Tell Me What Really Happened by Chelsea Sedoti--Review by Ahana Sil

 Tell Me What Really Happened by Chelsea Sedoti

The classic “four friends go into a forest, four come out” mystery tale with a twist. Maylee Hayes invites several of her friends on a camping trip, but strange occurrences take place and things start to go downhill fast. Maylee is not one of those walking out of the forest that morning. What makes this novel stand out is that it’s told solely using police interviews. While this can get repetitive at times, it was still a fun and interesting way to tell a story that I honestly haven’t seen before. Tell Me What Really Happened is not afraid to discuss bigger issues, such as racism, which I always appreciate in a book. I enjoyed the unique format and the fact that for me personally, I wasn’t able to figure out the real course of events until towards the end of the novel. I will say though, this book definitely has its flaws. Due to the format, the storytelling can sometimes become monotonous or exasperating to read, and there can be too much emphasis placed on a specific aspect of a person’s character. The ending was sloppy to say the least as well as incredibly anticlimactic. I still enjoyed reading it for the most part, but these details can be very easy to pick out especially when the book is formatted like this. Overall this book was very decent, though it did an excellent job of keeping me hooked.