Genre: Suspense Thriller
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Publishing Date: Feb. 2, 2021
Preorder Links: Amazon
My Rating: 4.5 Mind Altering Hearts
So many thanks to Wednesday Books for an arc of this book!
The next pulls-no-punches thriller from New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award-winning author Courtney Summers, about an aspiring young journalist determined to save her sister from a cult.
Review:
Writer Lo Denham is left scarred for life both emotionally and physically after a car crash years ago that claimed the lives of her parents. While she was hovering at death's door, her older sister Bea prays for her survival in the hospital chapel. A man appears before her promising he can save Lo if Bea commits her life to the service of the Project. When Lo finally awakes, her memories are unclear and her sister is gone. Lo goes to live with her Aunt until her aunt's death. Now nineteen and alone, Lo begins a mission to infiltrate and expose The Unity Project. Although the Project is highly esteemed for its charity work and outreach program, Lo believes they are a cult holding members against their will - including her sister. Lo becomes obsessed with getting inside and interviewing the charismatic leader Lev Warren. Members sing his praises and once Lo meets with him under the guise of writing a magazine article, she begins to fall under his spell. Was she wrong about Lev and the Project? Is Lev a Villain? Hero? Savior? Or is the man who stalks her dreams the devil she first believed him to be? The longer Lo remains around Lev, the more she doubts her own feelings, judgment, and eventually . . . mind. What's happening to her?
As this story unfolds, readers are privy to both Lo and Bea's state of mind via both points of view and two timelines. Short, choppy chapters serve to keep readers off-balance, feeding the volatile atmospheric setting while building suspense throughout. Summers excels are creating dark, complex characters who are searching for something or someone to anchor them - to pull them back into reality. In The Project, both characters and readers are challenged to find their way through a multitude of twists and turns, through a world filled with hallucinations and dreams, back to reality . . . whatever that may mean. Dark, raw, gritty - The Project is another masterpiece by the talented Courtney Summers. Highly Recommended to fans of young adult suspense.
Synopsis:
"The Unity Project saved my life."
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.
"The Unity Project murdered my son."
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 charismatic and mysterious leader, Lev Warren, he proposes a deal: if she can prove the worst of her suspicions about The Unity Project, she may expose them. If she can't, she must finally leave them alone.
But as Lo delves deeper into The Project, the lives of its members, and spends more time with Lev, 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.
Welcome to The Unity Project.
Courtney Summers is the bestselling author of several novels, whose career in writing began in 2008, when she was 22. Her work has been released to critical acclaim and multiple starred reviews, received numerous awards and honors including the Edgar Award, the John Spray Mystery Award, the Cybils Award, the Odyssey Award, the Audie Award, and has enjoyed the recognition of many library, state, 'Best Of' and Readers' Choice lists. Courtney has reviewed for The New York Times, is the founder of #ToTheGirls, a 2015 worldwide trending hashtag, and in 2016, she was named one of Flare Magazine's 60 under 30. She lives and writes in Canada. Her new novel, The Project releases February 2nd, 2021 from Wednesday Books, an imprint of St. Martin's Press. You can follow her on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
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