Tell Me What Really Happened is a YA thriller about the presentation of the truth in the face of trauma. A group of teenagers decide to go on a weekend camping trip together. The group is tenuously connected. Petra is the coordinator of the group - she planned the weekend and expects everyone to stick to her plan. Nolan is Petra's step-brother and hopes to use the weekend to find proof of a bigfoot in the woods. Maylee is social media-obsessed and a bit of a risktaker, and her boyfriend John is along for the ride. Abigail is the fifth person who comes along, invited by Maylee and relatively unknown by the rest of the group. After a night of s'mores, drinking, and talking, everyone goes to bed - until they realize that one of their own is missing.

Unique to other books in this genre, Chelsea Sedoti presents her entire story through the 1st person interviews that the 4 young adults undergo with the police while trying to understand what happened with their friend. The story is fast-paced, tense, and yet still funny. The end provided a satisfying wrap-up to the complex story and successfully explained what really happened in the woods, in the dark, with no one else around to see.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire, NetGalley, and Chelsea Sedoti for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

A little juvenile, even for YA. I didn’t really connect with any of the characters and there wasn’t anyone to really root for. I did like the format but found the story lacking. Just not super compelling! Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC!

Thanks to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for this advanced reader copy. This is a modern-day whodunit. It is fun to read and offers various perspectives from everyone that was involved in the storyline. Five friends have fun; four come out alive. All of their stories are different; who did it? Tick tock, who is to blame?

I really enjoyed this story. I found the way it was told through police interviews really interesting, because all of the descriptions were still so vivid, yet the entire story was a recounting of incidents. I loved the fact that none of the narrators were particularly reliable, but they were all fascinating to hear from. You couldn't help but feel for all of the characters and I found that really lovely- that not one of these narrators were truly dislikable. The characters were all so unique from each other and it made for a really colorful cast of characters, allowing Sedoti to introduce really diverse perspectives. I would definitely recommend this book to fans of YA and mystery/thriller. It was truly such an enjoyable read!

They came as a quintet but left as a quartet. Tell Me What Really Happened is told through interviews/interrogations of four high school students who decided to go camping when one of them is lost to the woods. Little did they know about the secrets and private thoughts each would bring with them and how their actions and interactions would forever interrupt their futures. With secrets, jealousy, ambitions, Bigfoot fears, and social strains, this story provides us the backdrop of teenage angst and trials. A very interesting way to deliver a great read.

I loved the style this book was in. It dud get a bit frustrating at times but overall, I enjoyed the story. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book

This was a fun and engaging page turner! Told completely in police interviews we follow 4 friends and their alternating accounts of what happened the night they went camping where one friend, Maylee went missing.

Maylee planned the camping trip along with her boyfriend John, her best friend Petra, Petra's brother Nolan, and Maylee's friend Abigail. With so many different personalities between the 4 its easy to see why their stories are not lining up about what happened to Maylee. Petra is the controlling best friend who thinks she knows Maylee better than anyone else. John is the sweet boyfriend overcoming a troubled previous year. Nolan is the loner who is very adamant on finding a Bigfoot on this trip. And Abigail is the misunderstood girl who no one saw coming.

During their campfire, an argument ensues between everyone with Maylee as head instigator. Alcohol and tension absolutely at play. When everyone retires to their tents, Petra decides she needs to go check on Maylee. Except Maylee isn't in her tent. Everyone gets up and tries to figure out a plan to find her. Is she just going to the bathroom? Has she gotten hurt? Did a Bigfoot get her?

And who is lying?

This was so fast paced but at times felt a little repetitive. I had some of it figured out but not entirely. This was a clear 4 stars to me until the ending. I just found it to be anticlimactic. Overall a great, quick YA read.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!

This was my first novel from this author and I really enjoyed it! I was drawn into the story from the first chapter. The way the author wrote the story all from first person police interviews was such a creative way to use multiple point of views. Most books with multiple POVs do one chapter at a time but Sedoti used multiple POVs in each chapter and I loved it. Her writing style kept me hooked and wanting to stay up late reading what came next. The book did a great job pulling the reader into the setting of Salvation Creek and the camping trip the friends were on. The characters were well written and it was easy to read each of their interviews. I was loving this book and then I got to the ending and I was so disappointed. I understand the logic of ending but it felt like after such a creative storyline the ending was rushed and lacked the same creativity. I would have rather read 100 more pages to reach a better ending than to have it be thrown together the way it was. I’m not sure if the author ended the book in this way to make it more of a teen read but I still think it fell short regardless of the target audience. Overall I really enjoyed my time spent reading this story and look forward to reading other books by this author.

This format was really engaging! I was a little nervous when I read it was written in an interview format but I felt like it helped make the story flow faster and I still was able to envision the story as it unfolded. It was a bit predictable in terms of the events and outcome but it was still an entertaining read.

This was an interesting read! It was narrated by 4 teens that go into the woods for a camping trip and leave with their friend (the fifth member on their trip) murdered. It kept me guessing until the very end! The only thing I didn’t like… there was a lot of talk about Bigfoot, which I found very bizarre.

I’m going to start this review off by saying that I think my age is really going to affect the rating I give it.

I’ll start with what I really liked about this book. I LOVED the format. Not only is this story told from the viewpoint of 4 friends of a girl who went missing the night before, it’s also told from their perspective of being questioned by the police investigating her disappearance. Each chapter starts off the question from the police and then it’s each friend’s viewpoint of their answer to the question. The way this weaves the story together is really interesting, especially as you begin to see how everyone remembers their truth slightly different because of their perspectives at the time. It kept me engaged the entire time, and I was pretty hooked from the start.

The only reason I’m not giving this a higher rating is because the characters come across as *very* juvenile. However, I realize that this is a YA book. I think I’ve just been on such a stretch of YA books that don’t really feel like YA that it made it a little bit difficult to connect to the characters. Regardless of that fact, I still think this is a book worth checking out even if you’re older.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for the ARC.

Five teens go camping in the woods. Only four return and are under investigation.

TELL ME WHAT REALLY HAPPENED by Chelsea Sedoti was fast-paced and benefited greatly from the way it was written - first-person interview accounts of the night in question.

Each chapter was headed with an interrogation question and what followed was four different points of view on what really happened. I COULD NOT PUT THIS ONE DOWN and the chapters seemed to fly by!

Each of the characters and POVs was very unique and made it easy to keep their stories straight, and the whole setting of a camping trip gone wrong was devourable.

How everything wraps up is where it falls one star short, but the journey was a wild one nonetheless!

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Publication Date: April 04, 2023

3.5 stars

The story follows eye witness recounting of the night when one of the group goes missing. 5 teenagers decide to go for an overnight camping trip to a secluded area in the forest. Two siblings, Petra and Nolan, Petra’s best friend Maylee, Maylee’s boyfriend John and her other friend Abigail take a last minute trip to go camping and the night ends up with chaos and sadness when Maylee goes missing.

The story is told from the POV of a police interrogation of the remaining 4 characters. The story is intriguing in how it shows just how flawed eye witnesses can be and how their own personal beliefs can taint what they are experiencing.

The story kept you turning pages, but ultimately was a let down at the conclusion for me. I was hoping for something more than what I got. A nice read but wouldn’t read it again.

In theory, I would have loved this one. Unlikable teenagers being secretive? YES PLEASE!

Sasquatch lore interspersed...eh, but could be interesting.

So there are stories about the woods and Salvation Creek and over the years many people have gone missing. When/if they've been found, the surrounding circumstances were very strange. Of course, this group of five teens are going into these woods for a random camping trip planned by their lead bully/BFF, Maylee. When only four of the group come home, each has a wildly different story explaining their trip and what they knew about Maylee's movements.

The way the story is told is something I like, alternating points of view from the four, but the characters themselves just don't all work. Petra, Maylee's best friend, is the prime example. She was such a charicature, it was absurd. And no way, given her father's position on the police force, would she have offered up all the information that she did because some of it made her look insanely guilty - and for someone who repeatedly presents herself as such an expert on police procedures, surely she would have known talking like all of this would not look good for her, or any of them. She was completely obnoxious and ridiculous. Petra rambled more than anyone and it was just so unlikely.

The whole Sasquatch angle was so riduculous because of how much it seemed like it was going ot be important ot the story and it fell just as flat as everything else. Petra's half/step-brother (can't remember which) Nolan is obsessed with Sasquatch and guess what? He ends up being the one who kills Maylee, because he THOUGHT SHE WAS A FUCKING SASQUATCH THAT WAS EATING MAYLEE.

The story alternates among various points of view and we are to believe that the four surviving teens (Nolan, Petra, John {Maylee's boyfriend}, and Abigail [Maylee's former friend]) would just freely talk and ramble and go on and on, knowing they are suspects in Maylee's disappearance. Except John. He does the smart thing and does not answer many questions. Of course, this makes him look guilty. He's not.

So here's what really happened when Maylee disappeared - she invited her ex-friend Abigail to help her stage her disappearance because she wants to be an influencer and wouldn't it be such a huge draw to be the girl survived a few days alone in the woods and eventually returns to civilization? As stupid as that sounds to a normal functioning human being, we also have to accept that this is part of our culture today. No matter HOW absurd it seems.

In the course of the teens all being interogated, Maylee's body is found, the story all comes out, and I was left dumbfounded, asking myself why I wasted time and what just happened.

The concept was intriguing. I love unreliable narrators and multi-character viewpoints. Those are sure-fire ways to catch my attention.

But Petra and the Sasquatch nonsense ruined what could have been a really good book.

I tried so desperately to get into this book, unfortunately it fell so short for me. I wasn't a fan of the format it was in. I would have liked the questions of the interviewer instead of "pause".
I picked up quickly what Maylee was doing and why early on, and that she had help. It wasn't surprising just from the characteristics of Maylee.
It honestly appalled me on how she used Nolan and well everyone especially him though. I wasn't a fan of Petra either, she was such an unlikable character that it really took away from the story as well. Abigail just wanted a friend and Maylee used that against her. John he was just clueless really. Then the influencer angle, although not surprising because that is our world these days but just the length someone would go through to obtain it. It's unfortunate that this is what kids strive for now. I did like that angle up until the end.
I struggled from the beginning until the end. It was just disappointing in all.

Tell Me What Really Happened by Chelsea Sedoti is a super fun YA mystery. I loved how the entire book is told through first person police interviews. As the interviews continue, you get to know each character through their words and the perspectives of the others. It was eye-opening to find out the truth of what happened and see how all their stories converged. These teenagers came across as realistic, aggravating and compelling. If you enjoyed Jennifer Lynn Barnes or Maureen Johnson, this book is going to be for you.

Eh? YA thrillers are typically my favorite, but I just wasn't very impressed with the story. I liked how the story was told through the police interviews of each character, but don't feel like I got to know the characters as much as I would have if it were more of a narrative storyline that went between their different points of view. We only got to hear what they admitted to & were saying out loud to the police, not their internal thoughts.

Thanks to Sourcebooks Fire and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book had a lot of potential but ended up falling short for me. I really liked the interrogation premise and different personalities of the kids. The use of inherent bias and micro aggressions was subtly placed in a way that if you weren't paying attention, you'd miss it, and a good representation of how they weave there way into life. And the author wrote the teenagers really well; I absolutely imagined them answering this questions in this manner and could visualize their personalities. ⁠
Where this one fell short was in two ways. One was the repetitiveness of the interrogation. I hoped that there would be more mismatched stories and tension that built up the story. And in the end it made sense why it was repetitive because the ending was incredibly anti-climactic, why was my second issue. I don't want to say too much and give anything away, but it was that feeling that you read 400 pages and it just...ended with no 'wow' or 'that's sneaky' or literally any of the feelings you expect when you read a thriller.

DNF @ 25% - the format of this style is just not for me. I appreciate how the author is using a younger tone for a younger audience, but that doesn’t always work when the teenagers are going through adult situations. additionally, the numerous characters are really two dimensional and hard to keep apart from one another. I would recommend this to a middle grade-early YA readers, but that’s about it. thank you to netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

Sedoti does an excellent job of weaving together a tricky plot and keeping the suspense high throughout the entire story. I also appreciated the way she developed the characters - each one felt unique and fully fleshed-out, with their own motivations and flaws. My only criticism of this book is that some of the twists and turns felt a bit predictable. However, I found the themes of memory, truth, and identity also added a deeper layer to the narrative that I really enjoyed.

Tell Me What Really Happened is a fantastic read for anyone who loves a good YA mystery or thriller., It's definitely worth picking up if you're looking for a fast-paced, thought-provoking book perfect for the YA lover in your life.