? Nope, it is. Maybe Lev really does have some cool mystical connection with his god!? Nope, he's a garden variety creep with mommy issues who plays out his god fantasies on the susceptible people around him. Maybe there's something creepy going on with Lo?! Nope. She's the garden variety vulnerable ingenue who falls for the bad guy and then learns - GASP - he really IS bad!

So... I didn't put it down or fail to finish it, but it left me pretty meh.

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