“God, she whispers and it’s all she whispers, over and over and over again. God, I’ll do anything. Please, God… And then He appears,” (Summers 9).
In 2011 Bea’s younger sister Lo would have died in the car accident that killed their parents if it weren’t for Lev Warren. After finding Bea praying in the chapel he brought Lo back and Bea becomes devoted to him and The Unity Project, an organization that takes care of the needy and the lost and offers them community. All Bea needs to do is prove herself to Lev. In 2017 Lo doesn’t know why her sister abandoned her for The Unity Project but has hated them ever since, wondering when she will see Bea again. When Lev invites Lo to The Unity Project for an exclusive interview Lo jumps at the chance to finally get answers about where Bea is and why her sister would leave her real family in place of the Project’s.
The Project isn’t going to be for everyone. I think that there are a lot of reader’s who are fascinated in cult books in an almost morbidly curious way, with images of Jonestown, Hand of God, Love Has Won or maybe even now TikTok Dance Cults (who would have guessed). There’s a sensationalism attached to it. From a true crime angle there’s the violence like Jonestown and Love Has Won that disturbs and entices people, but there’s also the fascination of how, how someone could be drawn into something so bad and not know? While The Project does draw on inspiration from famous cults, Summers explains that the main reason people are drawn to cults is to belong, to feel loved. They target the way most religions do, which isn’t exactly an exciting reason or explanation for why people join cults, but it’s realistic which is why I loved this book.
I grew up Catholic and very religious, so I related more to Bea than Lo because I could understand why she joined The Unity Project. After her parents have died in a car accident and her younger sister is in critical condition, leader of The Unity Project Lev Warren finds Bea crying and praying in the hospital chapel and goes to pray over Lo in her hospital room. The next day Lo is healed. Did Lev heal her? Probably not, Lo was in a hospital and despite her critical condition would have been on antibiotics that could have had a delayed reaction and healed her. But logic doesn’t matter when you’re desperate, it’s the possibility, that miracles might happen. It’s the might, the fact that Lev might have brought Lo back from the dead that solidifies her joining. To Bea, she has witnessed a miracle, and to quote a line from one of my very favourite shows, “Feels wrong, doesn’t it? To interrogate a miracle.”
So this book was hard sometimes because I really felt for Bea. It was hard to see the hurt she experienced for her devotion because it was all for her sister, all for Lo who didn’t understand why her sister had left her. Bea loved her sister so much that she devoted herself and became indoctrinated into an organization that hurt her because she felt loved there, because that love might have cured her sister. I thought Summers did an excellent job at showing how religious organizations and cults will appeal to people and the ways that manipulation occurs, how members would excuse the terrible things happening in defense of their faith. For that reason The Project won’t be for everyone, not for the reader that wants something gruesome and insidious, but for those who might read this and uncomfortably relate.
There was a lot in here that hurt to read, but it was such a brilliant book. Yes, the ending comes bit quick and some things there are a bit predictable, but it’s a fantastic book, one that people who would be willing to do anything for a miracle will uncomfortable understand. The Project is one of my favourites by Courtney Summers, and I can’t wait to see what she’ll write next.
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Pages: 373 pages (Hardcover)
Source: Owned
Genre: Fiction, Contemporary, Mystery
My Rating: ⛤⛤⛤⛤
Summary:
1998: Six-year-old Bea doesn’t want a sister but everything changes when Lo is born early. Small and frail, Lo needs someone to look out for her. Having a sister is a promise, Mom says—one Bea’s determined not to break.
2011: A car wreck, their parents dead. Lo would’ve died too if not for Lev Warren, the charismatic leader of The Unity Project. He’s going to change the world and after he saves Lo’s life, Bea wants to commit to his extraordinary calling. Lev promises a place for the girls in the project, where no harm will ever come to them again . . . if Bea proves herself to him first.
2017: Lo doesn’t know why Bea abandoned her for The Unity Project after the accident, but she never forgot what Bea said the last time they spoke: We’ll see each other again. Six years later, Lo is invited to witness the group’s workings, meet with Lev, and—she hopes—finally reconnect with her sister. But Bea is long gone, and the only one who seems to understand the depths of this betrayal is Lev. If it’s family Lo wants, he can make her a new promise . . . if she proves herself to him first.
Sarah O'Connor 