THE #1 INTERNATIONAL KINDLE BESTSELLER A paranoid single mom is forced to confront the unthinkable act she committed as a desperate teenager in this addictive thriller with a social media twist. Maria Weston wants to be friends. But Maria Weston is dead. Isn’t she? 1989. When Louise first notices the new girl who has mysteriously transferred late into their senior year, Maria seems to be … transferred late into their senior year, Maria seems to be everything the girls Louise hangs out with aren’t. Authentic. Funny. Brash. Within just a few days, Maria and Louise are on their way to becoming fast friends.
2016. Louise receives a heart-stopping email: Maria Weston wants to be friends on Facebook. Long-buried memories quickly rise to the surface: those first days of their budding friendship; cruel decisions made and dark secrets kept; the night that would change all their lives forever.
Louise has always known that if the truth ever came out, she could stand to lose everything. Her job. Her son. Her freedom. Maria’s sudden reappearance threatens it all, and forces Louise to reconnect with everyone she’d severed ties with to escape the past. But as she tries to piece together exactly what happened that night, Louise discovers there’s more to the story than she ever knew. To keep her secret, Louise must first uncover the whole truth, before what’s known to Maria–or whoever’s pretending to be her–is known to all.
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The story was entertaining enough for. 99 book. Not sure if I would have spent any more on it, tho.
Unlike a few of my Goodreads friends I didn’t think this book was a complete page turner from page one. I felt the first 30% of the book dragged. It was devoted almost solely to character development, even as the characters remained one dimensional and undeveloped. (We get it…Louise is tortured and conflicted and Sophie is vapid and horrid).
But! But! She gets there. By about page 100 this baby takes off and the walking around my house, holding the book, praying no one needed me for anything, commenced.
Marshall manages a few great surprises, develops a few characters in interesting ways, and overall delivers a great thriller. I am looking forward to more from this author!
The blurb of Friend Request made this book sound like a psychological thriller I would devour. I thought I’d find myself staying up way too late trying to finish it and find out exactly what happened all those years ago to Maria.
Unfortunately, this book fell a bit flat for me. The concept is interesting and the audio book narration was done very well. I even enjoyed the way chapters rotated between the present and Louise’s experience in high school. Even with the positives, this book was drawn out and moved slowly. There were many times I found myself contemplating whether or not I wanted to finish the book. Repeatedly, I decided to keep listening. I just needed to know exactly what happened all those years ago and who was behind the friend request.
I really enjoyed reading this book it really hooked me in. Fully recommend
I loved this book. I thought it was original and well written with great characters.
On the whole, I found the characters in this story believable, the descriptions of people & settings were all well done, and I didn’t guess whodunnit, I didn’t see that coming. Yet for me, the story didn’t quite work. It was the central character, Louise. She is a divorced lady with a little boy and is a self-employed interior designer. She carries a huge secret and guilt around with her; at school, she wanted to be in with the in-crowd and becomes unwittingly a school bully. She blames herself for something awful that happened many years before when she was a teenager.
Then many years later out of the blue through Social Media, the past comes back menacingly to haunt her, and this forms the basis of the story. The book certainly has a menacing tone and undercurrent with some unexpected twists, but I just couldn’t believe, given the circumstances, and intelligence of the main character that she would have acted so naively, particularly with certain events that take place in the story. I also felt there was far too much slightly maudling self-reflection in the book by the main character, stopping the story from moving forward, which began to feel like padding after a while.
This book intrigued me right from the start. The story flips between two time lines, 1989 when the characters were in high school to 2016 when there is a reunion. Louise has divorced her husband and is raising her 4 year old son, the father being someone she went to school with. A friendship request from someone who allegedly died 27 yrs ago creates the mystery and drama throughout the book. Is she really dead or is she back for revenge? Louise is guilt ridden over the events leading to Maria’s death and at the reunion there is another death. Are they related? The story was a page turner and the characters real. I had no idea what the outcome would be. Just when I thought I knew the author threw in a red herring…NO IDEA how did I not see that? Great story and I highly recommend it.
Shortly before the school reunion for the Class of 1989, Louise gets a Facebook Friends request from one of her old school friends. But Maria has been dead for 27 years, hasn’t she?
The writer kept up the suspense throughout with a large cast of credible suspects. The closing chapters, when the guilty party is finally revealed, was brilliantly written. Laura Marshall is an author to watch.
A bit of a slow start but once it got going it was a page turner. Did not end how I thought it would but that can be considered a good thing. I would read more from this author.
Great, creepy story revolving around social media that has actual adults in it (shocking).
A must read. A gripping novel that you won’t be able to put down until the end. One of the best thrillers I have read lately.
What a suspenseful, full of twists and turns read this turned out to be. I really enjoyed this book and the dynamics of the friendships/relationships in this book. It was really hard to put down. Louise carries scars from school in regards to trying to fit in with the “in” group and ignoring the girls she really fit in with better. A class reunion brings everything to a head followed by a very surprising ending.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Friend Request. I thought it was so well written. Laura did an amazing job at leaving you wanting to read more.
This book was runner-up in The Bath Novel Award 2017. After entering my own novel in TBNA 2018, I start to see the high quality and standard my novel must have been up against. It just opens your eyes as to how many extremely talented writers are out there trying to break through. Laura Marshall is most definitely one of those.
The plot, mystery, and suspense pulled me in. I didn’t have too much sympathy for the main character when she was younger, or at times when she was older. I think it may have been the intention of the author to show how naive, vulnerable, and easily led we can all be in our desire to fit in with people and society around us, not just when we are still practically children but also in the way the trait accompanies us into adulthood. This is why we have regrets about some of our actions as a child or even as adults. We are always growing and learning as people, which is exactly what is happening with Louise. It’s almost like a character study of how we grow. If that was the authors intention then I thought it was perfected in a brilliant way.
We occasionally go back from 2016 to 1989 to relive the events that have haunted Louise. The bad choices and wrong decisions that all have consequences in one way or another. The worst consequences are the ones we don’t see. The effect one person’s actions can have on another. How you don’t see another person cry themselves to sleep at night because of the taunting they received or horrible things that happened during that day. It’s a lonely and horrible experience as a child and as an adult. Like it or not, emotions are with us forever.
A bad choice Louise made in 1989 follows her, tearing her apart at times. The reality of what truly happened is closer to her than she could ever imagine or want it to be.
I think some of the bad reviews about this story don’t look deep enough into the character study behind the plot. My perception of Friend Request may be different to others but that’s the amazing thing about stories; we each see or take something unique to us as individuals. I saw the sometimes horrendous decisions and bad choices we make in life: thinking that it was the right thing to do at the time or perhaps not thinking at all. It could be out of love, friendship, kindness, passion, protection, curiosity, hatred, or pure selfishness. But in that moment of blinding darkness that we can all have is the consequence of regret.
Well done, Laura Marshall. I am looking forward to your next novel. I hope future readers of Friend Request find my review helpful in finding an underlying layer here that is superbly done.
This is a great book, I couldn’t figure out who the killer was. I liked all the characters. I look forward to reading more of Ms. Marshall.
I recommend
What starts as an ordinary daily task quickly turns into something down right scary… Louise Williams sets down to check her email and finds something that completely rocks her world, a friend request from someone from her past… a dead someone. She knows that her friend died all those years ago, so how is that she is able to send her a request now, surely it’s someone playing tricks on her. Maybe they know the secret that she has been carrying with her all this time, and they want to toy with her, maybe even get a little revenge… or use her vulnerabilities to make her feel weak and helpless?
Friend Request is a pulse pounding thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat the whole way through!! It is one of those reads that makes you think, makes you question everything you do, and opens your eyes a little about the role social media plays in our lives today. I liked the premise of this one, it intrigued me, and it wound up being so unlike anything else that I have read as of late, it was definitely a refreshing change of pace! The story line was well crafted with lots of unexpected twists and turns, and the characters were well drawn and easy to relate to… overall I’d say one of the best reads I’ve read this year!! Highly recommend this one, it will have you addicted from the first page!!!
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this title.
Friend Request is the first book by Laura Marshall I have read and I would have picked it up sooner if I had realised how much we were going to gel together, So this is a definite thumbs up from moi.
SO Well Well Well,
What an Engrossing read this was.
Such an absolute page turner, as well as the sort of book that makes you think about the bigger picture overall, This society we now live in where we are all connected and live our lives so unthinkingly out there for all and sundry to observe.
All that information on each and every one of us, it’s scary to think what could be done with this and how a faceless somebody behind a computer screen could completely terrorise us anonymously and the absolute irony is that we have exposed OURSELVES.
posting our latest pics for all of BRAGBOOK (as a friend of mine likes to calls it) to admire.
We are all guilty of this including me.
We have in the most case through ourselves or friends, family and acquaintances uploaded all the milestones and important events of our existences for the masses to devour and envy our perfect lives. we can be anyone we want behind a screen.
A perfect mother, wife, daughter or maybe a dead childhood friend!!!
And this is exactly what occurs in Friend Request When Louise Williams receives a request from her dead classmate Maria Weston.
This Book is told in present time and flashbacks and as we read we unravel the coil of secrets that have echoed down through the last twenty-five years still affecting certain individuals existences, even today.
There is also a third narrative interwoven throughout the chapters, a secret one, hinting at the inner workings of someone’s thoughts and feelings, I wasn’t quite sure whos and I found this so very intriguing, constantly trying to guess who this could be.
When it was exposed at the end who this was I was honestly really surprised, Bravo Miss Marshall you had me completely tied in knots.
So Friend Request is full of twists and turns, secrets and lies, oh so many lies lie between these pages, this was an action packed very easy read.
you so will not be able to stop till you uncover the whole truth.
there was a passage that stood out for me greatly in this.
“One of the school mums is spewing the details of her latest break-up on her page, but she has some of her ex’s mates as Facebook friends and they are weighing in, disputing her version of events, calling her names. I am drawn in, as I used to be years ago when I watched the soaps on TV, but with the added fascination that this is real life or at least something like it. I’m amazed by the extent to which some people live out their lives on here. This woman doesn’t even say hello to me on the rare occasions I see her at the school gate’s, yet I know all the gory intimacies of her love life. ”
I myself don’t air my dirty linen, but I know many who do (and I don’t judge) and we are most of us guilty of over exaggerating the perfection of our lives even if just a little.
Friend Request while an engaging piece of fiction is also an insight into how much social media affects our lives, making us examine our own acceptance of it.
Without Social media, the stalking of Louise would not have been possible, she was made accessible and vulnerable by her online presence and on that note, I will leave you.
Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for providing me with an arc of Friend Request, this is my own honest opinion.
Reviewed By Beckie Bookworm
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Using social media as the vehicle to create this story made this a page-turner! It was unpredictable and scary at times. I would truly recommend this book!
Very enjoyable to read. Interesting take on a bullying-type issue.
Kept me guessing till the end.
Friend Request is the latest of the ‘Gone Girl’ also-rans. It is about the power of social cliques in High School, and what an outsider, Louise, did to be friends with one of the hot girls, Claire.
Nearly three decades since, Louise lives with her gay four year old son who will one day be wearing hot pants, construction boots, and a train engineer’s cap. She is a semi-successful designer who begins ignoring her clients because she is being cyberstalked by the girl whose death she contributed to back in HS. Oh, what fun!
There is very little to recommend this book. No great plot, no likeable characters, no surprise ending. This is one frend request you should not accept.