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popthebutterfly 's review for:
The Project
by Courtney Summers
Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from the publisher and then bought my own copy. Thanks! All opinions are my own.
Book: The Project
Author: Courtney Summers
Book Series: Standalone
Rating: 4/5
Recommended For...: Thrill seekers, mystery lovers, cult readers
Genre: Thriller
Publication Date: February 2, 2021
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Pages: 352
Recommended Age: 17+ (Language, Religion and religious trauma, Romance, Sex/sexual abuse from a religious authority figure, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Violence, Death, and Gore)
Synopsis: 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.
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 leader, Lev Warren and as Lo delves deeper into The Project, the lives of its members 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.
Review: For the most part this was a good book. I like the world building and the character development of Lo and I really like the twist at the end of the book. I think the book is fairly well written and it kept me intrigued from start to finish. I loved how it was wrote from a dual POV narrative and how the timelines went back and forth between the two.
However, I did not like where the book went at times. I think that the book could have used a lot of trigger warnings because the book went into a lot of places that could bring up a lot of trauma for people especially religious trauma and sexual abuse trauma. Well nothing happened that was violent during the sexual parts, the person that our main characters we're having sex with was in a place of authority and was much older than them. When a person of authority has sex with someone under their care, that's not love it's abuse. And, in my opinion, with the abuser being much older than our two main characters, it gives off pedo vibes. There is also physical and emotional abuse in the book and it gets a bit graphic and hard to read because it's disguised as love. And that's what made this book really hard to read for me.
Verdict: It was good just hard.
Book: The Project
Author: Courtney Summers
Book Series: Standalone
Rating: 4/5
Recommended For...: Thrill seekers, mystery lovers, cult readers
Genre: Thriller
Publication Date: February 2, 2021
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Pages: 352
Recommended Age: 17+ (Language, Religion and religious trauma, Romance, Sex/sexual abuse from a religious authority figure, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Violence, Death, and Gore)
Synopsis: 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.
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 leader, Lev Warren and as Lo delves deeper into The Project, the lives of its members 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.
Review: For the most part this was a good book. I like the world building and the character development of Lo and I really like the twist at the end of the book. I think the book is fairly well written and it kept me intrigued from start to finish. I loved how it was wrote from a dual POV narrative and how the timelines went back and forth between the two.
However, I did not like where the book went at times. I think that the book could have used a lot of trigger warnings because the book went into a lot of places that could bring up a lot of trauma for people especially religious trauma and sexual abuse trauma. Well nothing happened that was violent during the sexual parts, the person that our main characters we're having sex with was in a place of authority and was much older than them. When a person of authority has sex with someone under their care, that's not love it's abuse. And, in my opinion, with the abuser being much older than our two main characters, it gives off pedo vibes. There is also physical and emotional abuse in the book and it gets a bit graphic and hard to read because it's disguised as love. And that's what made this book really hard to read for me.
Verdict: It was good just hard.