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A review by beckyremillard
Tell Me What Really Happened by Chelsea Sedoti
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Five teenagers are planning on a one-night camping trip at Salvation Creek. It’s not smooth sailing from the beginning, but gets worse when one of them goes missing. Everyone has their own theories about what happened and what they think needs to be done.
I wasn’t prepared for the story to be written in this format. It was different than anything I’ve read before. The prologue confused me but I got it once I was actually in chapter one.
The premise of the story is that the four teenagers are being questioned by police about the missing girl. We get the perspectives of all four, responding to a question posed by police, which is at the beginning of the chapter. Otherwise, there’s no dialogue from the police. There are a lot of context clues, but the only direct police comments are at the beginning of each chapter.
It’s a formatting you’ll like or hate. If you don’t like the way it’s written after the first couple chapters, you will probably feel that way throughout. But I thought it was a neat way of writing.
Regarding the actual plot, it was decent and fairly quick moving. I didn’t get bored throughout and I read it pretty fast. Don’t expect to like the characters, but they were written well to understand their background.
I guess there were kind of plot twists but they were anticlimactic with the reveal. It tied everything together and shows how one action can have a domino effect, but the reveal of Maylee’s death and how she died wasn’t shocking.
Thank you to NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS Fire for a chance to read and review this book!
I wasn’t prepared for the story to be written in this format. It was different than anything I’ve read before. The prologue confused me but I got it once I was actually in chapter one.
The premise of the story is that the four teenagers are being questioned by police about the missing girl. We get the perspectives of all four, responding to a question posed by police, which is at the beginning of the chapter. Otherwise, there’s no dialogue from the police. There are a lot of context clues, but the only direct police comments are at the beginning of each chapter.
It’s a formatting you’ll like or hate. If you don’t like the way it’s written after the first couple chapters, you will probably feel that way throughout. But I thought it was a neat way of writing.
Regarding the actual plot, it was decent and fairly quick moving. I didn’t get bored throughout and I read it pretty fast. Don’t expect to like the characters, but they were written well to understand their background.
Thank you to NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS Fire for a chance to read and review this book!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Death, and Gun violence
Moderate: Vomit
Minor: Racism