Sure, except this girl, ‘Maria Weston’ vanished on Prom night way back in 1989, and has been presumed dead.

Thank you to Netgalley and Grand Central Publishing for providing an advanced readers copy of this book for me to read in exchange for my honest review.

Whether you want to read ‘The Waiting Rooms’ for the thrilling story, the superb characterisation or the fascinating insight into a world where a graze could kill you, I highly recommend it. The friend request kicks off a chain of events for Louise, bringing back her pain and fear from those years, long ago.

Realizing she had been cast aside, Louise will do whatever it takes to get back into the cliques good graces, much to Maria's detriment. I can just see one of the tower blocks that loom here and there like malevolent giants over the rows of Victorian terraces all turned into flats like mine that make up this part of south-east London. Due to peer pressure Louise has blamed herself believing all these years that it was her fault that Maria had died that night. Maybe that had been the problem all along: Maria Weston had wanted to be friends with me, but I let her down.

The other very timely theme explores our use of social media and the many ways we can lurk around other people’s lives, spying on their current relationships, jobs, hobbies and other friends.

These chapters were instrumental in revealing what Louise did in her past and due to brilliant execution on the authors part you were still sympathetic to Louise and in a weird way understanding about her mind-set at the time. I will try to get my hands on any book that has social media at the heart of it, and "Friend Request" fit the bill perfectly. The story is written in first person, with chapters written in italics, that weren't clear about whom they were about. I just thought it was going to be another throwaway thriller – fun while I was reading it, but nothing special.Friend Request is a very good book, through flashbacks do we get to see what happened in 1989 when Louise and her friends made Maria's life a living hell right until the very last night she disappeared. Here we go again - another episode of mean girls (which, in my humble opinion is really getting overdone lately). Adult Louise is dealing with what it means to have a dead girl that she felt responsible for popping back up in her life. I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy through NetGalley for an honest review!