If you’re a fan of Holly Jackson, I think you’d probably like this book. I couldn’t put it down, I finished the entire book in a few hours.

This book was great for fans of A Good Girls Guide To Murder! Most of this book worked so well and flowed beautifully! I loved the format of the story being told via interrogation room. The writing was so fantastic as I really could not put it down once I started reading it.

None of the characters are likeable, to be honest, but that was fine. Nolan really urked me throughout the entire book. The only other thing I really did not enjoy was the big "twist" at the end, but I do think without that extra story piece it would have been slightly lacking.

This is one of the best YA mystery/thriller books I have ever read. Fans of a Goods Girls Guide to Murder, Truly Devious, The Inheritance Games, or even A Flicker in the Dark, will LOVE this book. The writing style is unique to the author and was really what stood out to me about this book. The characters were very unique, relatable, and had great depth. I also really enjoyed the multiple point of view type of interrogation. It was very creative and also made me fall in love with the characters. The story was phenomenal and the plot was amazing! It left me guessing with every turn it took. I one hundred percent recommend all my YA mystery fans to read this book ASAP.

I find the concept of perception really interesting, from Mulder and Scully’s constant back and forth about the way that they look at the same evidence and analyse it, to the exploration of the concept of perception in all five seasons of Fringe. And perception, I would say, is the core concept being explored in this book. When five teenagers go on a camping trip, but only four of them are found in the early hours of the morning, police have to run interviews of the four remaining teenagers as soon as possible to try to figure out what happened to Maylee Hayes in time to save her.
The book is a compilation, in a way, of all the police interviews that the remaining four teenagers did. All four stories stand on their own, but not when compared to one another. It makes for quite the puzzle, and while I think that some people are going to be disappointed in the anti-climatic denouement, it makes the entire story much more tragic and makes for a thought provoking read. Each character tends to break the stereotypes that their own interviews placed them in. And are they all lying, is one of them lying, or perhaps could they all have seen the same thing but just interpreted it differently?
The way the book was written also gave the fascinating opportunity to see the same events from different POVs; its always interesting to me to see how perception of an event can alter one’s experience of it. Another fascinating opportunity was seeing parallel events described at the same time but very differently from one character to the next. Tell Me What Really Happened could be a very interesting read to explore as a group of friends or a family to widen understanding of how misunderstandings can happen because of perception, heightened emotions, and lack of communication/miscommunication.

NetGalley ARC Educator 550974


This is a must read, can finish in one sitting, mind blowing book. It tells the story of five teens who take a camping trip but only four return. It is a multiple point of view read. Fans of the First 48 will enjoy this book. It is a great young adult mystery.

Very interesting young adult novel that kept my attention. Several twists and turns that surprised me and kept me guessing. When it was revealed what had really happened to Maylee, it took me by complete surprise.

5 kids decide to go camping for a weekend. The only thing 3 of them have in common is Maylee. Maylee with her electric personality. Everyone loves her. The fifth person is Petra’s step brother. Whose only friends are his gaming friends and people from a chat board about big foot. When one of them goes missing in the middle of the night, everyone goes into a panic.

The story is told in witness police interviews. Interviewing the other 4 kids. It is still quite easy to follow as it jumps from interview to interview.

A fun compelling mystery that was darn next to impossible to put down. This was an absolute page turner.

I really liked this book and it was an easy read. There was twists that I didn’t see coming and the ending was a complete surprise! I highly recommend this book!

Teenagers on a weekend camping trip, what can possibly go wrong?? Everything! When one of the teens vanishes, everyone becomes a suspect. This book was so fun. I am a huge fan of books told in non-traditional forms. This was told mostly by first person police interviews and was just terrific

This was impossible to put down. The format definitely made the experience entertaining, and I loved the buildup of suspense. I was constantly questioning who to trust and who might be lying. However, I’m not sure how I feel about that ending; it was sort of a letdown. Kind of anticlimactic after so much buildup and tension. While it made perfect sense, I’m not sure it was deserved. I definitely would have appreciated a darker, more sinister reveal.
Overall, I would highly recommend this for readers new to the thriller genre or anyone in need of a fun, fast-paced read. Just don’t expect a shocking ending.

"Tell Me What Really Happened": A fast-paced, supernatural YA thriller with conflicting perspectives. The book follows four teenagers recounting a camping trip gone wrong, leaving readers questioning reliability. While the formatting limits character connection, the gripping pace and unique style make it a thrilling read for fans of multiple perspective YA thrillers.

I received this ARC from NetGalley and I was excited by the premise. A group of kids going camping, one of them goes missing and interrogation ensues. I’m a big fan of YA mystery books so this checked a lot of boxes. The biggest problem for me was the writing style. It was written as if the event had occurred and each person is at the police station being interrogated. It has multiple unreliable narrators so I get what the author was going for but it didn’t work for me. It did make for a very quick read and I was ok with the twisty ending. It didn’t wow me but I enjoyed the ride.

Loved this one. Kept me on the edge of my seat. The story kept at a nice pace throughout and I was invested in the story. Great characters.

Imagine living your best life to come back from a camping trip minus one and to be under suspicion. Through this unique interview style writing, discover what really happened.

I liked the original format but unfortunately I felt too old for this book. However I'm sure it would be a very entertaining read for a younger audience because it is not a bad story whatsoever. I just did not really connect to any of the characters.

Super late posting my review, but I really loved this book. It had great shock value! The suspense and mystery kept me on edge. I love books like this. The author was new to me, but I'm a fan for life now.

This story pulled me in pretty quickly. I loved the interview style writing and enjoyed hearing about what went down from multiple different characters. I always love when there are multiple POVs in a book and each character seems to be hiding something; it makes the mystery more fun to try and figure out. Where the book lost me was with the ending. The ending was a bit unsatisfying because there was such a great build up throughout and mystery in the whole story and then way it ended…was anticlimactic. I just felt like after everything that happened in the book, to end it that way, it needed more drama to match the rest of the book. I still appreciated the book and would definitely read more of the author’s work.

I love a YA thriller and Tell Me What Really Happened did not disappoint! Once I got maybe 25% in, I could not put this book down. The author does a good job telling the story from multiple viewpoints and creating interesting, distinct characters. I will say not every "twist" was a total surprise, but the ending caught me by surprise. I would recommend this book for fans of Holly Jackson and Karen McManus.

Overall, I liked this book...I didn't love it but it was ok. After putting the synopsis down in my book journal my main thought was...."riveting, fast-paced" was a bit of an oversell. I MIGHT give it almost "riveting", but when it's all told through police interrogations I'm not sure that qualifies as "fast-paced". I do think the format is innovative but for me it's probably the best part of it.

Five teens go on a camping trip in the local "mysterious" woods. They find an abandoned cabin, they drink, one of them fires a gun, they all go to bed out of sorts with each other. Then one of them is discovered to be missing. Of those left, one of them is a control freak, one is the boyfriend of the missing girl (and only black kid on the trip), one is the control freaks' step-brother who is so far down the bigfoot rabbit hole it's ridiculous and the last one is a former flame of the missing girl-got to represent LGBTQ+ community toO

Thank you Sourcebooks Fire and Netgalley for the arc of TELL ME WHAT REALLY HAPPENED.

The concept of this YA thriller really intrigued me and I enjoyed that the format was setup as police interrogating the suspects, but that’s about where my likes ended.

I found all the main characters to be juvenile and quite annoying. The Bigfoot storyline was a bit too much for me and the twist was underwhelming as well. My advice would be to skip this one.