Maylee Hayes is the gorgeous center of her high school’s social world. Pretty and popular, she’s been best friends with Petra Whitfield since they were five years old. Petra isn’t quite as well-liked as Maylee – she’s admittedly on the bossy side – but is generally tolerated by their friend circle, including by Maylee’s latest boyfriend. John Massey Jr. is smart and handsome but has a shadow hanging over him from an accident that happened the previous year, right before he and Maylee started dating. Petra doesn’t care though, as long as he treats Maylee right.

When Maylee expresses a desire to go camping in the woods by Salvation Creek, it falls to Petra to organize everything. Petra is no fool: she knows the camping trip is really a way for Maylee and John to have some time alone together. So she invites her brother – or as he prefers to call himself, her stepbrother – to come along, too. Nolan Anderson doesn’t love the idea of camping, but he is obsessed with Bigfoot, and is certain that this trip will give him a chance to try out some of his cool gear and maybe track down the legendary cryptid. They’re both surprised when Maylee brings along another guest, her old friend Abigail Buckley. The super-organized Petra just rolls with it, even as Nolan starts developing a crush on the newcomer.

Awkward teenage shenanigans give way to weirdness soon after the five make camp. Nolan swears that his thermal imaging has spotted something strange in the woods, leading them all on a journey of creepy but not necessarily sinister discoveries. The atmosphere isn’t helped though by Maylee’s constant allusions to the true crime shows and stories she loves. After drunken squabbling by the campfire later on turns into hurt feelings, the teens go to bed, only to wake and discover that Maylee is missing.

Chaos ensues as the remaining four, all with varying degrees of wilderness training, try to decide what to do. Despite the cooler heads’ best efforts, they wind up splitting up in their search. When they finally reconvene in a panic, Nolan tries to tell his sister and the others what he saw that makes him want to not only get out of there immediately but also call in the authorities:

QUOTE
Of course, she immediately freaks the fuck out, all, “Don’t. Don’t you dare start with that trash right now. I will kill you, I swear to God, Nolan, I will <i>kill</i> you.”

So I stop talking. What else am I gonna do?

Even now, probably at this exact moment, Petra’s still telling herself that Maylee is alive out there, taking shelter under a log or something. Saying she’ll be found soon enough. But yeah, it’s not gonna happen. Maylee is dead.

Yeah, I’m sure.
END QUOTE

Despite her refusal to believe Nolan, Petra does cave in and allow them all to drive back to town to get help. Nolan immediately tells the authorities that a monster kidnapped and murdered Maylee. While the police are skeptical of Nolan’s claims, something in the teens’ wild stories gives the cops reason to separate and hold them, with the novel spooling out from their subsequent interview transcripts.

Chelsea Sedoti does an amazing job of keeping each character’s voice distinct and fresh as they share their versions of what happened the night Maylee disappeared. We slowly learn not only about the events that led up to the disappearance, but also about each teenager’s relationship with the missing girl, and their differing viewpoints on what truly occurred and what they should be doing next. Practical, search-and-rescue trained Petra chafes at being stuck in an interrogation room. Unlike her brother, she refuses to believe that Maylee is dead, and wants to go back out to find her. She considers all this testimony a waste of time:

QUOTE
[A]ccording to my dad, eyewitness testimony [is] the worst sort of evidence because people see what they want to see. They miss details and let their brains fill in the gaps. Eventually, it’s impossible to distinguish between real memories or invented ones.

The problem isn’t that witnesses lie to the police. It’s that they lie to <i>themselves.</i>

Anyway, I’m telling you crap you should’ve already learned during your career. But I would’ve also expected you to learn when to cut an interview short because a witness’s skills could be better used elsewhere.
END QUOTE

To the surprise of no one who knows me, I really identify with Petra, but also see many of the other characters in people I know in real life. Which makes it feel that much more personal as the twists and betrayals of this compelling page-turner of a story unfold. Is Maylee dead? Is Bigfoot real? What really happened that night at Salvation Creek? Ms Sedoti answers all these questions with aplomb, while incorporating very contemporary issues of race, sexual identity and ambition into her excellent new Young Adult thriller.

Thank you to the author Chelsea Sedoti, publishers Sourcebooks Fire, and as always NetGalley, for an advance audio copy of TELL ME WHAT REALLY HAPPENED.

Five friends walk into the woods...stop me if you've heard this one. Only four come out. And only one of them knows what the heck cryptozoology is.

TELL ME WHAT REALLY HAPPENED is told in such a creative and clever way. I was hooked-- when I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it and getting back to it to read more. The premise is that a girl on a camping trip turns up dead, but the circumstances are completely mysterious because of the unreliability of witness account. Hardly revolutionary, but the plot gets turned up when certain elements are introduced. Like Big Foot. (Yes, that gets as crazy as it sounds.)

I love the form in which this book is written, in overlapping witness interviews obtained by the local police department. It both increases the jarring incongruity of the story, while also backlighting this steamroller of a theme the reader never quite loses sight of. Talking of course about the fact that no one's account of things can be trusted.

This is a really fun read!

Rating: 👣👣👣👣.5 / 5 Big Feet
Recommend? Yes!
Finished: April 11 2023
Read this if you like:
🔪 Murder mysteries
🏕 Camping in the woods
👮 True crime stories
🦄 Cryptozoology

This was full of suspense and hard to put down, my favorite kind of book! This is a YA book, it was a quick read.

Tell Me What Really Happened by Chelsea Sedoti

It was all her idea. They would get away from their parents and spend the weekend camping. Down by Salvation Creek, the five of them would make s’mores, steal kisses, share secrets. But sometime around midnight, she vanished. Now the four friends who came back are under suspicion—and they each have a very different story to tell about what happened in the woods.

The clock is ticking. What are they hiding? Who is lying? Dark truths must come to light if their friend is to be found…Told entirely through first-person police interviews, this riveting mystery asks: what really happened that night?

Out now!

4..5⭐️ OK the twists and turns had me reading so fast I was skipping lines! It took a second to get used to how the book was written, interview form, but I loved it! You get everyone's POV in each chapter which is awesome. It's also sad to see them put everything together. It really goes to show how the same situation is different per person. Even though I dragged picking this up, I'm so grateful to have been given this ARC and happy I read it.

Maylee planned a trip to camp with four other "friends' at Salvation Creek, a place known for several disappearances of campers. The trip ends in disaster and Maylee is missing. The story unfolds as the remaining party members are questioned in separate police interviews. The quick pace and style of this book makes it a fast and compelling read.

This was an intriguing novel from the very beginning. I listened to a lot of it in the car, so I didn't see the way the novel was set up. However, I really enjoyed the interrogation between detective and the four kids. It kept me on my toes and I was constantly wanting to know what happened next. This is definitely a novel that my HS students would enjoy reading- I liked the relatability of the characters and the ongoing "what ifs" the novel provided. So happy I was able to read it!

Tell Me What Really Happened by Chelsea Sedoti is a great Young Adult story.
I absolutely LOVED the epistolary style of story telling.
The story is told entirely though first-person police interviews.

The story of a missing girl at Salvation Creek on a camping trip.

Really loved the twists and turns!

One interrogation room: four teenage witnesses from a camp trip that goes wrong in Salvation Creek where a brutal crime occurs. This is absolutely exciting, riveting thriller keeping you in your toes!

Over achier- control freak Petra, her nerdy- Big Foot obsessed step brother Nolan, an outcast of school who lives in trailer park Abigail and person of interest- victim’s boyfriend John! The events are told from their POVs. Their friend Maylee who is forced them to have a camping trip on weekend in Salvation Creek is MISSING and probably dead!

So what happened that night?
Five teenagers: Maylee: influencer, magnet of the group who convinces her best friend/ super organizer Petra and Abigail ;( Maylee and she have a complicated relationship) who knows a lot about the wilderness and her boy friend John to attend to the last minute camping! Petra’s conspiracy theorist/ ultra weird step brother Nolan joins to the group because Petra’s parents force him to keep an eye on his stepsister.

Instead of Maylee, none of them are volunteered to participate to this trip but Maylee is great manipulator. During their camping, Nolan brings his special gadget to search for the creatures lurking around. ( at least he insists some dangerous creatures took many lives of innocent campers in the past! ) He finds a cabin in the woods filled with hunting equipment ( lots of sharp knives! ) throughout his search. The other members of the group get creeped out and they return back to their camping site without looking back!

But at the night time things get a little heated between them. The more alcohol, more slurry confessions later, they find out one of them brought a gun to their trip! At the end of the night, a gun shot bursts out and cuts the silence of the woods!

What happened to Maylee! Did one of them kill her? Did Bigfoot tear apart her body?

Four unreliable voices, one murder case, long interrogation process! Just continue to read and enjoy the gripping mystery!

The unusual format might not be for everyone, but I actually really enjoyed it. Even though the interview style made everything a bit more detached from the story, trying to piece together what happened from four unreliable narrators was quite fun.

I did predict one part of the ending but not the full thing how everything happened.

Towards the second half, the story soured on me a little, just because there were some similarities between Mylee's disappearance and another well-known disappearance from the last couple of years. Or, rather, there were some similarities between Mylee's disappearance and the horrible rumors the internet spread about the real case. I'm not sure if this was intentional or not, but similarities to real victims and real cases makes me uncomfortable, even if in this situation the similarities were in the rumors, rather than the truth.

Salvation Creek has a lot of stories that surround it and once again someone is missing. Author Chelsea Sedati writes a story with characters that I liked and then hated. Five friends go camping and only 4 return --it's a story that has been written before with many twists and turns and this book approached it in a unique style by using the police interview style. It was a very interesting way to format a book and while the ending was what I expected I did enjoy the book enough to stick with it to the end.
Thanks to the publisher, author and Net Galley for an advance reader copy for my honest review.

It was all her idea. They would get away from their parents and spend the weekend camping. Down by Salvation Creek, the five of them would make smores, steal kisses, share secrets.

But sometime around midnight, she vanished.

Now the four friends who came back are under suspicion―and they each have a very different story to tell about what happened in the woods.

The clock is ticking. What are they hiding? Who is lying? Dark truths must come to light if their friend is to be found...

Told entirely through first-person police interviews, this riveting mystery asks: what really happened that night?

A fun mystery for YA thriller fans! I did not realize it was a YA when I first requested it, but it was a fun read. This one is written in a unique way - told by the four teenagers through police interviews. The POV changes multiple times throughout the chapters and you get to see everyone’s side of the story basically all at once. Enjoyable and easy to follow along while you try to guess “whodunit!” Loved the bits of humor thrown in.

A brilliantly written YA, that was both well plotted and fast paced. I enjoyed the layout. It was original and thought provoking...allowing characters to have a voice. It was a dynamic story and ended brilliantly!

Five teens go camping in the woods despite knowing bad things have happened there. Told from the perspective of four of the teens in the form of police interviews, they try to figure out what happened to the fifth friend. A little heavy on the Big Foot angle and the ending felt rushed and not thought out, I did enjoy a fast paced, easy YA read.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

CW
🟠 Alcohol Consumption
🟠 Gun Use
🟠 Blood on Page


I was initially interested in this book because of the unconventional style of being told through police interviews. I love books that don’t follow a “traditional” format typically, and this sounded like a fun spin on the chapter-based narrative.

Tell Me What Really Happened was stunning. Each chapter is designed as an answer to an interrogation question, which was a nice touch. There are pauses noted as if the police are asking follow-up questions or providing additional information, but those questions or details aren’t given to the reader, so you try to piece it together alongside what happened to Maylee, the missing teen.

The inclusion of cryptozoology made me smile. I have always been interested in cryptids, and it was interesting to see that woven into the narrative and used in the way it was.

What really made me rate this book five stars was how it made me feel. I usually read late at night while my husband is asleep, and I found I couldn’t do that with this book. I was spooking myself trying to read in the dark as the four teens describe their time in the woods overnight. I applaud Sedoti for doing that to me.

It also evoked how I felt watching two of my favorite horror movies: The Blair Witch Project and Oculus. Teens frantically wandering the woods trying to find the people they came with, strange noises, the feeling of eyes on you, and a strange cabin all gave me The Blair Witch Project vibes. I half-expected the book to end with someone in the corner of a room. In trying not to give spoilers, I will simply say that the ending of Tell Me What Really Happened reminded me of the ending to Oculus in terms of the confusion felt by a character and the impact their environment had on their decisions.

I would be lying if I wasn’t surprised by the intentions for the camping trip. What did surprise me was how calculated and well-planned it was from the character’s point of view. Their expectations were realistic, even if it disappoints me that it would definitely work in today’s world.

Tell Me What Really Happened is a wonderful take on the YA thriller that left me slightly spooked in the dark but desperate to know what happened next and how the story would come to an end.

Really around 3.5 stars. It was good. The first person, police interview style writing took me a minute to get used to. Nolan and his bigfoot fascination was a bit weird, though I get why it matters in the end. Overall, it was good, I didn’t predict the ending.

I really wanted to love this one but unfortunately I don't feel like the format of the novel was for me. I did think it was a decent thriller and I will read more from this author in the future.

*3.5 Stars*

Copy kindly received via NetGalley for an honest review.

This was an interesting read with unusual characters. It was amazing what Maylee and Logan believed in. The ending surprised me.

I really enjoyed the interview like layout of this book. It was an unexpected writing style, but it gave the story a little extra appeal. I really enjoyed the thrill of this story, a little teenage angst, lots of surprising secrets revealed, and each character brought a little more to the story as it was told. I don't usually like it when there are too many narrators, but this was well done and kept my interest, kept me guessing and kept me tuning pages. I hope to read more from this author soon. Thank you to Netgalley, Chelsea Sedoti and sourcebooks Fire for giving me an eARC

First thank you to Netgalley, Chelsea Sedoti and sourcebooks Fire for giving me an eARC

I enjoyed the style of writing. You don’t get that type a lot.

What happens when you have 5 teens going on a camping trip. And one goes missing. ?

One of the five goes missing and the story just keeps getting more intense. One thinks Bigfoot is out in the woods. The other just doesn’t believe what is going on.

But what actually happened—a girl trying to fake her own disappearance for social media fame and dying in the process? That’s not an everyday disappearance. That’s a story that’ll be shared and re-shared forever.

Read the book to find out what happens. Because it gets you hooked from the start. Interviewing style writing.

The format of this novel made for a fast paced read. The story begins with a missing teen, Maylee. Detectives are interrogating four other teens that had been with on a camping trip when she went missing. Each chapter begins with a question being posed by the detectives. Then, it alternates between each of the four teens being questioned and their responses. All of the details about the characters and their connections with each other are revealed as the story progresses.

While each character was distinct, and the story itself was an interesting premise, I didn’t make a connection with any of the characters and didn’t really care what happened to them. It was all a bit over the top. There was almost too much going on, making it less intriguing.

I did like the unique format of the book and would be willing to try another title by this author. Even though I personally didn’t love the book, it was a decent read and I think the structure of the story, with short chapters and simple writing, is perfect for some students I work with who are reluctant readers. It is also a good book to use for discussion groups as there are a lot of underlying themes throughout the story.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #SourcebooksFire for an eARC of #TellMeWhatReallyHappened by #ChelseaSedoti - 3 stars