Ohhhh I loved this book and not sure when I kept skipping it. Very interesting and keeps you guessing and intrigued. I haven’t read anything by this author so I wasn’t sure but it was great and I will be looking for other books by this author. Thank you NetGalley for this advanced copy of this book. I will definitely be recommending to my book loving friends and family.

4.5 stars out of 5!

Chelsea Sedoti takes a HUGE step with this excellent Young Adult thriller!

"What's even the point of doing anything if no one's watching?"

When Maylee wants something, she gets it. When Maylee invites her boyfriend and three friends on a camping trip, no one fully understands it. Maylee isn't exactly the type to camp in the woods with no cell service. Despite the multiple missing persons cases over the last hundred years that all took place in the woods, along with other mysterious speculations, her friends agree to spend the night with Maylee alone in the wilderness.
When Maylee ends up missing following a series of dramatic and dangerous events, the four friends are left with no option but to recount their nights separately to the police with hopes that they can find Maylee.

Told through multiple points of view in an innovate style of writing that will hook readers immediately, Sedoti tells a twisty and captivating story that will leave readers wanting MORE.

I was hooked in seconds. I have read Chelsea Sedoti in the past, and while I liked her previous books, Tell Me What Really Happened is definitely my favorite thus far! I adore Sedoti's writing style in this book. Told through an investigative process with multiple accounts in each chapter, I couldn't get enough. I found myself desperate to figure the story out, and while I had my theories, most of them ended up being incorrect. I did get one thing right, but I'm not here to spoil the book for you. I'm only here to encourage you to read it, because it's THAT good.

This book touches on important societal topics, and I encourage everyone to go into this with an open mind. This is genuinely a book for anyone, and I think Chelsea Sedoti will stand out once others read this novel. It's impressive, really.

Much like real life, each character had both likable and unlikable traits. It's refreshing to read a YA Thriller with teenage characters that genuinely feel like teenagers. Each of them so different, but placed together on the pages. Each character has their own struggles that alters their account of the night in such a way that you just don't get in most stories. I loved it. It felt authentic.

I ate this book up in one day. I almost (almost) skipped dinner to keep reading, and I definitely stayed up too late to finish it. It's a read-straight-through kind of book. I would recommend this book to just about anybody, and I am excited to read what Chelsea Sedoti releases in the future.

Fans of Natalie D. Richards, Karen M. McManus, Eva V. Gibson, and Claire McFall will absolutely LOVE this stunning YA Thriller.

Thanks to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for this advanced reader's copy.

This book has been on my TBR list for the longest getting to read this was amazing. This book has so many relatable themes in such as how far a person is willing to go to protect someone they care for, how loyal are you in a very serious situation, is their trust , and just how people think and move in an emotional state of mind. It gave me that 90's thriller suspense feeling it was almost like watching a movie it was good. some of the characters I feel could of had more of a spark, and edge to them but it was a cozy book and I can see myself actually rereading this again

Thank you so much for this amazing opportunity!


This was amazing. I am now convinced that ya thriller is superior. It is soo fast paced like it says. The shocking twists and turns keep you on the edge of your toes. It is also great if you are a scaredy cat like me sometimes.
I loved it!

This was a quick and enjoyable read that did right by the premise and format, which must have been tricky to pull off so points for doing that well. It really worked for me on a structural level (secrets parceled out on a reasonable timeline, etc.) and I found all the characters to be very well drawn. As an adult reading this the big reveal did feel a tiny bit like the author as a fellow adult was nudging me like, "kids these days, am I right???" but I also didn't find it to be completely unbelievable either, so. No real complaints here, if you're a fan of the YA thriller genre I'd absolutely recommend this.

My thanks to Sourcebooks Fire and NetGalley for the ARC.

4.5/5

I devoured this book in two days!

I'll admit, the story itself was predictable (a group of teens goes camping and one of them goes missing) and I wasn't at all surprised by any of the reveals or with how the story ended but I loved the interview-style storytelling format, the contrast between all the characters, and the way the story unfolded through the eyes of four unreliable narrators who are trying to cope with the stress and trauma of being interrogated by the police about the disappearance of their friend, Maylee Hayes.

The story differs from most of the other interview-style books I've read in the sense that each chapter opens with a question from the police/interviewer and we get to see how each character responds (even though they're all being questioned separately) and how their responses either contradict each other or help clarify certain situations. This worked well in eliminating repetitive questions/answers and was a very effective way of highlighting the vastly different personalities and perspectives of each character.

I loved how different each character was because they all offered a very different perspective on what Maylee was like as a person and different theories about Maylee's disappearance. Their differing personalities and relationships with Maylee also add to the mystery of Maylee's disappearance. I felt like I had an immediate gauge of all their personalities right from the beginning. From the first chapter, we learn that:

1. Petra Whitfield - Maylee's best friend since kindergarten. Petra is kind of a know-it-all and rule follower who exaggerates and uses sarcasm a lot. She believes Maylee is still wandering the woods alone, lost, cold, and in danger.
2. Nolan Anderson - Petra's step-brother. He is a paranoid conspiracy nut who strongly believes in Bigfoot. He thinks he saw Bigfoot eat Maylee.
3. Abigail Buckley - Maylee's nervous 'sort of' friend who rambles a lot. She seems like a sweetheart but believes John murdered Maylee.
4. John Massey Jr. - Maylee's boyfriend. A popular Black boy with a very serious demeanor and a man of few words (or he just wasn't very forthcoming with the police). He believes there was someone else in the woods who may have taken or hurt Maylee.

"The problem isn't that witnesses lie to the police. It's that they lie to themselves."

The more you hear their sides of the story, the more you'll be able to piece together what really happened to Maylee and find out who's lying and who's telling the truth.

Overall, this was a really fun, fast-paced, and easy read. I love interview-style books, and this certainly delivered on that front! I wish I had requested the audiobook arc instead because these types of books are usually best enjoyed in audiobook format.

Really fast paced but could be quite predictable at times, the format is interesting but i just didnt connect with the characters as well as i had hoped.

We start with five friends, but now only four are left. Fans of YA thrillers will love this. Told in a unique way, through first person police interviews, this book is fast-paced and well written. Loved!

I loved this crazy story about a missing girl told through the last people to see her -- her friends who were camping with her. The way it was told was super cool -- every chapter was a question asked my the police during their investigation. I almost wish I had listened to it because I bet the interviews would be awesome. Definitely a fun ride.

The really cool part about this book is that it's told through police interviews with our 4 main characters. It's fast paced and easy to get into because of the shorter paragraph style.

The interview style also makes it really difficult for us to get any character development so the characters were all very flat and blended together for me. I would have liked a bit more personalization.

Thank you to the publisher for the copy!

I really enjoyed the format of this book, although I’ll admit it took me a couple of chapters to get used to it - but I found it quite a unique way of writing which made it more exciting to read!

Each chapter is a different police question in the interviews of four teenagers being questioned over the disappearance (and later, murder) of their friend.

The only thing I found frustrating was how many times Nolan mentioned bigfoots but each to their own!

Sooooooooooooooooo this book truly bore me at times. I hate to say this but it was just too predictable at times. Nothing kept me on the edge as I read through it. I expected more.

I wanted to like this book more than I did, but it is still a good book. The format of how the story is told is interesting and I enjoyed it. I just feel a bit disconnected from the characters, but that’s okay. Overall, the book is really good and the story is compelling.

I’m starting to lose faith in Ya thriller books,this one was just not it for me so I DNF.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publishers for giving me this arc in exchange for my honest review.

Tell Me What Really Happened
by Chelsea Sedoti

Felt this was such a neat YA Thriller, with a clever plot, highly recommend this for teens. This whodunnit & unreliable narratives really is a hit for me. I’ll be picking this up for my teen when it’s released.

📚 Expected release date April 2, 2024📚
❤️ Thank you Sourcebooks Fire, NetGalley, & the brilliant author Chelsea Sedoti. I’m super appreciative & gave my honest opinion❤️

I needed a break from the holiday books, and yet I knew I wasn't going to feel bad for these kids. The token Black kid gets racially profiled. The weird kid is weird. Alternatively, this is a story about the consequences white girls get for lying. Which, there are basically none.

Not bad. It was kind of refreshing to read a YA book that was written like an actual YA book. I think the format was interesting, with each chapter essentially being a question that is answered. I was slightly disappointed by the ending, but this was a quick and easy read, so I had a fun ride with it.

This was a good afternoon read for me! The formatting and the way the story was written was enticing! I loved how the characters were each telling different aspects of the story and you are piecing the puzzle of what really happened on this trip!
Maylee and her four friends are on a camping trip and Maylee disappears. Her four friends suspect foul play right off the bat and when the police separate them and get them to each tell them what happened that night each has a different story. It seems like each of the characters has some form of motive for Maylee disappearing. It was really innovative the way the author wrote this story, each chapter was a question in the interrogation and included each of the character's answers to that question. That was really neat. The characters were dynamic including one character who was obsessed with the possibility of seeing Big Foot and another character having the control aspect.
Now here comes what I did not like. I did not like that it seemed like the story lacked substance, like what adult mystery books contain and it seemed like it would be more enjoyed by young adults. I usually read both adult fiction and young adult fiction and this story just didn't do it for me in that aspect. However, it is intriguingly addictive towards the end and you are glued to your Kindle to find out what happened. The shocking twist at the end was kinda crazy! Innovative and different which is definitely a plus! I would definitively recommend it to more Young Adult readers but still a good story. Thank you Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the opportunity to read and review this book!

The only likable characters were John and Abigail. The rest deserved a slap at various points in the book.

Okay, so I'll admit I'm not the target audience for this one but I believe my middle schoolers would eat this one up! The plot was fast-paced and easy to follow - the characters were a little flat and there wasn't as much of a twist as I was expecting, but I think that's mostly because it was directed at a younger audience than I expected (probably better for middle schoolers vs. high schoolers). That being said, I think this one would be pretty popular in my classroom library - thanks so much for the ARC!