Five teenagers go into the woods. Four come out. Which one knows the truth?

Tell Me What Really Happened is a YA mystery/thriller about a group of high school students who go on a camping trip to a site infamous for the mysterious disappearances of female victims. Some take the stories seriously; some do not. When strange things start happening within the group, tensions rise, and no one is at their best. Then one of them is gone. The novel plays out via police interviews with the four who made it out of the woods, interwoven as each character offers their perspective on the events surrounding the disappearance. Who knows the truth about what really happened to Maylee, and who is lying to cover their tracks?

I am so glad I picked this book up as an ARC. It was a rocky start, but after I stuck with it, I wound up genuinely enjoying the ride. From the outset, there wasn’t a lot to get and keep you hooked aside from the premise, which you already knew before turning to page one. I would have appreciated more hints at things maybe not being quite right or some foreshadowing of the uneasiness to come. Also, one of the POV characters, Petra, was unbearable for much of the first act of the book, but not in the love-to-hate-them sort of way. At the same time, it took a while for the other characters to become interesting, so all in all, I wasn’t immediately invested in this story.

Had I not been reading this, courtesy of NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire, for a review, I may very well have put this book down in the early chapters, which would have been a terrible shame. Once things pick up, the narrative structure of this book really carries it. I don’t think it would have been nearly so strong had it been told in any other way.

The mixed perspectives offer not just one but four unreliable narrators, and I’m obsessed with the concept that the author is playing with here. We are all unreliable narrators because we are all unreliable witnesses. Not only are our memories flawed, but our experiences influence our perspectives, which in turn influence our perceptions of the events taking place right in front of our eyes. I loved getting to untangle the contradictory and interlacing threads of each character’s account of events while guessing at which parts may be misremembered and which may be lies.

The conclusion of the book is abrupt, the gut punch of confirmation of the sinking feeling you’ve been getting over the final chapters. I was happy with how the author chose to end the book, and I liked the abruptness because it felt true to the story - sometimes things happen and you suddenly find yourself on the other side, living in the after before you’ve had time to process the now. I just wish the gut punch had been a little harder.

Overall, this is a very solid YA mystery/thriller that I would rate a 3.5 (rounded to 4 for online rating systems that don’t allow half-star reviews). It’s the kind of fast-paced read I would happily recommend to someone looking to get out of a reading slump or fans of Karen M. McManus needing a new fix. I look forward to seeing what else Chelsea Sedoti has to offer!

I really liked the way this one was written. I think the four different stories but all being told to the same people was such a nice way of getting information. I would recommend this to people who love thrillers and YA.

Five teenagers go camping and the night goes wrong. I generally don’t love interview style books but did enjoy the set up of the different chapters and POVs. However the end did let me down a bit.

I wanted it to be more mysterious and maybe sinister. Instead of wS just another accident of fun violence combined with general teenage ineptitude. Not to mention the characters lie and leave things out throughout the interviews.

But I do enjoy a good unreliable narrator. 3 stars.

Thank you to the author, the publisher, and Netgalley for an ARC of this title in exchange for my honest review.

I am a fan of Sourcebooks and was immediately attracted to the synopsis of Tell Me What Really Happened. I'm not sure what I was expecting but I am positive it wasn't what I received. I absolutely loved the writing style. Written from each characters POV as they are being interviewed by police, it was both an engaging and quick read. With six main characters, I expected to be confused and not connect much because...well because it's a lot of characters and that can make a story hard to follow. Absolutely not the case. I was amazed at how much I found myself falling in love...even with the "villain". There wasn't necessarily an " A Ha" moment or any giant twists and turns but never have I seen a story of "he said/she said" that had me gasping and slapping my own forehead in frustration...in a great way. My favourite part of any book is character development and this book had it in spades. I cannot even describe how amazing it was to see each character grow...their depth, their involvement, their sense of self.

I highly recommend grabbing a copy if you enjoyed other titles like A Good Girl's Guide To Murder or Kathryn Foxfield titles. It was a great example of how easily a witness can create their own truths and how differently a situation can be seen by those experiencing it.

I have said this before in a review, but I’m going to reiterate it again. I’m jealous of how high quality young adult mysteries are now-in days. This story explores the disappearance of Maylee, a wannabe influencer during a camping trip, with 4 other people: her boyfriend, best friend, best friends brother and one of the less popular girls of school. This story is told through their different povs during the police interrogation. That was a perfect way to frame this story. It kept me guessing. My one complaint was that I wished we learned more about the aftermath. Thanks so much NetGalley for giving me an opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest opinion

This was fun for the most part. The plot was interesting, with distinctive characters, I liked the mystery, and the format helped me get through the book quicker.

I liked trying to guess what happened. Though I got a part of it early on, there were things I didn't expect. I also wanted the feeling of isolation in the forest, it set an unsettling atmosphere that kept me on the edge of my seat.

What I didn’t like was that because each of the characters was giving their own view of every single detail, sometimes the narration felt a bit repetitive. But it wasn't bad at all for the most part.

But then... Well, the ending did feel quite anticlimactic. It was a solid four stars for me until then, but I’m not so sure. I’m still trying to decide my exact rating. I think 3.5 is how I feel about it, but I might change it soon.

A huge thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of Tell Me What Really Happened by Chelsea Sedoti in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

"Tell Me What Really Happened," is the story of 5 friends who go on a camping trip, but only 4 leave together. The friend's lives change forever when they realize one member of the group, a want to be influencer named Maylee, is missing. This book is unique in the sense it is told from the other four friend's point of views through their police interrogation interviews. There is Petra, the planner and resident know it all, her brother, Nolan, who is big foot obsessed, John, Maylee's boyfriend, and Abigail, a girl who has a complicated relationship with Maylee herself. But what happened to Maylee? Is she hurt? Dead?

This is a fast paced, whodunnit mystery. The strength to me was the characters. I didn't even need to see the character's name to know who was talking and telling their version of events. Looking back, I did wish for a bigger ending, but this book stays true to reality, and sometimes what really happens is not as interesting as you hope.

"Tell Me What Really Happened," is out in April 2023, so if it sounds good to you put it on your pre-order list now! Congrats to the author for telling this story in such a unique, refreshing, way!

With four different unreliable perspectives, get ready to be kept guessing until the end. What happened to maylee? Is she did? Did they kill her?

While some of the character breaks were really abrupt, I did enjoy the format. It was an interesting way to tell a story that's been told before. Read in one sitting. Really liked this one!

hank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the copy of Tell Me What Really Happened. I loved how this one was written. The teens are being questioned by the police and we see their answers (and the discrepancies) at the same time. I loved this writing style because it pointed out that what we see or remember is colored by our own experiences and personalities. Petra was probably the character that was the easiest to get to know because she did the most talking and had a controlling, domineering personality. I liked how the relationships between the characters were slowly revealed, and felt realistic. The story kept me reading to find out what happened to Maylee - was it a stranger in the woods, a classmate, Bigfoot? To be honest, I didn't love the ending because even though the clues were there it seemed like an anti-climax. The buildup was great though, and the book is well worth reading!

I haven’t read a young adult book in years, but this thriller had me hooked, I couldn’t put it down! 5 teenagers go camping by Salvation Creek, only to have one end up dead. Who did it? Was it one of the teenagers?

Reviewed for NetGalley:

The story was written wholly in the perspective of four teenager witnesses in an interrogation room after their friend goes missing.

The narrative move too fast for me, jumping from character character. I didn’t love the format.

Interesting concept and wild story. The characters were hard to care about and felt maybe not all that flushed out. But it was a quick read. Definitely need to know what happened.

Thanks to Netgalley and SOURCEBOOKS for an eARC.

I felt so many ups and downs while reading this, but I think that's why I'm going to give it a glowing review - for some reason I just can't stop thinking about it!

Tell Me What Really Happened is a YA mystery told entirely through transcripts of police interviews. You get a unique POV from each of the four teens who were on a camping trip with their friend when she went missing. This format allowed for great tension build and for some fantastic unexpected moments of comedy (think: that classic scenario where Person A says "this is totally what happened, I'm 100% sure, would bet my life on me being right" and then it immediately cuts to Person B being like "yeah that's definitely not what happened").

I did not see the ending coming, and it kind of wrecked me (in a good way?). I've read lots of thrillers and mysteries and at this point I thought there couldn't really be a twist that would get me like this, but this one left me a little surprised and brokenhearted, which is probably why I can't stop thinking about it.

Huge thank you to Sourcebooks Fire and NetGalley for providing a digital copy of Tell Me What Really Happened in exchange for an honest review! Tell Me What Really Happened will be available April 4, 2023.

I had a good time with this! It was a quick read and I found myself trying to guess the ending, and being unsuccessful. The formatting was interesting because we get all perspectives throughout the story. Some of that felt repetitive? But it also allowed to get the most details so I understand the reasoning for it. Overall a good mystery to read!

A very fast paced read about a girl gone missing during a camping trip with friends. I enjoyed the unique q and a format - the four teens being interviewed by the police. I found the book suspenseful and I was anxious to get to the explanation of what “really happened” since each perspective was unreliable in its own way.

Ultimately, the format allowed for us to understand the characters, but I didn’t felt buy in to their relationships with one another.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of this YA mystery thriller!

Five teens go camping one weekend in an area where there's been a cluster of disappearances over the years and only four teens exit. This thrilling mystery takes the reader through the interrogations of the four remaining teens after they've reported their friend missing.

I loved the set up of the chapters and POVs in this. I felt like I breezed through the story, though I didn't need help because the plot itself was enough to keep me reading.

I found the facts the conspiracy theorist spoke of were things that are googleable, even though Salvation Creek itself is fictional. There's truth to the disappearances of people in Yosemite and other National Parks that are unexplained. The theories on Bigfoot were also known theories and it added to the plot line. You can even Google Bigfoot being helicoptered out after the Mount St Helen's blast. I definitely appreciate the realism in this fictional story.

While I may no longer be a teen, I found the four completely relatable and believable. This is excalty the way I would expect four teens of different backgrounds to think and act. It's eye-opening to realize the little things we do that may cause unintentional hurt and damage to another person and its refreshing to see a novel.

The twist ended up being something you saw coming as the story progresses through the interrogations. Having seen it coming didn't take away from it though. It really left me going oh, oh, ohhh...oh no. I also may have ventured off in a different theory prior to landing on the correct one.

I really hope this book gets the hype and popularity it deserves. It was quite the read!

Sedoti gives the reader a unique and compelling mystery with twists and turns that keep one on the edge of their seat. Told in first person during a police interrogation four teenagers separately share their version of what happened that night on a camping trip in which their friend Maylee disappeared. This is a story of manipulation, friendship, family relationships, secrets, and what can happen when fear controls your choices and actions. What happened that night? Who brought a gun? Where's Maylee? All will be answered by the end of the story. A very enjoyable read that I would recommend to anyone who enjoys a creepy mystery.

I wavered between 3-4 stars, finally setting on 3.5 stars.

I really like the way this book was written, where the whole story was told entirely first person through police interviews. Five teens go on a weekend camping trip. Sometime during the night, one of them disappears and is their body is found later. As the police interviews progress, it is clear that at least one of them is lying.

The book was a fast read and the characters were genuine and engaging. I didn't like all the characters but they were believable. The ending was a bit anti-climatic, thus why I didn't give it a full 4-stars, however, I will definitely recommend this read to YA (and adult) fans of suspense and mystery.

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

Gah.

This is such an engaging read, it’s told the light the police interview of all the kids on the camping trip being asked different questions. Some of the answers stay consistent and some change as the interviews continue. It’s supremely attention grabbing and the pacing works excellently.

This had the potential to be the next YA mystery phenomenon much like A Good Girl’s Guise to Murder but there’s one major plot point regarding Bigfoot that makes it fall flat, as the explanation in the conclusion is completely unsatisfying and frankly a bit annoying.

I still found the majority of this book quite enjoyable and kept me changing my guesses as to who or what truly caused the death of Maylee. I also thought it added to the enjoyment of this book that Maylee was a flawed character that has the reader further questioning what really happened.

3 stars

⭐️ ⭐️⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the E-ARC in exchange for an honest review.