Friend Request: The most addictive psychological thriller you'll read this year

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There’s a bit of repetition in the book, but it held my interest to the point that I wanted to know how everything played out and how such innocence turned so tragic. It’s interesting as we don’t understand the lasting effect of people who’ve been bullied and traumatized at young and impressionable ages. I think many of us have been bullied before, but not to the degree displayed in this book (hopefully).

Yet, there are other prevalent themes running throughout, with the spotlight shining on the mistreatment of classmates, the intense desire to belong and be accepted, especially as teenagers. The writing style was good, very easy to read, and I have a feeling I read it faster then my kindle would count. In other words: don't look like a fake account, don't add random strangers, and don't be a stranger yourself. 2. Add Friends Conservatively THE BLURB: 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's 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 everything Louise's other friends aren't. Authentic. Funny. Brash. Within just a few days, Maria and Louise are on their way to becoming fast friends. The author, Laura Marshall, expertly carries Louise's story in alternating chapters entitled 1989 and 2016. In this style, we are given bits and clues and a red herring or two, and all the reader has to do is put this mystery together. Easy enough. Except this: Louise may or may not be an unreliable narrator. I can't say. You will be wondering as I was all through this book and I take my "no spoilers" oath seriously. So I cannot tell you. Sorry/not sorry.And it’s a good thing when these profiles get removed, especially now of all times. In light of the COVID-19 quarantine, cybercriminals and scammers are using Facebook messenger and fake profiles to trap users with phishing links. Memories that include her own dark secrets – secrets that threaten to destroy her carefully constructed life. Louise is the type of character that I find really fascinating in fiction because we don't often see them portrayed well. She's spineless, insecure, self-centered, cowardly, and horribly flawed, and yet, because it's narrated in first person, we get to see all of the mental gymnastics she performs to try to make herself out as the good person, even when she's doing terrible things. And when she receives a friend request on Facebook from a classmate long thought dead, all of the dark secrets of her own personal Pandora's box come flying out as we slowly figure out what happened on the last night that she saw her ex-friend Maria, and what is at stake for her now, as an adult.

Friend Request" was all that I was hoping for and more. Not just suspenseful, it also has great dialogue and the issues brought up are so relevant to what's happening in the world today. Not just social media but also friendships, bullying, marriage, sex and more. The characters were very well-developed. I just loved little Henry. And I loved to hate bitchy Sophie Hannigan. Thank you to NetGalley, Grand Central Publishing and Laura Marshall for an advanced copy to read in exchange for an honest review.We know there's something that Louise feels guilty about, something to do with Maria that happened in High School in 1989. She thinks of her comfortable life. Her little family.....just her and Henry. Is that comfortable life being threatened....because of a friend request? As she thinks of her life the same sentence keeps running through her head "Maria Weston wants to be friends with me". She escapes and learns that Marina killed herself in a nearby factory. Tyler finds Laura, but Kobe kills him. After Laura reaches the dead end, Kobe gets killed by the swarm of wasps. Laura finally found Marina's burned corpse and, after staring at her laptop, the corpse lunges at her. And sometimes, that request you get might not even be a real person at all. Data harvesters and cybercriminals sometimes pose as (not so) innocent Facebook accounts so they can scan your profile and share your data. Some even go as far as sweet-talking you into giving up personal information. Here’s how you can spot the phonies. Fair-weather friends Louise Williams is a 40-something single mother of an adorable 4 year old boy. She is a reserved, quiet type that prefers to look at the world from the outside in. Especially from Facebook.