Laura Marshall (1)

The Anniversary has a storyline that captured my attention straightaway. It's 25 years since Travis Green killed 11 people from the small town of Hartshead where he lived. Cassie Colman's father was one of the victims but as she was only 4 at the time she doesn't really remember him. An enforced move back to Hartshead to look after her mother makes Cassie question everything she thought she knew about the tragedy and together with some new friends, including a journalist, she starts to show more slowly uncover new information.

I really enjoyed this book, my first by Laura Marshall. It moves along at a fast pace and keeps the momentum going. I particularly liked the way snippets about the shootings kept coming to light as Cassie found out more, and how they helped other pieces of information to suddenly slot into place or gain clarity.

Cassie is a new mother and I remember those early days with a baby who wouldn't settle (although I don't remember quite as many trips to the pub!). It made it very relatable and I was really pleased to see Cassie's personal development and confidence grow throughout the story, and her relationships with her mother, her baby and her newfound friends strengthen.

Flashback scenes to the day of the shooting helped to show things from the victims' perspective and I started to put 2 and 2 together and by the end I was beginning to get a real sense of what had motivated Travis's rampage. A well-written and well-plotted story, with characters I wasn't sure if Cassie could trust, I thought this was an excellent domestic thriller and I hope to read more of Marshall's books in the future. show less

Louise, divorced for two years and finally coming into her own with her 4-year-old son, opens up Facebook to find a friend request from Maria Weston, a high school classmate. Maria Weston, however, disappeared & was presumed drowned following a high school party many years ago. Louise, who harbors a secret about the night Maria disappeared, accepts the friend request out of curiosity, but can't help but be spooked, especially when she begins to receive threatening messages from this Facebook show more Maria. Is Maria still alive or is someone impersonating her?

As thrillers go, I found this a fairly decent read. It's a somewhat unique take on the traditional thriller, incorporating social media fairly realistically, and brings to light just how easy it would be to exploit someone in today's day and age if you had the desire to do so. That's rather creepy if you stop and think about it. There were enough red herrings in this story to keep me guessing and I wasn't certain who the culprit was until near the end. My largest issue with this book was the main character of Louise, who wasn't altogether likeable, but rather weak and indecisive. There were times I wanted to shake her. But I suppose we can't all be strong, all-knowing characters. Overall, a decent read. show less

Louise has been hiding something since high school. Something she did. Well, something they all did. She's pushed it to the back of her mind. Not quite gone.....but in the shadows. Then she receives a Facebook friend request. From a girl that's been dead for 25 years. Disappeared. Dead. Gone. All gone. Because of them. Or.....is she?

I love this sort of thriller story, basically because....it could really happen. Nothing supernatural. Nothing unrealistic. Just people being shitty to each show more other. Happens every day. Right? How many of us were totally shitty to someone in high school? Someone weaker than ourselves. Even once. I think we were all a crappy person at least once as a teenager. Some people just take it a lot further than just being a cranky, hormonal person. Some are weak and do things to fit in....to be a part of a crowd that requires them to hate this person, not speak to those sorts of people, to be mean to a certain person or type of person. How many of us ever made decisions based on what our group of friends, or others might think?

I remember I said something to a guy in high school once. He was being a bit of a jerk to me.....so I came back with something I knew would hurt him. Just to walk away feeling like I'd won. It was something not in my usual personality, and I shouldn't have said it. Years later, this guy killed himself. I've always wished I could somehow get a time machine and go back and un-say what I said to him that day. More than likely, he forgot that argument and what I said (nobody else heard it). But I remember it. And maybe, just maybe, he did too. And maybe that little thing I said snowballed in with everything else in his life and pushed him to that decision he made 10 years later. Who knows. I still wish I could undo it. Louise and her friends took the shitty behavior much further, but I certainly sympathize with Louise's wishes that she could undo what they all did.

That little bit of truth from my life is what made me identify with the main character, Louise, in this book just a little bit. Not entirely -- Louise is weak. I don't identify with her inability to be her own person. She has spent her entire life letting other people make her decisions for her because she is afraid to take control of her life. And her weakness hurt others around her. They hurt a girl -- the new girl she wasn't supposed to befriend because her clique wouldn't allow it -- and hid it for years. Their secret. But little did weak, whiney Louise know.....even she doesn't know the whole story of what happened that night.

Up until about 2/3 of the way through this book, I thought I knew what was going to happen. The story was a bit trope-y.....teenagers go too far, then hide what they did until their school reunion where they meet up as adults and act even more shitty. Trope, trope, trope through the tulips. But.....just as I thought I had it all predicted.....the story shifted a bit. It came in with one last twist that I didn't see coming.

Bravo!! Love it! The last 10 chapters of this book saved the entire thing for me. Nice suspense, good twisty nastiness......great til the end! And all with that social media this-could-happen-to-someone grit behind it.

This lovely bit of creepiness is Laura Marshall's debut novel. I can't wait to see what she writes next!

**I voluntarily read an advanced readers copy of this book from Grand Central Publishing through NetGalley. Opinions expressed are entirely my own.** show less

Mind Blown!

Ok, heres the deal… Friend Request, very simply put, is INTENSE.

From the very first page to the very last, Laura Marshall orchestrates an incredibly gripping novel that is just impossible to put down. Seriously, I thought about this book constantly and raved about it all along the way. I’ll admit, I have not read a great mystery/thriller in some time so I wasn’t expecting too much but WOW. This book took me on a roller coaster with twists, turns, and bumps. I may even have show more some lasting paranoia! Friend Request certainly made up for any lost time and disappointment of previous “thrillers” and re-ignited my love for those enthralling stories that leave you on edge.

There is so much to rave about in this book but character relate-ability is probably my number 1. What I mean is – think back to your days in high school and how insecure you might have been. Did you work hard to try to fit in? Did you have self doubts? Personal hangups? Me, too! This is a slice of what makes our heroine, Louise, so darn like-able and maybe a bit more relatable. She is an every day person who happens to have a past… but also a troubling secret.

The flashes back to high school and then back to the the current-day storytelling makes this mystery/thriller such an interesting experience. You see Louise for who she is, both as a desperate, naive teen and also as a hardworking, single mother. You get little snippets of her realness. The big questions sit heavily: How did Louise end up where she is? What is she so scared of? Who can she trust? Will the friendship request from Maria Weston force the truth to come out? What really happened to MariaWeston? What is the entire truth? These bits come crashing to the forefront as the mystery unfolds.

Be prepared, Laura Marshall does not shy away from difficult topics and the reader must be ready to be taken through a sometimes dark journey. Also note: side effects may include a bit of paranoia and having your mind completely blown.

Are you on Facebook? How much do you share? How well do you know your connections? Are they who and what they seem? I promise, you will be asking yourself these very questions.

I gave this addictive thriller, 5 nail-biting stars!

Though I did win this ARC from Goodreads (thank you!), I promise that these opinions are 100% my own. show less