It brings to mind memories of wanting to belong..somewhere... and Louise knows exactly what that was like. Young people don't always make the wisest or safest decisions.

Louise had always known that when she was at school. But Maria didn’t fit in with the cool crowd, and the rumours that had followed her from her last school made her easy to bully in the summer of 1989. Have you ever gotten a friend request on social media from someone that gave you pause? One from someone that you thought had some nerve in seeking you out? Well wait, it gets even better. Louise Williams doesn't just get a friend request on Facebook from someone she knew years ago and doesn't actually like, she gets a friend request from someone who died twenty-five years ago. (Can you say creepy?). 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. In the graph above, people on the >1 side of the plot are more likely to receive requests from real people, while people on the <1 side are more likely to receive requests from fakes. Using this method, they were able to accurately deduce which profiles were fake, which helps Facebook remove the profiles before they have a chance to do more harm.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. Although I spent some time discussing these social issues, they are underlying themes the book is based upon. But, I assure you, the story is all thrills, chills, and psychological suspense from start to finish, with some real nail biting scenes and plenty of surprise twists along the way. 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.

The author has captured the angst of being a teenager ... the self doubts .... Louise, as an adult, is that person who has lived with guilt and regrets her entire life. Will it ever end? In the epilogue, Laura, dressed in the hoodie, looks at a few girls the same way that Marina looked at Laura in the beginning.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. What would life have been like if she'd made a different choice then, not just for her, but for everyone around her?" I find I can’t look at her for long, and my eyes roam around the kitchen, wanting something mundane to fix on, a break from this bewildering new reality. I get up and make a coffee, gaining comfort from the ritual of putting the smooth shining pod into the machine, pressing the tip of my finger onto the button in the precise way I always do and warming the milk in the frother. A read-it-in-one-sitting thriller . . . Twisty and gripping but always relatable, Friend Request is the ultimate it-could-happen-to-you read’ - Erin Kelly, author of He Said/She Said Louise's actions and secrets haunt her years later. Thus, when she gets Maria Weston's friend request she is stunned. And when she starts getting threatening Facebook messages from Maria, she is absolutely is terrified as she has a lot to lose. Louise however, isn't the only one.