WOW! What a ride and what an excellent thriller. I loved the way it's written, how you feel you're talking to the characters and the storytelling that kept me hooked and turning pages.
A fast paced and riveting thriller that surprised me till the end.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

What happened to Maylee? I really enjoyed the interview style of this book. It felt like I was watching a movie - I could see it playing out in real life. It was a great page-turner from the start. I was immediately invested in each character and trying to figure out who was telling the truth and who was lying. It was fast-paced and kept you guessing until the end.



Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire and Netgalley for this ARC.

I really enjoyed the way his book was formatted. I found it to be really unique that the chapter heading was the question from the cops and that throughout the chapter each character was telling the story but from the aspect of answering the sam question each.

The book fairies must be working over time...

Tell Me What Really Happened, was one of my most anticipated books for this year.

When the approval showed up in my inbox I had to do a double take. My bookish prayers had been answered!!

I had high expectations for this book but Chelsea Sedoti, surpassed them.

The minute you open this book you are going to plunge right into a different realm. You will lose track of time and reality. You will speak about these characters as though they really exist. Don't be alarmed with the side eyes people throw your way when you get excited talking about these folks as if they were real. It's all good, you can come to me, I will understand exactly what you are talking about.

This book had so many twists, I was on the edge of my seat the entire time.

The secrets that become exposed are WILD .

Before I spoil something, I am going to leave you with this, you need to order this book. You need to know first hand what it is I am talking about, then I want you to message me so we can chat!

Tell Me What Really Happened, is going to be talked about for years to come and I am beyond excited to see what Sedate publishes next.

Teaser :

The Breakfast Club meets The Usual Suspects in this riveting YA mystery told entirely through the first-person police interviews of four teens over the course of several hours that asks: how far will you go to be remembered?

An influencer, an overachiever, a heartthrob, an outcast, and a conspiracy theorist all go into the woods.

Sometime around midnight, one of them vanishes.

Now, the four who came back sit at the police station, and they each have a very different story to tell about the events of the night.

What truths will their lies reveal? And with the clock ticking, will the real story come out before one of them is gone for good?

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This story was told from the perspective of four teenage friends who were being interviewed/interrogated by the police after their friend went missing during a camping trip. The format was really interesting and creative, which made for a fun read. I did have some issues with the story, however. I felt that Bigfoot played too large of a role in the story line and left me rolling my eyes in places. The ending also wasn’t my favorite as it was pretty predictable. I wanted more twists and turns to amp up the suspense and mystery of what happened to the kids.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and publisher for the book in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and SOURCEBOOKS Fire for the E-ARC. This book was such a easy read and smooth read I loved the different POV seeing how each character viewed the same thing differently. I loved how the twist were unexpected but still surprising. Don't get me wrong Im definitely never going to a forest after this but I loved hearing about other people that do go. Cant wait to dive into more books by this author.

Tell Me What Really Happened - I could not put this book down!

The first thing I'd like to note about this book is that the written layout of this novel was refreshing for me. It's what really got me into the story. Each chapter, a transcript of the police interrogation questioning, very craftily told the story of how 5 friends went on a camping trip in the woods, and 4 came out.

High schoolers John, Petra, Nolan, and Abigail tell their version of the past 24 hours, trying to figure out what happened to Maylee Hayes. Each person has their own version of events that transpired the night before. Who was the last person to really see Maylee? Are they telling redacted versions of the truth? Was it one of the four remaining, or was it something supernatural? It was really interesting to figure out who was telling the full account of the story and what their truths of the events that happened were.

Sedoti did a great job of getting me inside the minds of these high schoolers and made me question the facts of their story several times. At first, I didn't know who I liked or trusted, but I definitely felt a wide range of emotions while reading this book. I felt a lot of rage at Maylee for her actions and decisions. But I felt (and still feel) very skeptical of Abigail and Nolan, and sympathetic for Petra and John. While the plot and dialogue were great, I don't think I would have enjoyed this book as much as I did without the way it was formatted. I can't emphasize the layout enough. I felt like I was actually in the interrogation room with each character and reliving their memories. I could feel Abigail sweating, John's nervousness, Nolan's quirkiness, and Petra's need to get out there and search for her friend. It made the read fast-paced, perfect for a whodunnit.

At times, it did have the classic plot twists and procedural effects. But there were details in the book that I knew to come back to because they were mentioned for a reason. And they absolutely were. I kept tabs on everyone's story, how it changed, what they redacted, and what significance that had on the story. I was able to understand more or less how the story would end in part 2, which is why I gave it 4 stars. But the constant tension building within each character/suspect's story made me need to confirm their innocence.

There are books out there that make me feel like I'm reading about a whodunnit, and there are books that make me feel like I'm involved with it. Tell Me What Really Happened made me feel like I was involved with it. I highly recommend this book as a YA whodunnit novel. A great read overall!

Tell Me What Really Happened is a young adult crime drama. It’s a bit unique as it is told in first person through a series of police interviews.

A group of friends go on a camping trip, although none of them seem very excited to participate. While camping, Maylee goes missing.

Here are the interviewees…

Petra is Maylee’s best friend since Kindergarten. She has experience in the great outdoors as she was the only girl in her boy scout troop, and her daddy is a cop.

Nolan is Petra’s brother and Bigfoot expert who believe Bigfoots are behind all disappearances. He is extremely unreliable and the Bigfoot references became quite wearisome.

Abigail is also capable in the outdoors, thanks to her survivalist father. She is there for an underlying reason.

John is Maylee’s boyfriend, who is sceptical from the beginning of this rushed camping trip. John is the only person of color in the group.

Due to the format and the personalities that came out in their police interviews, I really connected with the characters. When people, especially teens, are placed under that kind of pressure, their true character is revealed and watching these characters slowly disclose themselves over the course of the book was my favorite aspect of the writing. .

The plot is a bit predictable, yet enjoyable.

Recommend to YA mystery/crime readers.

This was a quick read, that had me turning pages fast. After a bit, it was more hate reading than anything because I literally despised the main character. I mean, it made me feel strongly about a character, which is a sign of good writing. I kind of enjoyed the writing style of this. It was set up as a transcript of police interviews with the teenagers telling their stories. Add in potential sightings of a Bigfoot, and I am in! Overall, a good story.

Five teenagers went camping in the woods with no cell service. Four came back out. Maylee is missing. A gun shot, a Bigfoot stalking them, and everyone keeping secrets from each other, this story is a complicated tale that takes a while to unravel.

I was so intrigued by this book and I did enjoy the plot. The mystery kept dragging me forward and I did think about it a lot. My major issue was with the format. I love a good alternative book format but this one was just not it for me. It was told with the interview question at the top of each chapter with “subsections” of the characters answers in an interview. It was a cool format but I kept forgetting what the question one or where exactly we were at in the timeline. Now if you can get passed the format the mystery was super interesting but it did make it hard for me.

What a confusing and yet intriguing story told via first person during police interviews. As you put things together, can you figure out what happened?

Can you trust your memory of events when you can’t remember what exactly happened? Five went in and only four came out.

I recommend this book to those who like YA mysteries and everyone else.

This was a good read. Five high school students go on an overnight camping trip, and one of them dies. The story is told as each of the survivors tell their story to investigators. Their stories reveal personalities, high school angst, a Black student's aversion to the police, our obsession with social status, and a couple who is reluctant to admit they are gay. The only disappointment was that we were left wondering if there were any consequences for what happened. Young adults will like this one. I received an arc from NetGalley and was under no encouragement for a positive review.

Ramona Thompson

Chelsea Sedoti writes a mesmerizing young adult mystery in Tell Me What Really Happened. Part of the intrigue is her use of only the voices of the four friends of Maylee, the murder victim, as they answer interrogation questions in solitary first person police interviews. Maylee winds up dead when the group of teenagers makes a camping trip to a remote area that has a reputation for mysterious happenings. Maylee’s murderer has to be one of the other four people on the trip.
In an interesting setup, each chapter begins with the interrogator’s question. Answers come from Petra who has a controlling personality and claims to be Maylee’s best friend, her stepbrother Nolan who is sure they will find Bigfoot in the area, Abigail who got an unexpected invitation to join the group on this trip, and John who is Maylee’s boyfriend. Needless to say, the answers do not always coincide. They do reveal the well-drawn characters of each member of the group, all of them suspects.
The answers of these suspects reveal true teenage character types and anxieties along with poor choices as they struggle to ease the angst that goes with that time of life. The reader gets caught up in those as well as in the mystery of whodunit. I found the technique of writing the story in this format equally intriguing to solving for the guilty party.

I loved this one. I love how it was told via police interviews with each person. It was so unique and still held my interest. More than once I held my breath in anticipation. It flowed beautifully. The characters are likeable. Full of twists and turns and suspense! Each character brings a unique perspective to the story. I’ve never read anything like this. Each perspective was almost its own story. Absolutely brilliant!

What starts out as an interrogation amongst friends becomes a look back on the past 24 hours that they have spent in the woods, except one of them is missing. As the police question Petra, John, Nolan and Abigail on the events surrounding the disappearance of their friend Maylee, secrets begin to unfold and we realize things are not always what they seem. Where is Maylee and will they find her before it’s too late?

I really enjoyed reading Tell Me What Really Happened in part due to its unusual format. Told through a series of police interviews, the mystery slowly unravels.

| loved how we got multiple POVs with this due to the interview format, and we got to see scenes through different perspectives. In particular, I found it interested reading the differences - one character would say another said this, and the other would refute that in their own police transcript.

I had sort of guessed the "twist” of the mystery, but didn't fully quess it - which I enjoyed. I think it was well put together.
I also liked how a lot of these characters weren't sympathetic.

In fact, I found some of them downright insufferable (Petra, mostly) and yet, Sedoti was able to draw out empathy from me for each of them. That's no easy feat, especially considering the structure style of this novel.

Overall, I found this an enjoyable, fast paced, intense read.

A group of 5 teens went into the woods but only 4 came out…

“Tell Me What Really Happened” is a newly released YA book about a group of teens who go on a last minute camping trip to Salvation Creek despite all the many stories and legends of people going missing. Each teen has their own opinion as to what really happened to the victims but they aren’t going to let anything stop them from their overnight camping trip. What was supposed to be a fun time with friends, quickly turns into sarcastic banter, disagreements and arguing. In the middle of the night, one teen goes missing but no one knows where she went or what happened to her. Will they work together to figure it out or will they turn against each other to clear their name?

Sedoti did an incredible job in creating a story told entirely through first person police interrogations. Each chapter starts out with a question from the police and then the question is answered from each character's point of view. She did an amazing job at developing the characters…each one so different and likable in their own complicated, messy and complex way! A test of true friendship as lies and dark secrets start to slowly unravel. Do they know each other as well as they thought?

I laughed out loud several times while reading and was constantly second guessing myself while trying to figure out what really happened. It kept me interested all the way to the last page. This is one of those dark and twisted stories that you just can't put down!


Thank you to NetGalley, Sourcebooks Fire and Chelsea Sedoti for gifting this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Five friends go into the woods, only four make it out alive. You may think you know this story, but I assure you, you've never heard it told like this!

In this story we're following five high school friends, Nolan, Petra, Maylee, John and Abigail. It's a sort of Breakfast Clubby set-up, with each character falling into a particular stereotypical role.

Maylee is the Queen Bee of the group, a wannabe influencer, snapping shots of herself whenever and wherever she can. It's her idea to go on this ill-fated camping trip. Petra is Maylee's best friend, a smart girl, who tells it like it is. She's the only person who doesn't bow down to Maylee. Petra loves her, but she's not going to be steamrolled by her.

The other campers include Nolan, Petra's step-brother, an outcast with a penchant for cryptid lore, who always manages to say the wrong thing; Abigail, the poor girl-next-door, who isn't really part of the group, and John, Maylee's boyfriend, the jock with a heart of gold.

The trip begins with stress and ends very much the same way, x10. They're at each other's throats from the start and it's clear that something is going to go wrong.

The shining star of this book is hands-down the format. Told strictly through police interviews, I was blown away by how much tension Sedoti was able to create with that. Each chapter begins as a question asked by the investigators. The subsequent meat of the chapter is the various players answering that question.

Most interesting to me was how that initial question, at the header of each chapter, is the only question revealed, but you can feel the characters filling in subsequent questions. I'm not quite sure how else to describe it. It's definitely something you need to experience for yourself. I was super impressed with how clever this was.

Sedoti not only set the entire stage, but filled it in just by flawlessly placing answers to a few questions. It had to be perfectly arranged in order for it to flow well and make sense. I think she did a phenomenal job with that.

Overall, I found this to be a very fun read. It was grand how this unique format could create such a super quick and tense read. The characters drew me in. They felt believable and genuine in their distress.

It's not a groundbreaking story as far as the plot goes. Sadly, I even sort of felt like the conclusion was a bit anti-climatic in comparison with the build-up. Nevertheless, this was still a very engaging reading experience and I would definitely recommend it to fans of YA Thrillers.

Thank you so much to the publisher, SOURCEBOOKS Fire, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I was impressed with this and look forward to picking up more from this author!

Thank you Sourcebooks and Netgalley for a copy of this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Let me start off by saying THIS BOOK HAS SO MUCH POTENTIAL. I was absolutely hooked from the very beginning of the book. The interview format of the book made it feel like I was flying through chapters. This would be a great audiobook with multiple narrators. Now, everything fell flat for me in the last 10% of the book. The ending made me go "meh." I was let down and disappointed at the tie-up at the end. There was also way too much emphasis on Bigfoot throughout the entire book.

I think the author has so much future potential, but the ending of this book knocked my overall star rating down quite a bit.