Review: Friend Request

Title: Friend Request
Author: Laura Marshall
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Source: NetGalley
Release Date: September 5, 2017
Rating: ★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

1989. When Louise first notices the new girl who has mysteriously 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.

Review:

I loved the premise for this book. It’s so spooky to imagine: someone you thought was dead sends you a friend request on Facebook. 

This book was pretty slow for me. I kept waiting for something big to happen. In the middle of the story, when Louise gets creepy messages, I was really excited. But closer to the end it fell apart. There was a lot happening and I lost interest. 

I think there was too much background given. The story spent a lot of time in the past. I would have felt more of a connection to the characters and the story if there were shorter flashbacks. 

Unfortunately, this book wasn’t as exciting as I had hoped. It was too long and the ending fell flat for me. 

Author: jilljemmett

Jill lives in Toronto, Canada. She has studied English, Creative Writing, and Publishing. Jill is the creator and content producer of Jill’s Book Blog, where she has published a blog post every day for the last four years, including 5-7 book reviews a week. She can usually be found with her nose in a book. View all posts by jilljemmett