Books on the Beach: Friend Request

24Feb
by Cherryl

Imagine being stalked by someone you think is dead – they contact you on Facebook and seem to know enough about your daily life to suggest they are actually watching and following you offline!

Imagine the anxiety of wondering whether this person might get away with murder – since nobody thinks they’re alive, and not being able to walk down the street without feeling preyed upon by unseen eyes.

Friend Request taps into the issue of school day bullying antics and highlights the fact that such antics are not always forgotten in adulthood – in fact, revenge can wait ever so patiently, for many years.

Friend Request also puts the spotlight on some of the strains that can test and wreck friendships – whether teen or adult.

Moral of the story – be careful how you treat people and watch what you post on social media about yourself?

Ahh but there’s more to the story, a few twists, as with any good suspense/thriller.

As I read the final chapters, the acoustic guitar sounds of Bryan Adams ‘everything I do I do it for you’ happened to be strumming in the background – this ‘dramatic tune’ seemed to intensify every word as I eagerly read through to then end of the book, like watching the final dramatic scenes of a good film!

It’s an easy read that switches from modern day (adult) to back in the day (teens), mirroring both eras to help you make clear links between the past and the present.

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43 thoughts on “Books on the Beach: Friend Request”

  7. Tracy Hanson (@STORMTIGER5)

    Well the ones I’ve had in real-life NOT on social media make any stuff I’ve had on social media tame, just random men telling me I’m lovely etc and people inboxing me about my profile/cover pic that I have no idea how they know me (not in any groups). But my ex took the whole biscuit barrel when it came to stalking. Baring in mind we split up because he cheated and tried to tell me that someone pinned him down and gave him a love bite (he’s 6ft 2 btw). But this is just a selection of stuff he did WHILE we were together.

    Accused me of fancying every man I served at work (I worked in a petrol station) so obviously had to be polite and not just to the women.

    My Mum and I went shopping to the nearest big city (live in a relatively small town) and he sat at the bus stop (he and I used to use when we went) until he realised it was too late to set off (will have been about 6 hours in total). The bus stop was outside where I used to work so my work colleagues told me all this. We had gone in my Mum’s friends’ car as she asked if she could come and volunteered to drive.

    Often went through my purse, not to steal money but to check I hadn’t bought anything classed as MALE products so I wasn’t buying for someone else.

    Asked me why the night was on in our house at 2:45 am, because I was letting the dog out into the garden to “do her business”. When I asked him how he knew there was a light on, he said he was passing by on his way back from the pub. Despite the fact there’s no pub near me unless you want a 20 minute detour and he lived on the other side of town.

    I was working 6 days out of 7 as work was short of staff but I could never get a day off from him and one day he rang the police because I wasn’t at work (had changed shifts in very short notice).

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  8. jensbeautylife

    Someone added me on Facebook and constantly bombarded me with messages and dick pics and even with no reply from me it was 6 to 10 messages a day (I blocked him after 2 days then he made a new page and did the same which I blocked again) then I was waiting for a bus a few weeks after the last message and there he was just looking at me. He went to speak to me and I just lost my head and he got told straight. Luckily I haven’t heard or seen of him again. Total creep

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  13. Jennifer Hemmings

    Im a postie and i get a fair few creeps on my deliveries! Got one creepy old man that actively waits till he sees my postvan and then comes out his house without a doubt to try talk to me ( very touchy feely person, would grab my shoulder hard so i couldn’t move away) i got pretty freaked out when i saw they found my facebook and tried to message me multiple times (my profiles private though)

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  17. Yvonne Wilkinson

    I get friend requests from men who appear to be in the US armed forces. They are always widowers and looking for friendship or love. If you do a reverse search on their photos it becomes clear that the photos have been cloned from someone else’s account. This has only started happening since I turned 60. If they checked my profile I am clearly married so am not looking for a man. I have read that it is a typical scam that starts with an online friendship and ends in asking for money

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  26. Natalie Starling-Booth

    I had a stalker once, before social media days, and he used to follow me everywhere but the creepy thing about him was that he never approached me. He got hold of my mobile number and used to text me weird stuff but after about 6 months, he left me alone, (I think he found himself a girlfriend). Although I never experience any harm, it did weird me out for many years. We nick named him the “Dodgy Lodger”

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  27. Charlie Brunton

    I once received a friend request & facebook messages from a guy who said he’d seen me at work, looked at my name badge & searched facebook for my first name until he recognised my picture!😟😟 I was polite & replying to his chit chat until he asked to take me out, I declined and stop replying & he got really agitated by it saying I didn’t know what i’d just lost out on etc! Block!!🤣 #socialmedia

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    1. Cherryl

      I’ve had a few of these requests on Facebook too – very random and unlikely requests to say the least – I don’t mind leaving it wide open for other social media, but my Facebook is more personal so I keep it on private. If I don’t know you personally/offline, then it’s no entry, lol. I noticed you have a link to your facebook account on your ‘public’ twitter account – maybe that has something to do with it – it gives the impression that you are welcoming people to follow you on Facebook 👀💻

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