Audiobook Review: FRIEND REQUEST by Laura Marshall

Title: Friend Request

Author: Laura Marshall
Narrator: Elaine Claxton
Read: September 2017

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟1/2

Book Description:

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.

My musings:

With social media playing such a big part in our lives these days, I was intrigued to read a book that had its plot based on the hidden dangers of airing our lives on the web for everyone to see – and there were times when I felt like deleting my facebook account and going undercover! Luckily I have no big dark secrets like Louise (or even if I did I wouldn’t tell – lol), so being stalked by some long dead friend from high school should hopefully not be a problem. Or maybe there is a reason I moved to the other side of the world? Without giving too much away, the story revolves around our main protagonist Louise, who receives a facebook request from an old friend from high school, who she believes to have died as a result of events involving Louise and her friends. Quite terrifying, really. But instead of tightening her privacy settings and running for the hills, she accepts the request, and even plans to go to an upcoming school reunion. Things quickly go south from here, and soon Louise is convinced that she is in danger.

I loved how Marshall incorporates details from our everyday lives into her story that could potentially have devastating effects. I have seen plenty of people air all their dirty laundry on facebook and give away details that could make them prey to some twisted mind. Even though Louise at times struck me as a bit naive and not overly proactive in trying to protect herself, I guess that this would reflect a good percentage of the population – as opposed to those who shy away from social media all together, believing that big brother is watching them ....

Reading Friend Request was like a ticket on the nostalgia train straight back to my high school days, which made me shudder. I was never one of the cool crowd, only surviving with all my limbs intact by letting the worst bullies copy my maths homework on a regular basis (if you’re a nerd, you have to make it work for you). Everyone has a Sophie Hannigan and her crowd in their class at one time or another, and I had vivid flashbacks to our own group of cool girls, who regularly made other kids’ lives pure hell. And to make matters worse, as a mother I had to witness both of my children experience similar bullying. So whilst this made me resent Louise for playing her part in tormenting other girls, I could also see her as a victim of circumstance, which was a balance well played by the author.

For me, the book started out really strong and had me totally captivated. My only letdown was the end. I know that endings work for some readers and not for others and there is never a solution that will please everyone, but I thought that with all the unlimited possibilities to create an ending to really stand out from the fray, the resolution to the mystery was a bit of a cop-out for me. After all that building tension and nail-biting suspense, I felt slightly cheated – I can’t say more without giving spoilers, but some of the threads did not come together for me and some of the motives seemed a bit far fetched. Which was a real shame, as I had imagined the ending to be some wild and wonderful conspiracy theory that would take my breath away.

Anyway, enough said. Overall, this was a contemporary mystery with many interesting premises that kept me interested until the very end, and I recommend it to anyone who has a facebook, twitter, instagram or other social media account. I bet you will look at your privacy settings a bit more closely after reading this!