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Release Date: February 2nd, 2021

Genre(s): Young adult, Mystery, Thriller

Publisher: Wednesday Books

Pages: 352

Rating:⭐️⭐️⭐️.25

Note: Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for sending me an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Synopsis

The Project follows Lo Denham, who goes to live with her great aunt after the death of her parents and after her sister Bea joins The Unity Project. The Unity Project has won the hearts of many for its charitable actions, but Lo knows there’s more than meets the eye. And when a man shows up claiming that The Unity Project killed his son, Lo has the perfect opportunity to expose The Unity Project and reunite with her sister.

Review

I was introduced to Courtney Summers’ books with Sadie and it became one of my all-time favorites of that year. I don’t read YA thrillers too often, but I found Sadie to be so unique in its story and I loved the way the story was presented. So when I saw The Project, I knew I had to read it.

Lo is nineteen in the main storyline of this novel and works as an assistant, so this book is more for an older YA audience. And just like with Sadie, I really liked the way that Summers set the tone with her writing in The Project. From the events of the first chapter, you can tell that there’s going to be a lot to be uncovered throughout the course of the book. The subject matter of this book was unique as well. It featured the exploration of a cult and the troublesome events that took place behind the scenes.

However, I found somewhere around the halfway mark that I was beginning to lose interest in finding out what was really going on. There are timeline and perspective switches between Lo and Bea that were done in a way that wasn’t confusing, but I feel like I wasn’t as invested in their timelines as I should have been. Additionally, I feel that because of all of the backstory, a more significant event in the book happens that I felt needed to be drawn out more for it to be more believable.

Despite this, there was a fair share of suspenseful and intriguing moments throughout The Project. There were also so many subjects covered throughout the book without it being too overwhelming.

So while it didn’t quite meet my expectations, The Project was definitely a unique mystery/thriller and I continue to look forward to reading more of Summers’ books in the future.