REVIEW: The Project by Courtney Summers

OUR REVIEW:

 Courtney Summers tried to kill me again, with this novel, and yet I somehow made it out alive...can I say that for all of the characters? Read it to find out.

I should know by now that she’s going to write a novel that has me fully invested in the characters and their plight and somehow I always forget that her novel is going to take over my entire life until I can get to THE END and then have imaginary commentary in which I ask Courtney Summers all the questions and get to the bottom of it all.

Since there will be no Courtney Summers conversation, I shall drink and call it a night. 

EDITED TO ADD: 2 months later and I still think of the plot and characters in this novel. Courtney Summers really just has a way of creating that burrows right into me. 

BUY IT: https://amzn.to/33bR9SP

SYNOPSIS: From Courtney Summers, the New York Times bestselling author of the 2019 Edgar Award Winner and breakout hit Sadie, comes her electrifying follow-up―a suspenseful, pulls-no-punches story about an aspiring young journalist determined to save her sister no matter the cost.

Lo Denham is used to being on her own. After her parents died in a tragic car accident, her sister Bea joined the elusive community called The Unity Project, leaving Lo to fend for herself. Desperate not to lose the only family she has left, Lo has spent the last six years trying to reconnect with Bea, only to be met with radio silence.

When Lo’s given the perfect opportunity to gain access to Bea’s reclusive life, she thinks they’re finally going to be reunited. But it’s difficult to find someone who doesn’t want to be found, and as Lo delves deeper into The Project and its charismatic leader, she begins to realize that there’s more at risk than just her relationship with Bea: her very life might be in danger.

As she uncovers more questions than answers at each turn, everything Lo thought she knew about herself, her sister, and the world is upended. One thing doesn’t change, though, and that’s what keeps her going: Bea needs her, and Lo will do anything to save her.

REVIEW: ALL THE RAGE by Courtney Summers

OUR REVIEW:
Shel: I was up until 1:30 last night/this morning finishing and thinking about All the Rage. My brain just kept turning over all of the THINGS that this novel immersed me in. This novel feels so important to me--what it says to be a girl/woman/female in this world is so horrifying and true. The daily slights, comments, condescending pats on the head, the fear of being alone in a dark and unfamiliar place--or even a well lit one--the subtle and direct comments about who you are or what you can do because you are a woman in the world, and the actions men feel they have a right to perpetrate...this novel brought all of that to the surface. 

Romy, our heroine, is living in the constant swirling current of what life has become in the "after" stage of what Kellen Turner has done. Her life is one full of slights, of weighing every action and word that comes to her or from her for what they mean. She lives as the pariah of her school and her community. She's the liar. The joke. The trouble maker. She lives this every day while also living as Romy--a daughter who loves her mother and wants to protect her (PROTECT her!) from what her life is really like, a daughter who works hard to make the people she cares about comfortable while she's suffering. Romy lives a life suspended in the before and after; she lives trying to shed her old skin and wear this new one in the best way she can while being constantly confronted with the old and the new. It's a wonder she didn't split wide open or explode one day on the sidewalk--she was carrying so much pain and hurt and shame and anger and yet still functioning and attending to the necessary jobs you must as a daughter, student, worker, friend, and enemy. 

In the midst of all of this functioning, a girl (Penny) goes missing and Romy is closely tied to this case, for various reasons. As the search for Penny intensifies, the scrutiny Romy feels--because of what happened the night Penny went missing and how Romy is associated with it--also intensifies. The memories and whisperings and gossip of that night come in more and more horrifying waves until the final revelation comes out and all we're left with is mindnumbing disgust and deep sadness. 

While I could go on and on about how repulsive many of the people and their actions or lack of action were in this novel (and how true that felt too), I think it's important to take a minute to discuss some of the characters who were bright spots: Leon, Caro, Leanne, and Todd, and Romy's mom, Alice. I thought each of these characters were perfectly imperfect; they enhanced how we came to know Romy. They were warm and honest and kind. They saw Romy and wanted good things for her. No matter how challenging she was or how prickly she would come off, they didn't let her go. I loved that they pushed back or let certain things roll of their backs--but they never let her go. 

It's taking me hours to get this far in this review; I find it hard to commit words to this review because I don't want to fail this book. It was so compelling. The observations of Romy and all of the interactions between characters-from the smallest things to the biggest-felt incredibly realistic and I know without a doubt that girls and women walk around feeling these exact same emotions. They've had to split themselves into various pieces and parts to be able to function in the world and grapple with who they are now-- before and after. 

Another thing that I appreciated about this novel was that it was never prettied up or overly dramatized and the ending didn't offer cliched solutions or loose ends all tied off in pretty bows. We're left with some answers, some conclusions and lots of questions and wonderings and what ifs...

It'd be easy for me to walk away from this and feel hopeless and helpless but Courtney Summers gives us a Romy at the end who takes a chance..refuses to be helpless and because of that, there is hope. 

ETA: I read and wrote this review about five years ago. It feels as relevant as ever.

BUY IT: https://amzn.to/2QGaIvZ

SYNOPSIS: 
The sheriff's son, Kellan Turner, is not the golden boy everyone thinks he is, and Romy Grey knows that for a fact. Because no one wants to believe a girl from the wrong side of town, the truth about him has cost her everything-friends, family, and her community. Branded a liar and bullied relentlessly by a group of kids she used to hang out with, Romy's only refuge is the diner where she works outside of town. No one knows her name or her past there; she can finally be anonymous. But when a girl with ties to both Romy and Kellan goes missing after a party, and news of him assaulting another girl in a town close by gets out, Romy must decide whether she wants to fight or carry the burden of knowing more girls could get hurt if she doesn't speak up. Nobody believed her the first time-and they certainly won't now-but the cost of her silence might be more than she can bear.

With a shocking conclusion and writing that will absolutely knock you out, Courtney Summers' new novel All the Rage examines the shame and silence inflicted upon young women in a culture that refuses to protect them.

REVIEW: Sadie by Courtney Summers

OUR REVIEW:

I knew when I saw that Courtney Summers was working on Sadie that I'd have to have it. I knew I'd read it and that it would meld itself to me, just like All the Rage did. I was right. From the first page I was hooked--the interesting set up of the podcast giving us the background that sometimes Sadie's narrative couldn't (just as her narrative sometimes gave us the narrative the podcast couldn't) + the bone deep melancholy, grief, and madness that seems to live in Sadie = my whole weekend living in the world that Courtney Summers created. I couldn't get enough and I had to know what happened so I stayed up late, woke up early, and read until I finished it. ...or did it finish me? Gahhhh the ending. I can't decide how I want it to play out beyond the last word. Am I realist or am I a hope-filled dreamer? What does Courtney Summers envision? I wish I knew.

Anyway.

I love that the publisher created The Girls as a companion to Sadie. I haven't listened to it yet but I'm intrigued by what I'm missing --or is it just the episodes as they were in the novel? I don't know. It's on my list of things to do.

What I do know is that while I couldn't live in the gritty, sad, angry space that Summers's characters find themselves in, I recognize that I'm lucky that I haven't had to and I hate that anyone ever has or would have to live there. And as much as I hate that those spaces exist, I love that she's written about them, made me feel so much and think really hard about how being a woman in the world isn't a singular experience. That there are things that unite us all and things that many of us don't know about.

Courtney Summers's novels make me feel angry and empowered and I want everyone I know to read them so that they see what I've seen, feel what I've felt, and wants to change the world like her characters inspire me to want to do.

Buy it on AMAZON.

Synopsis:

A New York Times bestseller! 

4 Starred Reviews from Kirkus, School Library Journal, Booklist, Publishers Weekly!

"Sadie: a novel for readers of any age, and a character as indelible as a scar. Flat-out dazzling." —A. J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window

"Sadie is an electrifying, high-stakes road trip. Clear your schedule. You're not going anywhere until you've reached the end." —Stephanie Perkins, New York Times bestselling author of There's Someone Inside Your House and Anna and the French Kiss 

"A haunting, gut-wrenching, and relentlessly compelling read." —Veronica Roth, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Carve the Mark and the Divergent series

A missing girl on a journey of revenge. A Serial—like podcast following the clues she's left behind. And an ending you won't be able to stop talking about.

Sadie hasn't had an easy life. Growing up on her own, she's been raising her sister Mattie in an isolated small town, trying her best to provide a normal life and keep their heads above water.

But when Mattie is found dead, Sadie's entire world crumbles. After a somewhat botched police investigation, Sadie is determined to bring her sister's killer to justice and hits the road following a few meager clues to find him.

When West McCray—a radio personality working on a segment about small, forgotten towns in America—overhears Sadie's story at a local gas station, he becomes obsessed with finding the missing girl. He starts his own podcast as he tracks Sadie's journey, trying to figure out what happened, hoping to find her before it's too late.

Courtney Summers has written the breakout book of her career. Sadie is propulsive and harrowing and will keep you riveted until the last page.