Tell Me What Really Happened is a teenage thriller following the plot lines of a group leaves but one doesn’t return alive. Five friends go camping but now one of them is dead. The story is easy to follow as the police question the teenagers and each answer is given within the same chapter and not just outlined in each teen’s narrative. The suspense runs true and the mystery is not completely unpredictable but makes for an interesting story. The characters are varied and compelling in their telling of the events of the night for a page turning YA read that I didn’t want to put down. My voluntary, unbiased review is based upon a review copy from NetGalley.

This book was different, but so, so good. It didn't take long before I was hooked.

Told through the interviews of four witnesses, we get some questions that are being asked, but miss what is said, or left to silence, during the pauses. This drove the OCD part of my brain crazy, because I have a thing for needing to know all the details. I want both sides of the story. Even though I craved to know what was being said on the other end of the conversation, the story lacked nothing for not having that.

5 teenagers go camping, and during the night one of them goes missing. Now they're being questioned by the police, trying to piece together what happened that night.

Maylee, the missing girl, is the one who planned the camping trip in the first place.

Petra, Maylee's best friend, is a planner. She organized all the details, and made sure they had everything they'd need.

Nolan, Petra's stepbrother, went along just hoping to keep Petra out of trouble.

John, Maylee's boyfriend.

Abigail, once a friend of Maylee's, though they've been estranged for awhile. No one really knows much about her.

Piece by piece, they go over the events of the night before. Each character's personality shines through so much, and even though they each have unlikeable things about them, you can't help but be drawn into their story. Their different points of view.

I feel like I can't say too much more without giving a lot of the story away, but this was such a great read. I highly recommend it!

The concept of the story being an interrogation was really new to me, points for creativity! Also the chapters were really short, so it was a really easy read as well. The setting and atmosphere of a creepy forest was written nicely, I could feel myself getting a bit creeped out by the descriptions. The pacing was perfect imo, not too not too fast but the arrangement was confusing at times (but that’s how interrogations are)

The characters were interesting, their different personalities made the interrogation more fun and more unreliable (?) Each one of their backstory/traits made them more suspicious, especially with how some of their answer didn’t line up with each other. Nolan with his bigfoot theory, Petra with her best friend title, John with his lawyer thing and Abigail with her family background thing.

What I didn’t like was the motive and actual cause of death but everything that happened was just unfortunate circumstances and how with the lack of knowledge of the wilderness, lack of equipment and just nature in general is really dangerous. Wish there was more in the ending though.

Three Stars

I will preface this by saying that I personally I find it difficult to describe any first person narrative as very well written. You just don’t get the little details and the rich descriptions you find in third person narratives. So while I don’t think this was considered well written, it was still very engaging. The police interview format with short chapters made it a quick read. Overall I liked it, but didn’t love it.

Unfortunately, this was DNF at 20% for me.

I liked the idea of this book being written in first person police interviews but I just couldn’t connect with the characters and the story.

Thank you NetGalley, Sourcebook Fire and the author for ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Every now and then a good YA murder mystery comes along and captivates my attention. This is that. I loved how I was sucked in, it never felt *too young* even though it was meant for YA.

this was really good, addicting and entertaining.

If you're a fan of Karen McManus this book is for you. These characters were people you went to school with which made it relatable- we've all had a Nolan in our circles. I don't know how to feel about the formatting because it would've been helpful to have a dialogue with the detectives but the author masterfully skipped between the interview room and the campsite which made it easier to follow. I love the premise because it isn't a motive you see often and I never would've seen it coming. It adds a social commentary piece that teens all around the world face and the prejudice against John and Abigails dad is a good lesson about you can't judge a book by it's cover.

I received a digital copy of Tell Me What Really Happened by Chelsea Sedoti via NetGalley to read and review.

4 teenagers are each being questioned by the police. They were all camping with a fifth person, Maylee who’s missing. As we get testimony from four different sides of the story we’re left wondering, what really happened to Maylee and who or what is responsible?

Although the target audience for Tell Me What Really Happened is high school I still found that I had no idea what really happened. I was able to guess bits and pieces of the end story but there was still plenty for me to nod and think “that makes sense”. On the flip side since this is meant for teens there was obvious “teen logic” that made me roll my eyes BUT that’s the point since the whole story is told from multiple teenagers. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

The story is told from four perspectives as the MCs are being interrogated at a police station. Sometimes answers overlap, sometimes they backtrack. It does a good job shedding light on unreliable memories, multiple perspectives, and the investigation itself. The story moves quickly and the bouncing between characters becomes much easier to follow after about 50 pages in. This is one that kept me pretty intrigued throughout, and it wasn't easy to figure out exactly how everything would shake out in the end. Strong story!

Overall: 4 stars

I'll tell my students about: sex, language, physical violence, LGBTQIA+, child death, mental health issues, trauma

**Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the free ARC.. All opinions expressed are my own.**

Thank you Sourcebooks Fire and NetGalley for the advanced copy!

Five friends go into the woods alive, but only four come out. Tell Me What Really Happened is a mystery told in first person from the viewpoint of the four survivors as they are being interrogated while a search party is looking for their friend.

As the mother of three, ages 6, 11, and 19, I have to tell you that I enjoyed this. My middle son is wanting to get into the young adult novel world, so I was excited to give this a read before he is able to read it. I would laugh and tell him about the characters and which of character reminded me of him and which reminded me of his two brothers and which friends could be different characters. This was an enjoyable read even for an adult. As a parent, I felt for the detectives having to sit through each teens' response to their questions. Highly recommend! I would have no problem with my 11 year old reading this one.

A great YA mystery that you won't figure out until a very surprising ending. I'll be honest, this is told in a police interview style where each character tells their answer to the same question. At first the format bugged me but once I was hooked, I no longer cared. Complete with a crew of stereotypical characters, the boyfriend, the best friend, the oddball and the stepbrother, you hear the tale of a missing girl. Fun and fast read.

This was such an entertaining book!

Maylee is an extroverted teenager that dreams about being an influencer. After being apart for some time, she decides to organize a camping trip with her best friend, Petra, and 4 other people: Maylee’s boyfriend (John), Petra’s brother (Nolan) and Abigail, a nice girl nobody knows much about.
In the middle of the night, Maylee disappears and the police is called to investigate. Is everyone a suspect or are they being interrogated just to get a clear picture of what happened? Did any of them have a motive to kill Maylee? Is she even dead in the first place?

This book is told in the form of a police interview, with each character telling their story in their own unique way. I was afraid the format might get tiresome but that was not the case at all: I was interested until the very end and I had such a great time reading! I will absolutely read more by this author.

[Thank you Netgalley, for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review!]

3.5 stars

The whole book is the ‘transcript’ of a police interrogation. Five high schoolers went out into the woods for an overnight camping trip.. but one of them didn’t come out.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit.. until the ending. The ending was very strange/anticlimactic. Overall, a quick and easy read – definitely a good YA book.

Likes

I wasn’t expecting the set up of the whole book to be police interrogations, it was different and I actually liked it. It was fun to read how each character’s story changed throughout the questioning
Dislikes

The ending…
The over hyped up big foot conspiracy theory

Five teens go camping but only four return. What really happened, that's the question and the story is the different interviews of the four teens by the police. They are all separated and interviewed alone. Each has a story to tell and the complexities are for the police to work out.
How can a camping trip go so wrong? Each story from their individual perspectives takes you on a different path.
It's a good YA story and I found it easy to read with characters you can like and relate to. Young and naive, emotional times, learning about relationships, trust, and responsibilities.
Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for this eARC. I enjoyed the book and all the twists you don't see coming.

Thank you to NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS Fire for granting me a copy of this book in return for my honest opinion.

This book is an exciting, fast moving thrilling murder mystery

It is targeted for young adults, but I am 61 and I really enjoyed this one.

It is a fast moving, quick read. I loved it and recommend.

The story of 5 friends on a camping trips. 5 friends go camping, but only 4 return. The story is presented as a police interrogation through the eyes of each friend. I liked how each friend had a slightly different account of the exact same story. This book was entertaining.

This book is cleverly written. The varying point of views were seamlessly put together. I felt like I was in the interrogation room with them; The characters are so strongly developed. This young adult novel is sure to hook everyone, even the most reluctant readers. It is refreshing to read a high interest YA novel that does not contain controversial content.

Five friends go on a camping trip...but only four return. In Tell Me What Really Happened, we follow these four friends through a police interview (the format of the book - which was really cool!). This novel is fast-paced as the friends try to help the police locate Maylee (the fifth friend that disappears). Good twists and turns, the final bit was a bit anti-climatic but I loved the read. Very quick YA thriller.

"Tell Me What Really Happened" by Chelsea Sedoti is a powerful and thought-provoking novel that explores the impact of rumors and secrets on a small town community.

The story centers around the aftermath of a tragic event that takes place in the town, which leads to a wave of rumors and speculation about what really happened. As the town grapples with the fallout of the event, the novel delves into the lives of various characters who are affected by the rumors in different ways.

Five friends leave for a camping trip but only four return. In this fast paced novel, we follow four friends and the dynamics between them as they help police try to locate Maylee, who disappears on their camping trip in unfamiliar woods. Each character offers their unique perspective on the events of the night as only a ragtag group of teens can.

In terms of characters, they each had unique stories that differentiated them but overall, they were pretty unlikable. The relationships portrayed outside of the overall dysfunction of the group were pretty toxic and left a bad taste in my mouth. While the overall plot wasn’t necessarily bad, the ending definitely was a letdown I expected halfway through. It was a quick read, somewhat kept my attention but lacked overall. I liked the concept of the police interviews, but the way the interviews were conducted didn’t feel as organic as they should have and the way multiple characters spoke per chapter and question made the breakdown of the book feel choppy and hard to follow.

I really wanted to enjoy this one based on its summation but I just couldn’t quite catch me and generally just felt clunky.