Review: Friend Request

Title: Friend Request
Author: Laura Marshall
Publication Date: September 5, 2017
Genre: Psychological Thriller/Suspense
Recommended If You Like: social media stories, secrets from the past, explorations of friendship, creepy stories with slow-building suspense

The Book:

When Louise gets a Facebook friend request from Maria, her world stops--Maria is dead. Or at least she's supposed to be. One online notification sends Louise spiraling back into her past, forced to confront her actions and face the fear that everything that happened back then may be about to be revealed.

What I Liked:

I really liked the way Marshall explored social media, the idea of presenting our best selves and spinning our identities online. This is a really topical subject, and I enjoyed the way Marshall created such a suspenseful story around it.

And this was a suspenseful story. There's a slow build with a major eeriness factor that had me constantly wondering just what was lurking on the next page. Plus the twist at the end had me completely surprised!

Anything I Didn't Like?

The slow build occasionally felt a little too slow. And while it's, ironically, hard for me to put into words exactly why the writing style felt a little lacking to me, it did. I'm hopeful that is something that will develop as Marshall gets more books under her belt, as her ability to come up with a twisty plot is definitely already there.

So...?

You don't need to rush out and buy this book right away, there are definitely some stronger showings in this genre, but the plot twist at the end is really great. Marshall clearly knows how to plot a good story, and how to create a real sense of creepiness in her psychological tales, and I strongly suspect with time everything else will tighten up to match her current strengths.