Friend Request By Laura Marshall

[amazon_link id=”075156835X” target=”_blank” ][/amazon_link]‘Friend Request’ is Laura Marshall’s debut novel.

Maybe that had been the problem all along: Maria Weston had wanted to be friends with me, but I let her down. She’s been hovering at the edge of my consciousness for all of my adult life, although I’ve been good at keeping her out, just a blurred shadow in the corner of my eye, almost but not quite out of sight. Maria Weston wants to be friends. But Maria Weston has been dead for more than twenty-five years.

‘Friend Request’ was one of the big debuts of 2018 and I finally got around to reading it at Christmas and it was quite the roller coaster ride.

The story is seen through the narrative of Louise Williams, a young woman who randomly gets a Facebook Friend Request from Maria Weston, a woman from her past. A woman that Louise is convinced is no longer alive. After a fateful night at their school leavers ball, Maria disappeared and has never been seen again. Now 25 years later, Maria wants to get back in touch, just as Louise receives an invite to her school’s reunion party, to reconnect with all the people who changed her life.

As the date of the reunion looms closer, Louise receives more unsettling messages and finds herself fearing for her life, as she believes that she is being punished for Maria’s disappearance.

The story is written in the past and present tense. Maria and Louise at school, Maria is the newcomer that the popular girls don’t like and force Louise make Maria’s school life unhappy, even though Louise likes Maria.

The story is filled with suspense and right from the start, we are drawn in the dark world of social media and how easy it is to reconnect with someone from your past. Louise is deeply troubled and haunted from her past and even though she is terrified that she is being hunted, she’s also relieved that the burden she’s been carrying may finally be revealed. She’s not the most strongest of characters, but as the story progresses, we begin to see another side to her. The story has many interesting characters, including Sam, Louise’s ex-husband and crush at school. He’s charismatic and charming and someone Louise can confide in, even though he broke her heart.

Twisty from the first page, this book really pulls the reader in and keeps them guessing until the final page. With unsettling moments and dodgy characters that make everyone a potential suspect, ‘Friend Request’ is a cleverly written psychological thriller that is well worthy of all its hype.

You can buy [amazon_link id=”075156835X” target=”_blank” ]Friend Request from Amazon [/amazon_link] and is available to buy from good bookshops.