TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED by CHELSEA SEDOTI
POV : The Police Department asking questions of friends of Maylee who were with her the night before.
MAIN CHARACTERS: Police, Maylee, John, Abigail, Nolan, Petra
GENRE: Mystery/Thriller/Suspense
Thank you to #NetGalley , the author, and publishers for the opportunities to read #TellMeWhatHappened with honest thoughts and opinions.

Okay, I read this one fairly quickly. It wasn’t really long.I’ve never read a book set up in this type of way. The main character was the police questioning Petra, Nolan, John, and Abigail. The police would ask a question and the one they were asking would answer. It was kinda of set up as all differently points of view, but not really, they are just answering questions the police ask them. I don’t know if that counts as different points of view though, but the way it’s written is it’s the police’s POV as each character is answering the question the police has asked. Anyway, it starts out friends Maylee, Abigail, Petra, Nolan, and John getting ready to leave for a camping trip that Maylee wants them to take together. So, they’re on their way and when they get to Salvation Creek, the place where they’ll be camping, things start happening and going wrong. Nolan is obsessed that there’s a Bigfoot there, because of a previous encounter he had there when he was little. There’s a lot of arguing and betrayal during the trip and then something terrible happens to Maylee. None of them really know completely what did happen, but that’s why the police are questioning them. I don’t really like how it ends. And throughout there’s a lot of confusion for me and I’m kinda still confused. But it still was an interesting read. So if you read , you may get more out of it than me. There was some language, but not enough for you to not be able to ignore and skip over.

3.5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for sending me an ARC of Tell Me What Really Happened in exchange for an honest review.

This story is told entirely through police interview transcripts. It took me a while to get used to this format, but by about 50 pages into the book I didn't think about it as much and it was a quicker read. It was still confusing at times, though, as my brain tried to mesh the four storylines together into one single plot. It was a unique storytelling method, but might've worked better with at least some of it being narrated.

This book is not just a murder mystery, but a story about survival, and one that presents many moral questions as each characters wonders if they did the right thing in the moment. Overall it leads us to wonder just how far would someone would go in today's internet-heavy world to become famous.

I can see some of my students who devour mysteries enjoying this book, and content-wise, there isn't much to worry about with middle school students reading it. It was a good read, thanks!

Holy moly. What did I just read? I devoured this book in one day. I was pulled in from the very beginning. I absolutely loved the writing style in a form of an interview and I felt that the book flowed really well! The characters were so out there and relatable at the same time. And I still don't know how to feel about that ending.... the influencer thing threw me a bit off which is why it lost a star. Just such a overall quick and good read! Highly recommend!

I did not enjoy the narrative style of this one. The entire story is told in interview format from the point of view of several teenagers from a camping trip. Some of the situations are overly dramatic, and not believable for real actions.

I received an advance copy. All thoughts are my own.

This YA who-dun-it has a unique setup that amps up the tension for the reader.
Five teens decided to go camping in the woods around Salvation Creek, an area where a girl went missing in their lifetime. The missing girl doesn’t stop Maylee; she wants to hike, make smores, and enjoy time with her friends. Her friends reluctantly agree, and they head out to the secluded area. Then, sometime around midnight, she vanishes. Now the four others are with the police telling their story and their lies.
The setup for this book is police interviews. At first, it seems strange that it switches between characters within one chapter for the interview, but as a narrative tool, it worked well. Chelsea Sedoti still adds too much information and description for some of the stories. These characters wouldn’t go into that like that in an interview. I did like the inclusion of emotion and how each character’s response showed a lot about the character themselves. The writing setup works, but I have seen many novels do it better.
The novel has an intriguing story, and the setup makes this a page-turner. You really see how each character’s perception is different and how stories can be mixed when they were all there. I enjoyed this as it gave every both truth and unfactual. The novel builds great tension and by the end, you are almost dying (excuse the pun) to find out what happened to Maylee. But the ending is a letdown. Time spent figuring out the characters and their motivations is a waste. The ending is the book’s fatal flaw.
Tell Me What Really Happened is enjoyable but be prepared to be let down by the ending and you may just enjoy it more than I did.

I could not have guessed the ending of this book, it really surprised me. It was easy and fast to read. I like how it changes the point of view. It was fast paced.

I loved the interview style of this book-makes it a really quick and easy read! It kept me guessing all the way until the end!! I definitely recommend this book!

A group of teens go on a camping trip. Maylee goes missing and the story is written from their testimonies point of view. Even while trying to tell the truth, each story is their own view of the situation.. Her best friend, Petra. Boyfriend John. Ex girlfriend, Abigail. And Petras step brother Nolan. Bigfoot stories and spooky stories and events cause the campers extra stress. The woods have past stories of lost girls adding to the drama.

DNF @45%

I am slowly starting to realize that Young Adult Mysteries are just not for me. I was very bored with the characters and over time just did not feel invested in the story. I think the aspect of this being told in the police interviewing these people who could be a part of a disapperance is so interesting.

I thought I could get down with this but I just can't. I'm sure a lot of people would enjoy this though.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a quick read. The story moved along quickly and was told in a unique perspective. I liked police interview pov.

3.5

This is one of those books that I plan to listen to on audio, I think I would love it so much more in audio format.

A tale of 5 friends who go for a camping trip that ends in one of them missing. This story follows a group of teenagers as they recount a camping trip to police detectives. Each one has their own opinions of what happened as well as their own story. Through a series of questions, the truth is slowly revealed. Was Maylee taken by a bigfoot, taken by a hunter in the area, attacked by a wild animal or did she simply leave the campsite? As the friends search for her, a series of events occurs which ultimately leads to uncovering the truth. A quick read that holds your attention as you try to figure it all out.

I went into Tell Me What Really Happened blind and I really think that is what made me love it so much. Told in an interview format, it was a quick read that made you keep turning the pages. This book would be the perfect summer read for the beach or any summer vacation.

I won't go into a ton of details because I fee like thrillers are so much better when you go in blind and just kind of go with it. Basically five kids go into the woods an only four come out. One of the major complaints that other readers had was how the characters acted but these are teenagers, they don't always think logically.

This was a fun, fast-paced YA read. I know it will be a popular one in my high school library. Unique characters and engaging plot.

Thank you to NetGalley, Chelsea Sedoti, and sourcebooks for an advanced copy of Tell Me What Really Happened.

Tell Me What Really happened is about a group of “friends” who go camping over night and end up regretting every single decision they make. The book was pretty typical of other books in this genre, and could pretty much be summed up as “teenagers make really stupid decisions.”

Unfortunately for me, I just didn’t super enjoy this one. I only liked one of the characters in the book and the ending absolutely was mind boggling to me and not necessarily in a good way.

However, I really liked the formatting of the book and how it was told through witness statements. That was something I hadn’t seen before and I thought it gave the book something unique.

Overall I didn’t really enjoy this one, but I didn’t dislike it either. A good read if you’re looking for something quick!

Tell Me What Really Happened is an engaging and fun YA mystery told exclusively through police interviews. The concept is great, the execution even better, and the characters are so different from each other that you can tell whose point of view is being shown even without looking at their name in the heading!

It tells the story of Maylee, who disappeared whilst the group of interviewees were camping with her. She’s a popular, divisive girl, who I was able to paint a crystal clear picture of in my head. This is despite never hearing directly from her! One description of her that particularly stood out to me involved Petra comparing her to her old family dog. It was perfect within its context and such an original, even poignant, metaphor that I really loved.

The book kept me enthralled from the very beginning, thanks to its entertaining characters and ongoing mystery, and I was more than excited every time I encountered a plot twist. The ending was brilliantly foreshadowed, in such a way that I predicted several elements of it, but it included enough surprises that it didn’t once feel boring or obvious.

I really enjoyed this story and would happily read a prequel about Maylee, or even a sequel involving the unlikely crew’s further adventures. Who doesn’t want to carry on reading about a lesbian with a Republican dad, a Bigfoot-obsessed teenager and two (almost normal) other protagonists?!

***** I have received and read an e - ARC from NetGalley in exchange for giving my honest feedback. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.*****

I like the classic mystery/thriller setup- friends go camping in the woods and one ends up missing.

I like the way the book is written- a series of police interviews with the returning campers.

I do NOT like the characters. It could have been me , but I just couldn’t really connect with any of them.

Overall, I’d give it a 2.5/5 (rounded to 3/5), mostly because the unique style of writing outweighed my dislike of the characters and kept me going past where I would have normally put it down.

Tell Me What Really Happened by Chelsea Sedoti is a fun YA Mystery set during a camping trip in the middle of the woods where people are rumored to have disappeared. The whole story is told in the form of police interviews which I thought was a really unique way to tell the story. I really disliked some of the characters, and the big foot angle was weird, but it was an enjoyable read.

Thank you netgalley and publisher for the opportunity to read and review this arc honestly.

I was in a big reading slump as of late so I thought I'd give this book a try. I had trouble putting it down! The writing style was different but I loved the way it worked out. Even though it was told from the perspective of 4 characters it flowed very well, didn't feel disconnected and wasn't confusing keeping track of who was saying what. Similarly it felt like each character really had their own dialogue cadence specific to them. This was a good read and looking forward to reading more from this author!

A fast paced thriller about a camping trip in the woods in which one of their friends goes missing. I wanted to like this a lot more than I did but I felt it was a little predictable and i expected there to be a lot of "unreliable narrator" kind of stuff going on through the writing format of police interviews. Normally, I like that sort of thing because it makes me question everyone, but it fell flat.