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

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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. I fervently hope four year old Henry will not be warped from his mother’s incessant inhalations of him, burying her nose in his neck, reveling in the smell of his hair, his head, breathing in his very essence, etc. Even though this book wasn't particularly long, it took forEVER to read because so much of it was build-up (and the pay-off really wasn't as satisfying as it could have been).

Now the story in here takes a reader back and forth from the present time and the past high school days for Lousie. Out of the blue one-day, Louise receives a notification on Facebook that Maria Weston wants to be friends. And when she starts getting threatening Facebook messages from Maria, she is absolutely is terrified as she has a lot to lose.Imagine receiving a friend request on Facebook from somebody you knew in high school who you thought was dead, what would you do? Maria, in her green school-uniform blazer, long brown hair blowing in the wind, a small smile playing across her face. This entire novel is on the shoulders of our protagonist and I applaud the author for writing Lousie as both vulnerable and insecure and strong as hell. 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. But I also saw things that I know must have really hurt people, and I can remember a few "Sophie's".

The parallels between the fateful leavers’ party and the school reunion make this a book you want to keep reading and can’t put down. You know this because you were part of something you are ashamed of now, something that could cause great harm in the present. I think many of us have been bullied before, but not to the degree displayed in this book (hopefully).Eventually, Louise begins to feel isolated from her friends and turns her back on Maria in a particularly cruel manner. But all in all, I had really good time reading Friend Request along with my friends and I would recommend it to thriller lovers.

She admits that she has no true friends and still seems hung up on her ex, who now has a new (younger) wife and a new baby. All in all this was an excellent read where I both detested Louise, but also rooted for her based on her self imprisonment. What makes this one so suspenseful is not only the way it is written, but the steady pace, and how things keep changing as you read. I wish that I could loosen this secret knot within me, a knot that is tied so tightly I don’t think anyone will ever be able to get their fingers into its intricacies to tug it apart, however hard they try.She is still emotionally hankering after her ex-husband who left her for a younger woman when she got pregnant. The first twist was okay, but towards the end of the book, the second twist felt like it was from a different book, with something much darker going on that I personally felt didn’t fit in with the original story.

I didn't trust anyone, and all of the characters seemed shady, the only one who was obviously innocent was L. Throughout the focus is mostly on the viciousness of teenage bullying and the potentially hideous regret perpetrators may endure, but at the end a different and equally chilling thread is developed perfectly and explains SO MUCH about Louise. This story is about Louise and her childhood girlfriends and a tragedy that occurred at her high school on prom night in 1989. I know it would freak me out and probably make me stay away from Facebook for days, but of course that wouldn’t make a fast paced psychological thriller though, would it? This book had us guessing right from the very start and we had a few out there interesting theories adding some laughter to our discussion.Just read the numerous threads on Mumsnet regarding the lack of transparency and exploitation of children by Instamums, but I digress.