Review Detail

What worked: This is one intense psychological tale of a girl trying to reconnect with her sister after she joins The Unity Project. There's two different points of view in this engaging story. Bea is the older sister who leaves to join The Unity Project and it's charismatic leader Lev Warren. She leaves behind her then thirteen-year-old sister Lo, who is the sole survivor of a horrific car accident that claimed the lives of their parents. She's left with a horrible scar on her face. Jump forward in time where nineteen-year-old Lo works at SVO and tries to put together an expose of the cult. Lo's journey to find the truth behind her sister's involvement in The Unity Project takes her a revival meeting where she's pushed out. All the 'family' knows her as the child that Lev 'saved' from death. Questions lead her to finally get a meeting with Lev and she hopes to her sister.

The Unity Project is so similar to such cults like Scientology with such things as Attestation, where family share their sins. There's also an ugliness behind the so-called helpfulness of the group. Lev Warren is like many so-called prophets who latch on to people's suffering and longings for a purpose in this life.

This novel jumps back and forth between time and between protagonists. A few times at the beginning, I was confused on what was really happening. Once I got past that, I was riveted by Lo's determination on doing anything, including getting into the family, in order to find her sister Bea.

Bea's story is one of a teen who feels her answered to a prayer to save her sister is answered by Lev Warren. I didn't feel she was gullible, but someone who got caught up in a world that she so much wanted to exist.

Intense psychological ride where a sister's search for the truth behind a cult will lead her to painful truths. Realistic portrayal of a cult and the power it has on some.