The Project was one of my most anticipated reads this year. One of my all time favorite authors and two of my favorite book subjects: sister relationships and cults.
And in the grand old expectation game I came away kind of cold. Nothing hitting like I expected it to.
The book follows two sisters after a tragedy. Bea, the oldest, gets involved with Lev. A magnetic healer whose gathering revenants around him to do the good work and save the world. And in current time Lo- whose never trusted The Unity Project after Bea disappeared into it and now after a tragedy intersects with her again trusts them even less.
A budding journalist she uses that to begin an investigation into the truth of the Unity Project and what happened to her sister whose seemingly no longer with them.
And like all the other books by Summer’s I’ve read it’s well written and the characters are strong enough you understand every choice they make. So barring that and I know a lot of people who 5 Starred this one I was trying to figure out what had it fall short for me.
Everything with Bea felt too rushed and meanwhile the interminable stuff with Lo’s boss was time that could have better been spent on Lev at the Unity Project. Didn’t like him but ultimately didn’t care about Paul and that bullshit- also not big on how it worked out.
And while the Unity Project stuff was interesting once it kicked into gear (to late) and just as twisted as Summer’s can manage Lo’s involvement could have been a lot tighter.
Again I just don’t know why we spent so much time on Paul.
It would have been nice to see some more of the sisters together.
The ending was intriguing but I also felt like I missed something. It pretty much happens off screen which is a shame.
So The Project isn’t a bad book at all. But I do think someone whose familiar with Summer’s and has read a lot of “cult” books I was hoping for a lot more emotional impact. But like I said plenty of other people are 5-Starring this one so I’m in the minority.
*Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the e-ARC of the Project. It’s on sale February 2nd!
I feel like sometimes when an author writes books that are similar in style/content to one another, by the time I read the third or fourth I just lose interest. Kind of like a series that goes on for too long.
I think that could be the case too. The tone is not unlike her last book. Maybe she’ll change it up next?