“Tell Me What Really Happened” follows the story of 4 teenagers invited on an overnight camping trip by their mutual friend Maylee. The group dynamics are odd because they’re not all friends with each other. Maylee has invited her boyfriend John and her best friend Petra along with Abigail. Abigail hasn’t been friends with Maylee for a long time and isn’t friends with the others on the trip so she’s confused as to why she’s there. Petra’s step brother Nolan is also on the trip on behest of Petra’s dad and like Abigail is questioning his place in the group. Everyone has different personalities and interests that tend to clash and then in the middle of the night Maylee goes missing.

The writing style is really creative. It’s told from everyone’s first person perspective (except for Maylee) during their police interviews. Each chapter begins with an investigator leading the questioning. It keeps the book flow quick and paints a real descriptive look at each character and how their perceptions of each other don’t match reality. Petra is insufferable throughout and I never want to read about Bigfoot ever again. That’s all to say that the author does an incredible job of writing 5 distinct teenage personalities that are fresh. What the characters are engaged in and how they react to the situations they’ve been placed in feels very current within the social climate of the times. The story was engaging from start to finish but there wasn’t anything I felt pushed it over the top to be a great or bad read. The reveal was anticlimactic. I felt that there was a lot more promise to the story than what was delivered. Still, it’s different from what’s out there to read right now and it’s something you can pick up easily for a day’s distraction.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire for this ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Did you like Pretty Little Liars? Then you'll probably like this.

If you're a fan of YA mystery then add this to your TBR right now. You can even head on over to Amazon and get your preorder in!

This story was told in a really cool way and I'd love to read more books in this format. All told through first person police interviews.

Five teenage friends go camping and only four return. Maylee, John, Petra, Abigail and Nolan all head out on a weekend camping trip. Some want to go for various reasons (Maylee, Petra and Abigail) and some don't think the woods are the place for them (John and Nolan) but end up going anyway. It's a mess from the start, they're bickering and complaining and it really doesn't seem like they're having a good time. Finally they decide to go on a little nature hike during which Nolan is on about finding a Bigfoot annoying almost everyone else in the group. Some who are nicer about it than others. After they get back to camp and eat dinner Maylee starts passing out the alcohol. They drink way too much. After an incident Maylee and John have a bit of an argument and everyone goes to bed. Fast forward a couple hours and Maylee has disappeared. What follows is hashed out in half truths over the course of several interrogation hours.


I enjoyed this book a lot and will be purchasing a copy for my daughter to read when it is released this coming April.

#TellMeWhatReallyHappened # ChelseaSedoti
#YAThriller #YAMystery #YAMustRead #YAFiveStars
#NetGalley #ARCRead #SourcebooksFire

Tell Me What Really Happened is Chelsea Sedoti’s fourth novel and the first I have read and is more of a dark thriller than horror novel, but you might have to keep your eyes peeled for Bigfoot (or not!) depending on which of the four narratives you believe. The novel has a clever premise, with four teenagers being interviewed by the police after the disappearance of a mutual friend on a camping trip. The police officers do not play a part in the story, but at the start ask a question which is then answered in the first person by the four (probably unreliable) teenager narrators. When you get beyond the fact that all the characters are incredibly shallow and self-serving they deliver a very readable page-turner, which keeps the reader guessing, has decent reveals, an LGBTQIA+ story, twists and a dollop of teen angst. Whilst the big question remains, what actually happened to Maylee and is she alive or dead?

Through the police interviews we are taken back to the woods around Salvation Creek, where other teens had disappeared and there was a myth that Bigfoot wandered the area. The four narratives were very different and part of the fun is deciding what to believe. Right from page one Nolan is certain Maylee was killed by Bigfoot and tells the police he saw the creature eating her. The other three no not verify this claim and as the interviews continue their stories change and they turn on each other. Petra is the uber-confident best friend of Maylee and daughter of a policeman, with Nolan being obsessed with Cryptozoology, John was her supposed boyfriend and Abigail a friend with history. This was a very fast paced story where all four friends come under suspicion, hide lies, whilst the police try to uncover what really happened in the woods. Considering the book was leading up to the big reveal of what actually happened to Maylee I found the ending rather underwhelming, sure it made sense, but was not worth the build-up. A very solid thriller. AGE RANGE 13/14+

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this novel. I encourage you to check this one out!

An interesting format for this YA thriller. Each chapter is headed by a question--a question that is being posed by the police--and we are treated to a look into how each character answers the prompt. Through the questioning, we learn more about the camping trip, the gun, and the missing (or murdered?) young woman.

Thank you to NetGalley for this digital advanced copy.

Thank you yo the publisher and NetGalley for the digital ARC!

Unfortunately this one really didn’t hit the mark for me. The characters all bothered me, the plot was insane and it just didn’t come together.

3⭐️

It was a fun fast paced read. Told in a unique format,

This story is told 100% in a police interview format. Where each chapter is a new question from the police and the four teens give their answers. Mallie is missing from a camping trip with her friends, police are trying to determine where she is and if foul play is involved.

The interviewees are Petra, Mallies bff high strung type A personality. John, Mallies boyfriend and sidestepper of questions. Nolan, Petra's brother and crypto's enthusiast. Lastly Abigail the new friend.

Overall i really enjoyed the format of this book. I thought it was really unique and fun. It made the chapters and story fly by. For the most part this is pretty fast paced, there were some spots in the middle that dragged on a bit for me.

I liked the majority of the story, except the ending of the book for me fell a bit flat. It didn't quite make a lot of sense and just wasn't as satisfying as I hoped.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Source Books for this advanced reader copy. My review is voluntarily my own.

I will post my review at retail sites on publication.

I thought that this was a different take on having several accounts of what happened with a missing person situation. The way that Chelsea Sedoti wrote this with everyone telling their account of what happened on a camping trip when 5 teens go but only 4 come back.

This story is told in the way of an interview/interrogation. I thought it was very interesting to hear each teens account of what happened when they were all in the same area. I thought that each character was very likable and they seemed that they could all be trusted. So, what happened out there? You will have to read to find out! I was shocked to find out what really happened. (LOL)

I voluntarily read and reviewed this book and all opinions are my own. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for a copy of this book. I recommend it for any avid YA reader!

I never would have guessed Nolan did it! But I was very glad that it was a misunderstanding! Not going to lie, Nolan had me convinced there actually WAS a Bigfoot! I guess it is true that people see what they want and reality is what you make it. I also really enjoyed the way this book was set up with the POV’s being what everyone responded to the polices questions. I’ve never read a book set up like that and I want more! That set up and the content made it to be a very fast and edge-of-my-seat read!

I enjoyed this one. I liked the different type of narrative structure and it was interesting at times to see the different responses to questions one after another, but all of them were so different. The characters each had super distinct personalities, which is sometimes hard to find. The ending was fine; I wish it was revealed all at once in one showstopping paragraph rather than gradually over the course of a couple pages. I would recommend this one for YA mystery fans for sure!

I appreciated the format of Tell Me What Really Happened; with the premise told through all main characters' police interviews, and the flashbacks of the night in question--and, the lead up to that night--this is a quick YA read that will appeal to not only classic YA readers, but also the general adult audience.

My thanks to SOURCEBOOKS Fire and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview this title.

A book told through the format of police interviews. Sign me up.

The way this was written is this book's biggest selling point. It is unique since, instead of experiencing the crime, the story is unfolded through the four teenagers being questioned by the police. However, at times, the dialogue did not read like an interview. It was more like how someone would recount a story, with a little bit of flare and drama. This was more toward the end of the book; the first 30% stuck true to the original formatting. I have not read a book that has a whole plot told this way, so while this is important to mention, it did not take away from the overall enjoyment of reading this style.

Each chapter starts with a question the police ask; then it switches between our four POVs. All of the characters were distinct and had their style of talking. Their personalities came through strongly, so I had no problem keeping them separate. It was interesting getting to see how everyone thought about each other, and the flaws that they were willing to overlook or excuse, and the things that they would blow out of proportion about another character's personality. Sometimes their stories would overlap and lies would be exposed. However, with the overlap, there was also a sense of repetitiveness that sometimes became quite tedious. All of the POVs were not necessarily needed.

I was really disappointed with the ending! The buildup of tension was well done, but the end was anti-climactic. I was thinking that an epilogue or something to give us a little more closure would have been the best move. There were too many threads not tied up nicely.

(review is posted to goodreads, and will be reshared closer to release date)

2.5 Stars:

I’ll admit that I came into Tell Me What Really Happened with pretty high expectations given how great the premise and narrative device seemed.

The Premise: 5 friends go into the woods for an impromptu camping trip. Only 4 come out..
The Narrative: The story is told via police interviews with alternating POV.

Potential Light Spoilers Ahead:

I actually found that none of the characters were particularly likable (with John as the exception). I wasn’t really attached to the missing character and so I didn’t particularly find it impactful what led to her disappearance. While it’s not always necessary to like characters to enjoy a book, in stories like this where we’re clearly supposed to care for the leads, I just couldn’t find myself invested enough to care.

The police interviews actually seemed to do more harm than good here. A lot of the information felt very repetitive and granted I haven’t been interviewed by the police a lot in my days, I’ve got to say the interviews weren’t remotely realistic.

I think this would have gone a lot better if we only got some characters POV of each scene/question asked rather than getting all 5 each time (especially when they didn’t have anything new to contribute).

I made it to about 28% of the book before I realized that I would end up DNFing if I didn’t start skipping unnecessary POVs so much of the book was skimmed (do with that what you will).

Overall the plot was pretty slow and in terms of actual plot, not a lot actually happens which really makes the ending underwhelming.

I’m glad I finished the book but I’m not sure i was the right audience for this novel.

Thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the advanced read of Tell Us What Really Happened in exchange for an honest review.

This book was pretty good considering! I enjoyed the short chapters and the fact that a lot of it was dialogue. I think it would be a very interesting audiobook, considering it’s all dialogue between multiple people. It was definitely giving spooky Wintory vibes, so I’m glad I read this during the winter. However, with all of that being said that ending was not what I was expecting. It could definitely have you some work as I think it was a lame weight in the story. Overall, I would give this book for stars because it was a decent thriller/mystery but it definitely could use some work in the plot and finale. I would recommend this to fans of knives out or even Riley Sager books!

Thank you, net galley, and source books fire!

The plot of this was pretty intriguing. I wasn't a huge fan of the way it was written in interview format but the book captured my attention enough to see it through. The plot twist at the end was one I didn't see coming which was a pleasant surprise!

#TellMeWhatReallyHappened #NetGalley
Twisty. 4.5 ⭐
There are stories about the woods around Salvation Creek and the people who have gone missing. Now their friend is one of them. A riveting, fast-paced YA mystery told entirely through first person police interviews of four teens over the course of a few hours.
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?
I didn't like that ending but overall it was a thrilling ride.
Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Inc for giving me an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Interesting and unique format for this YA book. Teenagers go camping in the woods the night their friend dies. The book is narrated by them as they answer questions in the police station which is a very interesting reveal as the different perspectives and plot twists are uncovered. Unfortunately the ending is rather anti-climatic - even though it is foreshadowed in the book and is entirely plausible.

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the opportunity to read this ARC.

I've never read such an interesting book that's narrated in multiple point of views plus in the format of a police investigation.

The plot itself is quite mysterious with a lot of twist and turns, having me guessing who's the kidnapper/killer behind Maylee's disappearance. What was supposed to be a fun camping trip for a group of 5 friends turned south when one of them went missing, and later found dead in the woods. Throughout the investigation, more buried secrets are revealed, were they the only one in the woods? Or was there someone else with them during the camping trip?

Tell Me What Really Happened is a fast paced mystery told in flashbacks. The story is told entirely in the form of a police interview where the reader follows the plot through transcripts. With alternating narrators providing in-depth recollections of the fateful night, the reader is able to get a unique understanding in what really happened to Maylee Hayes. Maylee herself is revealed to be a deeply flawed and nuanced character. The more is revealed about her and the events that transpired that night makes the reader more and more invested in the story. Every turn and twist leads to a neat ending that wraps the story together with a caution tape bow.

Five teens go camping and only four exit. What follows is the interrogations of the remaining four.

This book is so creative! Each chapter starts off with a question from the police & then the rest of the chapter is each characters answer to that question. Because of the format the book was a really fast read, but the story is so good you get pulled in by that as well.

Thank you to NetGalley & Sourcefire books for an ARC of this book!