When I read the blurb on this book, it sounded brilliant . It starts out with Louise getting a friend request on Facebook from an old school friend. Sounds great don't we all love catching up with old friends on social media. The problem is however that this friend has been missing, presumed dead for over 20 years. Sounds like this is going to be a fabulous read.

Sadly however I found this book boring with awful characters, apart from little Henry who was so adorable. No other character could I bond with in any way. This was a book that when I put down , I was in no hurry to pick back up. It wasn't until about 80% into it I felt it heated up a bit and I will say that I had no idea who the perpetrator was until near the end .

Sadly this book was too much of a slow burner for me .

I received an ARC from netgalley and this review is entirely my own honest opinion.

Such a brilliant tale. Loved it from the beginning Facebook friend request until the final word on the final page. I relived all the issues I had being a teenager with this book.

Louise Williams, now a single Mum, receives a Facebook friend request from a friend from her schooldays called Maria Weston. The only problem is that Maria has been dead for over twenty-five years, since the night of the leavers’ party held at the school both girls attended. She was feared drowned in a terrible accident and Louise has been paying the price for what she believed had happened that fateful night. She is full of remorse and guilt, casting an unwelcome shadow over her life. It’s hardly surprising that she is way beyond shocked, but could Maria have survived that night and be looking to re-establish contact. Is it even feasible?
The messages continue to pour in and Louise is haunted by memories of her schooldays, her friendships and particularly of her relationship with Maria. She goes over and over what she remembers from that night. A recently created Facebook page also advertises a long due school reunion. Louise is scared out of her wits and visits friends to see whether they have also had a Facebook request, asking them if they are going to the party. She learns surprising facts about what happened from the points of view of her old school fiends. She decides that she must attend the reunion but as the cyber stalking picks up pace and the threats escalate, she feels more and more threatened and increasingly frightened. She simply has to get to the bottom of the mystery, so she plans ahead for attending the party.
"Friend Request" is Laura Marshall’s gripping debut novel full of suspense, thrills and spills and twists and turns. It oozes with tension until the very end. The themes of girl-power rivalry, being associated with the in-crowd, bullying and alpha friendship circles are very convincing. Their damaging after effects are scrupulously held up for examination, put right under the microscope. The characters and themes are modern and true to life. I liked the way Laura featured the concept of conscience, regret and the feeling of shame. It’s easy to be wise after the event and peer group pressures are keenly felt in the teenage years when young adults are finding their way and striving for acceptance. The main characters were skilfully crafted and well developed as the story continued and more information came to light. As the truth was finally revealed I felt a real jolt of shock as I had never expected the story to end with such a massive and twisted finale. I would like to thank NetGalley and publisher Sphere for my copy of this novel sent out in return for an honest review. I enjoyed reading this story but thought the plot was very complicated. I look forward to reading Laura Marshall’s second novel. It’s a 7/10 review from me.

I enjoyed the overall storyline but struggled with the constant flashbacks. I wish we had more of an ending and closure. Who told Maria's family? What really happened after the car hit the tree? There are so many unanswered questions that I found this an unsatisfying read that I wouldn't recommend.

I'm reviewing Friend Request. Here are my thoughts:

^^ Receiving a friend request is usually a fairly normal experience but what if you received one from a girl who was supposed to be dead? Even if she wasn't, which is a bit of a shock, would you really want her coming back? You thought those school days, those memories, those secrets were all dead and buried. Just like her. The last thing you want is for someone to bring it all up again.

Especially if you're feeling a little bit guilty about something...

^^ Friend Request deals with how we interact with each other online, especially Facebook. It's so easy to share everything, what we read, eat, where we go on holiday, yet we rarely think about how much information we are giving away for free, (albeit inadvertently sometimes), like where we shop, who we live with, if we live alone, or even when our homes are empty at specific times. On top of that do we really give enough thought to who could actually be looking? Friends, family, enemies, strangers? We give away so much information about ourselves online, which by today's standards is fairly normal, however, we'd probably die if we could see real people all crowding around our computer, snooping in person... And this is just what this book brings to light. Hello, paranoia!

^^ I really enjoyed Friend request. I read it fast and furiously. Right from the start we know Maria's disappearance wasn't all straight forward, a lot went on in those days at school in the 80s.

^^ As the story unravels we flick backwards and forwards from the 80s to the present day. This is all first person point of view. Occasionally we are given a different view, in third person, which is italicised, so there is no doubt this is someone else on the scene with their own story to tell. A very different story, too.

^^ This book has a lovely creepiness to it. I say lovely, because with books (and films) I just love to be creeped out and Friend Request does this very well!

^^ The writing is brilliant, Laura Marshall definitely knows how to spin a good thriller. She kept me guessing all the way through, and added some great twists to the plot, turning this into a suspenseful, fast-paced read.

Overall: Friend Request is an entertaining, creepy read, which brings to light a lot of problems with today's online society. It's true to life, filling the reader with suspense and an underlying sense of foreboding. You never know who is watching your life online. Or why.

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 our lives are 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

A pretty decent thriller, although you do have to suspend belief at times.
Louise is a single mum, trying to rebuild her life after her husband leaves her for another woman. She thinks she's doing ok until she receives a friend request on Facebook from Maria. The only problem is that Maria has been missing, presumed dead, for over 25 years and Louise has blamed herself ever since.
It's difficult to understand some of Louise's decisions, especially when she has a young son to protect, but the twists in the plot just about make up for it. I'm not sure that the character of Pete adds anything to the story, apart from an attempt to add another suspect. I just didn't see the point of bringing him in.
Overall, I enjoyed this book, it's a quick read and I was hooked enough to want to know what had really happened to Maria.
My thanks to Netgalley for this copy.

A single parent, working from home. A friend request on Facebook. A day like any other...

Until Louise realises that her friend request is from a 'friend' who's been missing presumed dead for more than Twenty Years - Maria Weston.

Suddenly Louise is terrified and not only for herself, but for her son as well.

Because Maria Weston has been haunting Louise in all the time she's been missing. She feels guilty about the last time she saw her, the school leaver's party. What she and a small group of friends did to Maria that night has been eating Louise up inside for years.

Despite her better judgement Louise gets in touch with an old school friend Sophie, who asks her if she's going to the forthcoming school reunion. Louise was undecided, but she thinks it might be a good way to try and find out who's behind Maria Weston's facebook page.

When she arranges to meet up with Sophie before the reunion, Louise gets the sense that she's being watched, followed. But she tells herself not to be stupid, paranoid. Nobody is interested in her. But then she gets a message from 'Maria' and is suddenly more afraid than she's ever been before.

Friend Request is a frightening reminder of how easily we let people into our lives through social media, we may think we know someone. But in reality, it could be anyone behind a computer screen. And that, is the scariest thing of all...

An interesting concept, and as a modern psychological thriller this certainly delivers. If I'm honest, there were sections that felt as if they could have been better edited, and I wasn't always completely convinced by the characters' motivations. But for what it is, a twisty suspense novel, it more than delivers.

Friend Request is a modern psychological thriller. Louise receives a friend request from Maria, an old schoolfriend except Maria went missing 25 years ago, presumed dead and Louise is partly to blame for the other girl's disappearance. Schoolgirl bullying, sexual violence and the negative power of social media combine to make this a compelling read.

A great twisty thriller, very current with it being out social media. A must read
Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.

This was a fantastic book it had me on the edge of my seat and i could not put it down cannot wait to see what Laura fetches us next.

An exquisitely written, original thriller. In a sea of noir books that feel the same this one really stands out!

When I first saw the synopsis of Friend Request, I wanted to read it. From that brief snap-shot alone, it covered some of the dangers facing modern society.

It wasn’t the mysterious death of a girl in Louise’s past that gripped me. It was the anonymity that social media can provide, and the dangers that can translate into. It’s a potential problem that could happen to anyone: do you know who you are talking to?

Deep and meaningful issues aside, I also had my doubts. I’ve read a lot of thrillers lately and the majority of time, find myself guessing who is the true culprit.

Hats off to Laura Marshall. I had no clue the entire way through. It’s been a long time since a book has kept me in the dark. It improved my reading experience and kept me gripped throughout, something no thriller has done for a while.

The novel follows Louise, a woman with a troubled past. When that past catches up to her, however, Louise knows she has to come clean. But she has a lot to lose – her son, for one – and it’s not as easy as it should be.

Louise is a likeable and realistic character. I could empathise with her fear of being followed and watched and her terror surrounding her young son, Henry. I did feel, however, that she was overprotective of Henry to the extreme, which made her appear clingy and insecure. But when her past relationship is revealed in its entirety, it isn’t surprising. Abuse comes in many forms; sexual and emotional ones can be the hardest to talk about.

The secondary characters were enough to flesh out Louise but the reader never gets to connect with them. Sophie is haunted by the past; Esther has moved on. Louise doesn’t know these women, and so the reader never gets to know them properly either.

Looking back, it is clear that more than one character has been inserted just to keep the reader guessing. Pete, a man whom Louise knows nothing about, is one such character and once his part has been played, disappears almost entirely from the book.

The narration is split between the present day and the past as the story about what happened to Maria is revealed. I’m keeping this review spoiler free, but it is a much darker scenario than I saw coming. There are also snippets that occur in the years between. I wasn’t initially certain to whom these snippets belonged, however, which added even greater mystery to the story: they could be Louise’s thoughts but they could have easily been Maria’s, which added a whole new twist.

I’d recommend this book to anyone interested in the thriller genre at the moment. There is no big twist at the end, no final sentence to throw everything off after you have guessed the rest of the plot. Instead, it is a mystery that grips you from beginning to end. A really good read.

To say Louise Williams is surprised to get a friend request from Maria Weston is an understatement. For one thing Louise and her friends horribly bullied Maria at high school. And for another Maria has been missing, presumed dead for twenty five years. Louise has been living with crushing guilt since the night Maria vanished as she knows she was responsible for that disappearance. She the begins to get messages from Maria....and it seems she is watching her.....

This novels premise is both chilling and worryingly current. I mean let's face it even those of us with the highest security settings on Facebook have that twinge of worry when we get a friend request....is it the ill considered fling from our twenties or the office creep? Or an old acquaintance you thought you'd shook off? All pretty tame compared to someone dead. And to boot someone dead who should have a grudge against you. Urgh, honestly the thought is solid gold heebie jeebie.

The novel flits between 2016 and the events leading up to Maria's disappearance in 1989. I have to say 1989 is captured perfectly as is the thoughtlessness and ignorance of teenagers. In that flashback is my favourite line of a book this year in which Louise and her friends are convinced their P.E. teacher is a lesbian because she has a glass eye.... oh dear lord I cried with laughter at that as it perfectly captures the weird thought process of teenagers and the ignorance of the time. Hormones, empathy and logic just don't mix! Anyway I digress. So 1989, captured perfectly, the tale of bullying school girls all too familiar both now and then. In 2016 we have a growing sense of dread as Louise wonders if Maria is alive or it someone is playing games with her. And you'll be wondering too. The author keeps her cards close as we reach the final reveal via a route of many twists and turns. This was almost a 5 star review, but the ending let's it down a tad. It's still definitely worth a read. Unless you love your Facebook account because after this you may consider deactivating!

I received this from Netgalley for an unbiased and honest review.

This is an interesting psychological thriller which uses social media to build up the tension.
Louise, a young single mother, is contacted on Facebook by an old school friend. The only ptoblem is that Maria disappeared 25 years ago in 1989 at the school leavers' disco and Louise has always felt guilty although her body has never been discovered it has been assumed she is dead.
Gradually as the novel progresses Louise receives more messages from Maria and we learn what Louise did in 1989 that has left her feeling so guilty.
There are two timelines -2016 and 1989 but both told in the first person by Louise. There are also some italic sections and it is not clear who has written them- could it be Maria the girl who is missing presumed dead.
I liked the way the author gradually revealed what had happened in the earlier period. She described. the teenage bullying and frienship issues in a very believable way.
There were several twists when the reader thought the truth had been revealed and several charcters who seemed guilty of something.
This sort of domestic noir novel is popular at the moment and I expect this one will do very well. The warnings about putting too much information online are very timely and will ring alarm bells with many readers.
It is perfect as a beach read and will appeal to fans of Gone Girl and The Girl On The Train. Thanks to Netgalley and Little Brown for my arc in exchange for an honest review.

Reading this book had me questioning today's social media life. Everybody puts up the whole life for everyone to see and it makes it very easy to learn and take advantage of it. And ultimately do a lot of damage in somebody's life. A very relevant story, with a sense of reality made it an easy and enjoyable read. If you like psychological thrillers, you want to read this one. Recommended. I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK!

What a great debut, it hit the ground running and kept up the pace all the way through.
Louise get's a friend request on Facebook from Maria Weston an old school friend but Maria died at a party at school years ago! Louise didn't have a great time at school even though she tried so hard to be one of the popular girls. She isn't proud of the way things went and along with splitting from her husband Sam she really is paranoid when she gets the request, her own part in the sequence of events that left Maria dead plays on her mind and she is sure someone is following her. This novel is on two timeline and the transition between the two is smoothly done. I was constantly on the edge of my seat trying to workout who was behind the sinister messages and what would happen if Louise attends the reunion?
I loved this book from start to finish and recommend it to everyone who loves thrillers. Thank you NetGalley for my copy of the book.

An intriguing mystery that merges past and present, this book demonstrates how the choices you make at high school can shape your entire future, with the secrets you keep just waiting to emerge. The sinister use of Facebook was well written, and works well as a tool to connect the two time periods, with Louise feeling like she is being followed by a ghost. The depiction of high school life was suitably realistic and shows just how easily a youthful mistake can get out of hand, with the consequences becoming deadly.

*Full review available on the blog*

When Louise Williams receives a Facebook friend request from long-dead classmate, Maria Weston, all manner of long-buried secrets threaten to come to the surface. She can feel the girl she once was begin to overshadow the woman she now pretends to be. But with a child to protect and her sanity under question, it is up to Louise to protect herself and make sure events of the past aren't unearthed in the present.

My favourite sort of thrillers involve a montage of past events that intersperse the present-day perspective. This expertly interwove these alternating sections to heighten the tension and slowly unveil the truth to the reader. This prolonged suspense made the concluding grand reveal both hard to preconceive and shocking in its explosive climax.

The multitude of characters each had a reason for existing in the plot and all, at one time or another, crossed into my radar for 'whodunnit'. I was constantly second-guessing every action and, after reading a slew of thrillers, found it refreshing to find the unguessable nature of this plot's many mysteries.