Reviews with content warning for Blood - Tell Me What Really Happened

Holy cow. I read this in one day, so my thoughts are jumbled.

I love a good police interview transcript in a book. This book is ENTIRELY police transcripts. I enjoyed it thoroughly. I had no clue until the very end, and I was genuinely guessing and trying to piece things together. I guessed one or two little twists, but not any of the major ones.

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vj_thompson's review

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emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

Five teenagers decide to go camping in the wood where girls are known to go missing; Salvation Creek. Four made it out. Maylee did not…It’s up to the four “friends” to figure out what happened to Maylee. All of them are hiding something but what? That is up to the reader, and the investigating detective, to figure out.

I love interview style books. Listening to the audio book version was also great. The voices match the age of the characters. I thought Petra’s voice actor was fitting for the character since she was supposed to be an analytical know-it-all. I would definitely recommend listening to the audio book version rather than reading this story. I tried reading at first but found it difficult and slow.

The thing is, I don’t know how I would rate this read. I also don’t know if I would recommend this to adult readers who like to read YA. I thought it was just ok. I’ve read better YA thrillers. Nolan’s character was VERY annoying and frustrating. There is always that one annoying character. I knew what had happened right as the author set up the Maylee’s disappearance. The author also had the characters make small observations but these were never answered.

One last frustrating thing was that the book didn’t get good until the 50% mark then again around 70%. It was slow pace until these points.

What I loved was John’s background about the “accident.” The author did a great job writing and depicting small town racism. It reminded me of what unfortunately happened in the small town I grew up in. The voice actor did a great job narrating this portion as well. I was very moved by how he spoke the words and felt every ounce of pain he spoke.

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daringreader13's review

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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lizanneyoung's review against another edition

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mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated

5.0

I received an eARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was initially interested in this book because of the unconventional style of being told through police interviews. I love books that don’t follow a “traditional” format typically, and this sounded like a fun spin on the chapter-based narrative.

Tell Me What Really Happened was stunning. Each chapter is designed as an answer to an interrogation question, which was a nice touch. There are pauses noted as if the police are asking follow-up questions or providing additional information, but those questions or details aren’t given to the reader, so you try to piece it together alongside what happened to Maylee, the missing teen.

The inclusion of cryptozoology made me smile. I have always been interested in cryptids, and it was interesting to see that woven into the narrative and used in the way it was.

What really made me rate this book five stars was how it made me feel. I usually read late at night while my husband is asleep, and I found I couldn’t do that with this book. I was spooking myself trying to read in the dark as the four teens describe their time in the woods overnight. I applaud Sedoti for doing that to me.

It also evoked how I felt watching two of my favorite horror movies: The Blair Witch Project and Oculus. Teens frantically wandering the woods trying to find the people they came with, strange noises, the feeling of eyes on you, and a strange cabin all gave me The Blair Witch Project vibes. I half-expected the book to end with someone in the corner of a room. In trying not to give spoilers, I will simply say that the ending of Tell Me What Really Happened reminded me of the ending to Oculus in terms of the confusion felt by a character and the impact their environment had on their decisions.

I would be lying if I wasn’t surprised by the intentions for the camping trip. What did surprise me was how calculated and well-planned it was from the character’s point of view. Their expectations were realistic, even if it disappoints me that it would definitely work in today’s world.

Tell Me What Really Happened is a wonderful take on the YA thriller that left me slightly spooked in the dark but desperate to know what happened next and how the story would come to an end.

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avidreaderandgeekgirl's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Well, I hated just about every character! Except for Abagail, who was used, and Josh (was it? John?) who I totally understood his anger at everyone for not understanding their privilege. Especially Maylee, what a little self-centered careless sociopath she was. Wasn't sad to see her go, to be honest! Nolan was annoying AF, with his constant, insistent, and illogical bigfoot theories! Though in the end, I guess I see how that led to the conclusion. But goodness was he ANNOYING!
The narration was excellent. And the conclusion to the mystery was unique, not who you'd expect. But boy was the journey hard to get through, with annoying Nolan it was very difficult.

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bookedandbusy's review

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book was INTENSE. I loved it so much. I didn’t know what to think or who to trust, and there were so many twists and turns and it made my head spin.

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camiclarkbooks's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I received a digital ARC of “Tell Me What Really Happened” by Chelsea Sedoti through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

Chelsea Sedoti’s “Tell Me What Really Happened” is a gripping YA mystery about a five teens who go on a last-minute camping trip. But only four leave the woods because just after midnight, one of them disappeared.

The remaining four are taken into police custody and are interrogated separately to find out exactly what happened the night before. As the hours tick by, the teens’ lies and truths are slowly revealed. But is it too late?

“Tell Me What Really Happened” is told entirely through the first-person police interviews of the four high schoolers that made it out of the woods. The characters are separated and are sharing their side of the incident during their interrogation. We don’t see the detectives that interview the characters and the only dialogue we hear from them are at the very beginning of each chapter. Other than that, it’s only what the teenagers reference in their interviews.

The first-person interview format gives the book an interesting hook. It also increases the stakes by allowing the reader to intimately see what the other characters are feeling about their missing friend. As the story progresses, the reader has a chance to solve the mystery as the characters share their memories of the night before.

Each of the five characters represents a specific high school stereotype—an academic overachiever, a conspiracy theorist, a social outcast, a control freak, and a wannabe social media influencer—and those stereotypes really drive the plot. The characters were fairly diverse, which is so important in YA books.

“Tell Me What Really Happened” is a solid YA mystery that relies on tried-and-true tropes presented in a very unique way. The first-person police interviews heighten the tension of the story. It won’t be long before the reader is biting their nails to figure out what really happened in Salvation Creek that fateful camping trip.

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