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.

Five teens spend the weekend camping at Salvation Creek but sometime in the night Maylee has vanished. The four friends who came back to town are now being questioned by police—and their stories don’t line up. Who is lying? What really happened in the woods? And will they find Maylee alive?

This fast-paced mystery was both tense and highly entertaining with strong personalities coming right off the page. The writing style was unique and well-executed, weaving four 1st person police interviews together to show ironic and interesting contradictions in the teens’ personalities and perspectives.

The characters are not very likable but that dynamic was part of what went wrong in the woods so it didn’t bug me not to have a solid person to root for. Nolan’s obsession was a little too much at the end. The ending wasn’t fantastic but it wasn’t a let down either.

ARC provided by Sourcebooks Fire through NetGalley; opinions are my own.

3.5/5 stars (rounded up to 4 on here)

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!
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So this was a unique book in that it was told from different perspectives. However; in was different in the sense that the reader feels like they are the investigator asking them the questions to figure out what happened when all the characters went camping. I thought overall, it was a decent book but not one that is going to stay with me after finishing it. Like it kept you entertained and invested in the story because you want to figure out what is going to happen but it felt very ‘meh’ at times. I also wanted more from the ending. Like the whole book is leading up to figuring out what happened to Maylee but then the end was just a bit disappointment. Overall, I thought it was a decent book and would recommend it if people are just wanting a fun story that isn’t going to stick with you after you are done reading it.

This was pretty good! I liked the format of it being told strictly in police interviews.

Five friends go on a camping trip:
Maylee, a wannabe influencer
John, Maylee’s boyfriend
Petra, Maylee’s best friend
Nolan, Petra’s half brother
Abigail, a girl from the trailer park who we learn more about later

When Maylee disappears from the camping trip, the 4 remaining people are interviews by the police to see what really happened.

Maylee is a really unlikable character. In fact, no one with the exception of Abigail or maybe John was someone you rooted for. I really had no clue how it was going to end.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Many thanks to Sourcebooks Fire, NetGalley, and Chelsea Sedoti for this advanced copy of the book!
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The author delivered this young adult (YA) thriller/mystery to readers in a law enforcement interview format. Law enforcement interviewed four high school students about what happened to a fifth group member during a camping trip in the secluded woods. There were varying perspectives on the same event, which made the storyline intriguing. Since these were teenagers, some of their accounts were either exaggerated or not as serious as they should have been. The Bigfoot theory drove me insane, but that is all a part of the story's charm. Teenagers have moments where they are willing to believe anything, no matter how far-fetched. The personal issues surrounding the fifth member were realistic and showed the other aspect of being a teenager: egocentrism. There were things she did that she did not consider how it would impact others. A small part of me was frustrated with the ending, but I understood why it was written like it was. It leaves us with continued intrigue into this case long after we have closed the book.

(post will be live on my blog 3/12)
Told through the police interrogation after the fact, four friends try to help solve the mystery of their friend who went missing in the woods the night before. "Tell Me What Really Happened" by Chelsea Sedoti is a thrilling novel with lots of twists and turns as the main characters try to grasp what happened to their friend. Because of the structure of the novel, it's fun to try and guess what's going on: who can you trust? who is traumatized and forgetting details? who has something to hide? The structure does make it a bit repetitive at times, but I suppose it's realistic as they back up what each other are saying.

To me, the ending felt like it was building up to this huge thing, and then it just kind of fizzled out. Like - oh, that's the end. Ok.

A four star read for me still. A thrilling read!

I’d like to thank Sourcebooks Fire and NetGalley for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

One thing I love about this book is that it’s format is in an interview perspective. So it felt like Im the investigator conducting interviews to the persons of interest. For one it’s interesting because I get to know different narratives of the same events (though you’ll get a hang of it being repetitive and stuff) and because it feels like you’re the investigator, every minute feels like a challenge to actually think who’s lying and who’s telling the truth and identifying who’s the real “killer”.

Character-wise, it really feels a little cliche especially with their group composition. Maylee was totally an unlikeable character- she’s a manipulating, clout-chasing b!tch. I think John’s character has more depth— him being a man with color, people always point their fingers at him despite his innocence. So I really know what he’s fighting whenever he refuses to answer questions and asks for his lawyer instead. Petra is not that deep of a character but she’s not also two dimensional. She’s just a cliche bestfriend added in the plot so she can be suspected of the crime lol Next we have Abby who gave me the most shocker because the ex-lover thing really surprised me. And lastly, Nolan— his obsession with conspiracy theories really threw me off the grid- I even started questioning if the entire plot-line would be about aliens and sci-fi.

The ending was anti-climactic and to describe what I felt, this was the same feeling I had after watching Bodies Bodies Bodies on Netflix.

Solid 3 stars 👏

TELL ME WHAT REALLY HAPPENED tells the story of five teenagers who went on a camping trip that ended with one missing girl and four confused kids. They all swear they know what happened. But do they really? Or are they all lying?

TELL ME WHAT REALLY HAPPENED started off strong. I’m not entirely a fan of the type of storytelling that relies entirely on some kind of media—like interviews for example—but this was fun. The interview style meant it was fast paced and easy to get through. I didn’t find myself growing bored. I loved how each character had a distinct voice and that I could discern their personalities from the interviews.

However, that’s probably where the positives end. This book was a ‘meh’ book for me. Nothing particularly stood out in the end, nothing I thought I’d remember for ages. It was just meh. Meh in a way that I don’t really have strong opinions on any of it. This was probably due to the mystery and how off it felt. It kind of left me thinking ‘why’? Why does this book exist? Why was the climax of this story so utterly dull? All of the characters were confused, which—while, yes, it made for a decent attempt at the unreliable narrators trope—annoyed me to some extent because I couldn’t quite understand why they got to the conclusions they came to. And don’t get me started on Nolan. He was, quite honestly, pathetic. Maylee, too, because the entire reason she went on that camping trip was fucked up and it didn’t leave me feeling very sympathetic to her plight.

All in all, I don’t think this book will be one I’ll be remembering for a while.

Five teens go camping, but only four return home. The novel’s police interrogation style for relaying how Maylee Hayes disappeared, is new to me as a mystery reader. The plot and the characters are well-developed. The story gives the reader an insight into the unreliability of eyewitness accounts in police investigations, especially as seen through the eyes of Maylee’s so-called friends who were with her when she disappeared. All the interviews of the four surviving campers keep the reader engaged until the end, when the truth is finally revealed.
Thank you, NetGalley, for the opportunity to read an advance copy of “Tell Me What Really Happened.”

Our victim is Maylee Hayes is lost in the woods
Suspects are:
Petra Whitefield (Maylee's best friend)
Nolan Anderson (Petra's step brother)
John Massey. Jr ( Maylee's boyfriend)
Abigail Amelia Buckley ( Maylee's sort of friend)
Together all of them decide to go on a camping trip to Salvation Creek and after hours from their arrival Maylee goes missing and the search starts.....

The novel is written as an interrogation. Each chapter proposes a question and each of Maylee's friends answer their version of what happened that night. With each passing chapter details, shocking truths and, secrets are revealed.

What they thought they know about each prove them wrong and there are so many things hidden under the surface. It is an addictive read with fast-paced chapters that will hook you from the start. In the end, the important question is Maylee dead, missing, or is it all game of sort??
Read and find out and trust me you love it😉

Xoxo💋
Thank you to @Netgalley and the publisher for granting me an ARC of #TellMeWhatReallyHappened in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the ARC.

First off, I really like the format the story is told in. The story is written in the form of interview questions and answers from the four high schoolers who came back from the woods. Each one of them remembers the events that happened differently. I also liked how fast paced and intriguing the story was.

Five high schoolers go out on a weekend camping trip, but only four come back. Now the police are trying to piece together the night, and while all four teens are being forthcoming, none of their stories fully explain what happened. Where did she go? Who saw her last? What happened? They all have theories (the boyfriend? the best friend? the bigfoot?), but none have answers.

The story plays out through one-sided transcripts of police interrogation, jumping around among the four as they contribute their own theories and observations. The problem--and really, what held me back from the book in general--is that I didn't like any of the characters. I was engaged by the story and wanted them to all, as the title says, tell me what really happened, but I didn't really care that much about any of them.

This YA mystery was a super quick and easy read! I enjoyed the story was told through an interview style because it meant that you really had no idea who was telling the truth. I was a little bothered by the whole "Bigfoot" conspiracy because I couldn't figure out how it fit, but I think it kind of made sense in the end because Nolan was so traumatized. The mystery wasn't predictable in the way that some YA books can be. Overall, I really enjoyed the plot and characters and recommend this book!