Tell Me What Really Happened

by Chelsea Sedoti

A big thank you to Sourcebooks Fire over on NetGalley for approving my request for an eARC! I’m trying to branch out more this year in genres, and Tell Me What Really Happened is perfect for that goal! I was so excited when I got approved, and I consumed this quickly and as soon as I could.

I went into this book, like most of my books, without reading the summary. Unlike most of the other books I read, I went into it knowing genre and the cover art – and nothing else. Well, besides people saying it was good online. [But no spoilers were read!]

And, I have to say, I don’t disagree.

But, as always, before getting into my recommendation and some non-spoilery thoughts, you can find the summary for this book at the Goodreads link here!

Recommendation: If you’re looking for a good YA mystery, that also happens to be under 400 pages and feels like a quick read, definitely give this one a go! If you’re not looking for that, but you’d like to read a book with some good twists and small details that all add up at the end, you might like this one! If this helps you make your decision, it’s written entirely through first-person police interviews, which adds a really fun and unique twist. All in all, I definitely recommend it, and can’t wait for it to come out!

Even the summary doesn’t tell you any character names, so I can’t speak to any character specifically before the spoiler line without being spoilery, but I can say that the characters didn’t feel superficial or forced. There is, of course, a character I find “weaker” than the others, but even that character doesn’t feel weak, exactly. It’s an interesting combination of teenagers with varying degrees of relation [as in, having relationships with each other/how they know each other/how close they are to each other] and all with their unique personalities and quirks.

I didn’t want to put this book down once I got into it [which didn’t take long!], and I kept thinking back on it once I read it. It didn’t plague my mind like Yellowface or Painted Devils has, but it’s definitely one of the better reads I’ve had this year, and I’ve read some good books so far!

**SPOILER WARNING LINE! THERE WASN’T MUCH I COULD TALK ABOUT THIS BOOK WITHOUT BEING SPOILERY, SO GET READY FOR ALL THE SPOILERS AND DETAILS!***

As much as I read nearly exclusively fantasy now, I grew up reading mainly mysteries with some thrillers mixed in, as that was one of the bigger genres read by one of my parents. Reading this book was like a nice memory jog of my growing-up reading days!

That aside, back to the book. Maylee is such a complicated character. While I found myself mostly annoyed with her, I can understand where her logic and goals come from. She felt manipulative, selfish, and close-minded. Which sounds like a really good line-up of a lot of things I don’t like a person to be. I also don’t really understand Maylee and John as a couple, but some couples don’t make sense on paper while still working in practice. You never know, I guess.

John’s character wasn’t the weakest of the bunch, but he did feel a bit like the obvious scapegoat. That said, he was then turned into a plausible character once more motives and details of the story came to light. As the book went, he felt less forced or weak and more completely plausible. In the end, he and Abigail ended up being my favorite characters. [Because I can rarely ever choose just one favorite character.]

Abigail felt like one of the strongest characters in the book, and I love that about her. She had a well-presented [in terms of how it was written and how it was told to us as the story went on] backstory and life. I actually found myself usually enjoying her parts the best. She felt like a character I could actually see myself being friends with, especially back in high school. Her being “trailer trash” wouldn’t have bothered me, because why should it? While she does end up being a suspect, it felt natural and logical for her to have a motive. Being the feeling-used secret-ex will do that to a person, honestly.

Speaking of the secret-ex, Petra drove me crazy. [Get it? Because, even though she proclaimed to be Maylee’s best friend, she didn’t know about her dating Abigail.] I understand that she’s likely supposed to, but oh my goodness, who could be best friends with her, seriously? No wonder Nolan blows up at her! Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for bluntly-spoken people, but there’s a different between being blunt and Petra. She’s blunt, a control-freak, plans-everything-down-to-the-second-if-she-can, needs-to-be-the-center-of-someone’s-attention teen girl, and maybe she helping me discover why I didn’t really have a lot of female friends in high school. Guys are much better company, in my opinion. Especially in high school.

Speaking of boys, there’s Nolan. Who, I think, is the weakest character of the bunch. Sure, he’s got some unique aspects to him, but he felt a bit forced. While his backstory doesn’t strike as unlikely or improbable, there’s something about how deep his Big Foot obsession goes that feels a little . . . off to me. I don’t know. And then his only contribution to the story for awhile is to be a slight pain to every one on the trip. He’s only there because of Petra and Petra’s dad, he barely knows anyone there, and, outside of his Big Foot obsession and relation to Petra [and having sort of grown up with Maylee?], he just becomes a plot device to throw suspicion onto, and to establish Abigail as a lesbian rather than bi, like Maylee is established as. While him and his drunken shooting of Maylee comes into play [but ultimately isn’t her cause of death] and his Big Foot obsession sparks everyone’s fear of not being alone in the woods, the story likely would have been more or less fine without him. That fear could have been drummed up with Maylee making John watch the scary movies she makes him watch, and Nolan’s presence wouldn’t have been missed.

But that’s basically the harshest critique of this book I’ve got, to be honest. While it wasn’t a five-star read for me, it was a solid four!

Between Yellowface and Tell Me What Really Happened, I’m really enjoying dipping my toes outside of fantasy this year. It’s a nice reminder that, before fantasy essentially consumed my reading habits, I enjoyed other genres too. I’m hoping to mix it up more in the future, so fingers crossed I keep finding good books like these in non-fantasy genres!

I hope you enjoyed this review! I’m aiming to clear some of my review backlog [so many draft posts I never got around to polishing], and to get better about posting my reviews quickly after reading them. Send good vibes! As always: be kind, stay safe, and read on!