The Project

Starred review from November 1, 2020

Gr 9 Up-A young woman's determination to reveal the truth behind an apparent cult exposes a more complicated look at doubt and belief than she could have imagined. Lo Denham barely survived the car accident that killed her parents. Her sister, Bea, credits her miraculous recovery to Lev Warren, leader of the Unity Project, an outwardly innocuous religious group that performs acts of service and community outreach. Bea gives up everything to join them. Years after being abandoned by her sister, Lo-who works as an assistant at an investigative magazine-follows in her path, desperate to uncover the truth behind the Project and to save her sister. With promises of atonement, redemption, and salvation, Lev's message begins to penetrate Lo's skepticism-how far will she go to get the real story? And once she discovers it, can she bear what it may reveal? Masterfully written and pulling no punches, the narrative moves back and forth in time, showing events from both Bea and Lo's perspectives. Summers creates and sustains almost unbearable tension, exploring sacrifice, loss, forgiveness, miracles, surrender, grief, and lies. The unflinching look at Bea and Lo's desperation is devastating, especially as both chase healing and salvation to counteract emptiness and loss. Readers will question the truth and everyone's motivations in this world full of manipulation and mind games. Secondary characters are of various races; Bea and Lo are described only as having brown hair. VERDICT A gripping, flawless psychological thriller ready to leave readers shattered.-Amanda MacGregor, Parkview Elem. Sch., Rosemount, MN

Copyright 2020 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 4, 2021
Nineteen-year-old Lo Denham’s name isn’t short for lonely, but it could be: after her parents died in a car accident that scarred Lo and left her near death, her adored older sister Bea joined the Unity Project, an insular Upstate New York religious group that’s constantly fighting accusations of culthood. Lo longs to be a writer, but though she’s landed a job at a Vice-like magazine, also upstate, she’s stuck as its editor’s assistant. When she witnesses a suicide that turns out to have links to the Unity Project, she embarks on an investigation of the secretive, seemingly well-meaning group and her sister’s whereabouts. By turns driven, vulnerable, and impulsive, Lo gets closer and closer to the Project’s charismatic, damaged leader, risking everything to find the truth. Alternating Lo and Bea’s viewpoints and moving around in time, Summers (Sadie) makes effective use of each character’s limited knowledge, creating a twisty plot that’s full of hooks. Ages 13–up. Agent: Faye Bender, the Book Group.

Starred review from December 15, 2020
Grades 10-12 *Starred Review* When a semi-truck slammed into her parents' car and killed them instantly, Lo Denham survived only by the grace of God. Her older sister, Bea, believed that Lo lived because of Lev Warren, a man who claims to be divine. Now, Lo hasn't seen or heard from her sister in almost six years; Bea's been folded into The Unity Project, Lev Warren's charitable organization that, despite cult rumors, remains steadfastly aboveboard. Lo is left with only a scar across her face, a fear of driving, and a thirst for uncovering--and writing--the truth. When The Unity Project intrudes upon her life in a shockingly violent way, Lo seizes the chance to look into the darkest of her suspicions and discover what's happened to her sister during the years when she was missing. But to get close to the Project, she'll have to get close to Lev Warren, and once she enters his orbit, she won't leave unchanged. Summers follows up her smash hit Sadie (2018) with a deeply disconcerting investigative thriller that seems unassuming but worms under the skin and into the mind. Bit by bit, she unspools the threads of her story--Lo narrating in the present, flashes of Bea's history revealed in the past--until, eventually, the brutally tense beginning gives way to the frenzied end. Winding questions of faith and sacrifice into an already fibrous plot, Summers presents a rich offering that lingers even as it shocks. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: If All the Rage (2015) put Summers on the map, Sadie shot her into the stratosphere. This latest, her tightest yet, delivers on every promise.

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Starred review from December 1, 2020
"Let go of all you know you are." Lo Denham is a budding journalist whose sister, Bea, joined the Unity Project after the car accident that killed their parents and left Lo with physical and emotional scars. Lo is adamant that the Project--ostensibly a community outreach and social movement--is a cult since she has not been able to see Bea since she joined. An opportunity to interview its charismatic leader, Lev Warren, leads Lo to question everything she thinks she knows about Bea, the Project, and herself. Bea, however, was lured in by Warren's powerful, welcoming teachings after witnessing something that could only be called a miracle. The novel is told in different timelines, presenting the two sisters' perspectives in Summers' hallmark pull-no-punches writing style that centers vulnerable girls and their experiences of the world. The disconnect between what readers suspect is happening, given the subtle clues peppered throughout, and what its main characters believe reality to be creates an almost unbearable level of suspense, maintained until the very final moments of the story when the truth is finally unveiled. The beauty of the story lies in its focus on the downtrodden, the vulnerable, and the earnest, expressed with an enormous amount of empathy. The sisters are White; there is diversity in the supporting cast. A powerful, suspenseful, and heartbreaking thriller about identity, sisterhood, and belonging. (Thriller. 14-adult)

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