Constant Reader March 2025 YA: Tell Me What Really Happened
Chelsea Sedoti Recreates Rashomon For Readers That Probably Never Heard of It
Few films in the history have been more influential that Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon, his 1951 masterpiece which tells the story of a murder from three different perspectives, all of which are similar but have enough differences so that no one is sure what the real truth of what happened is. Even people who’ve never seen the film know the term, and we have seen it play out in TV, movies, books and almost every other form of popular culture ever since.
I’m pretty sure that none of the four characters we spend time with in Tell Me What Really Happened have heard of the film or Kurosawa. Indeed I’m sure none of them even watches anything older then them and none of them are out of high school. But I think there’s a slight possibility that Maylee, the missing girl who links all of them together, may have at least heard of it on social media. Throughout the novel she speaks in terms of reality and truth. Indeed late in the book she tells a friend: “I’m not even sure there’s such a thing as truth.” And: “Maybe more than one thing can be true at once.” At that exact point that particular character wants to punch her in the face, and to be fair by that point you’re right there with them.
Tell Me What Really Happened takes a format we’ve seen countless times before and reverses it. The novel is told entirely from the perspective of first-person police interviews, all given to perhaps one or even many police officers in a station. The novel starts with each of the four people having various opinions about what has happened to a fifth: Maylee Hayes. Petra is furious, certain her best friend is missing and says the police are wasting time talking to them. Nolan is certain that Maylee was eaten by a bigfoot. Abigail thinks that John, who we learn is Maylee’s boyfriend killed her. John is there with an attorney.
The characters we’ve met then start giving us details of their lives, however reluctantly. Petra Whitfield says she’s Maylee’s best friend who she’s known since kindergarten. She is the daughter of one of police officers in town and quickly we learn that she’s an expert on law enforcement, camping and is an incredibly abrasive control freak. Maylee is by far the most popular girl in their high school and it slowly becomes clear that Petra holds on to here because Maylee is not just her best friend but her only friend.
Nolan Anderson is her stepbrother, one year younger then her. Their parents married after Petra’s mother died and Nolan’s parents got divorced. Petra cares about Nolan probably more than he does about her, but she’s worried about him because he spends all his time on the internet, mainly in regard to a website that has to do with the existence of Bigfoot. He doesn’t like the outdoors or camping at all and his family is concerned about his spending time online.
John Massey, Junior is Maylee’s boyfriend and critically, the only African-American among them. He makes it clear early on this isn’t the first time he’s been in an interrogation room before and he’s been burned so badly that it’s clear that he thinks this will end with him in prison.
Abigail Buckley was a former friend of Maylee’s, whose clearly deeply religious, has a father with clear libertarian leanings and believes in telling the truth at all cost.
The camping trip seems to be Maylee’s idea and none of the four people are sure why it’s happening. John doesn’t like going into the outdoors but he clearly loves his girlfriend. Petra assumes she’s decided to organize it for the opportunity to be alone with John for a few days but doesn’t understand why Abigail was invited. Abigail says she thought she was invited to become friends with Maylee. Nolan didn’t want to go at all but their parents basically forced them to do so. He only brightens up when they here that Maylee wants to camp out at Salvation Creek, which when you hear how the creek got its name really makes you wonder if anyone puts thought into naming anything. The reason Nolan wants to go is because believes that there will be sightings of Bigfoot.
From the start things are vaguely ominous. Petra has everything organized to start as quickly as possible but Maylee calls and said she’ll need more time, causing them to leave late. She’s then shocked to find out that Abigail has been invited something Maylee didn’t tell her — or John — about before. Maylee says that she’s helping Abigail because she’s being bullied at school and this is an act of charity. John has never been prepared for going outdoors and he tries to play it cool when Petra and Maylee basically talk over him and force him to do most of the loading. He’s also nervous because he’s heard news a storm is coming soon. Maylee behaves rudely to Nolan from the start, so he feels no desire to help. And while this is going on Maylee makes sure that there are pictures of her being taken in front of the camping gear and is annoyed by the quality.
None of them are wild about going to Salvation Creek except for Maylee who basically insists they set up camp there. Petra keeps insisting on a schedule and is running the place like a martinet, something Nolan keeps ragging her on. Quickly we see Nolan didn’t bring any camping gear of importance, save for thermal imaging devices which he begin. Abigail learns that Maylee never told her to bring her own tent for this trip. Not long after that we learn that Abigail and Maylee used to date themselves. Then they find a footprint and Nolan ceases on it as proof of Bigfoot. John starts to get the sensation that they are not alone in the woods. Maylee then begins to openly mock Nolan and Petra basically defends Maylee because she thinks Nolan is an idiot. By this point we hear that the real reason Petra is friends with Maylee is because they’re alike: “she needs space to be ugly.” But for some reason she manages to turn it off around John. Then she insists they go into the woods.
During this part of the interview all of them tell us that Maylee’s dream career is to be an influencer. This is something not even Petra thinks is something that is a realistic goal:
“Look…she’s very passionate about it. And of course I’m going to support anything my best friend is passionate about, even if it’s not my thing.
Once I told her, “You know everything on social media is fake, right?”
Maylee was like, “Duh, Petra, that’s the whole point. Who wants to live in the real world?”
At one she asks if she had a backup plan. Maylee says: “Making backup plans is for people who don’t believe in themselves.” For the first time she criticizes her friend for losing focus. And it becomes very clear to the outsiders that she has other options. At that moment she tells everyone she’s planning to go to Mykonos next year and Petra asks her where she plans to get the money. Maylee tells her she doesn’t need every detail planned out. This is something Abigail knows about but Petra doesn’t and it becomes clear that Petra’s friendship may not be as close as they think.
As they go deeper into the woods, eventually they find a cabin. Nolan is disappointed not to find Bigfoot but insists that they go in. This upsets everybody. John is unsettled because he and Maylee saw a horror movie the night before with murders taking place in a cabin that he didn’t like. Quickly it becomes clear that this cabin has been inhabited recently.
Everybody returns to the campsite. Maylee has brought liquor and she proceeds to get Nolan, who’s never drunk before, very drunk. Petra’s bothered by this but Maylee says it’ll be hilarious. Then she suggests playing Truth or Dare and then Petra learns that Maylee and Abigail used to date, something that Abigail had thought was a secret but that Nolan knew about. Abigail had wanted the relationship to be public but Maylee said no and three weeks later starting dating John. Then Maylee starts bringing up John’s history with the cops and Abigail’s father’s politics. Nolan asks why Maylee’s such a bitch, something he doesn’t remember because he’s drunk. Maylee starts being incredibly cruel.
At this point Petra tells us an anecdote about Maylee about how she likes riling people up. Maylee says she’s making peoples lives more interesting. That everyone wants drama. For the first time Petra understands why people could hate Maylee. And while all this chaos and anger is going on Maylee is smiling. Then she walks away and fires a gun in the air, which no one knows was brought until then.
And that I think is enough of the plot. Rest assured most of the real action is still to come as well as some of the truth about why John is afraid of the police and why Nolan believes that there is a bigfoot in the woods. Instead I’d like to talk about Maylee who everyone sees a certain part of but no one seems to really see.
By this point in my summary you might think you have a picture of the kind of person Maylee is and that there might be something darker below the surface. There is something darker about Maylee to be sure but there is no surface. There’s no depths to her. In truth she’s probably not that different from so many other people of her generation, particularly given that the only career she really sees herself being is an influencer the most shallow of all careers. We keep getting bits and pieces of who Maylee is, mostly from Abigail and Petra but it becomes clear that Maylee only sees other people as a screen on which she can see herself. She doesn’t care about anybody, certainly not any of the people on this trip. It’s clear she has charisma among those who know her but it’s clearly based entirely on her looks. She’s also an expert on how to manipulate people in doing what she thinks is best for her, and she knows enough about human nature to know how to manipulate her friends — but critically not her family.
What Maylee cares about is how the world sees her. At one point she makes it clear that she wants to be a legend and it doesn’t matter whether its for being loved or being hated. She doesn’t care about consequences of her actions; she doesn’t care how they affect other people. When we learn the nature of why they’ve gone to Salvation Creek in the first place, it’s clear not only how shallow her basic reason is but also her idea as to how much impact it will have in an age where social media has shortened the national attention span.
Its also clear that when the second half of the novel takes place Maylee hasn’t thought what it might mean to have so many people who cared about her in the same place and who knew just enough about what had happened before to make the wrong assumptions. It’s clear that Petra’s original comment about having every detail planned out — something Maylee clearly didn’t think of — is one of those things that was going to have consequences.
It is probably not much of a spoiler to tell you that by the second half of the novel we learn that Maylee is dead: Nolan and Abigail already think that is what happened though both differ on the details. But neither of them are telling the full story of what they know and their perceptions on preconceived notions. None of them are aware of the full details of the night, which is where the Rashomon parallel is the closest but unlike the movie, where it’s unclear on who’s responsible at the end, Sedoti makes it very clear what happened to Maggie and how exactly it did.
The ending is, in my opinion, incredibly satisfactory for many reasons, not the least of which is I feel little sympathy for the ‘victim’ and the circumstances that led to her dying. Perhaps if there had been a more concrete explanation for ‘the killer’ I might be more upset but when we learn the final causes of it, I can’t help but take a grim satisfaction from it.
I should also mention that when it’s done there’s an epilogue that discusses everybody deciding to go home. One of them, however, has decided to do something to ‘honor’ her friend’s memory. It’s not clear if she’s doing out of love or hate but as the final sentences make clear that never mattered to Maylee and in a sense, it makes sure she gets what she deserves. That person is the one who has a reason the greatest betrayal by Maylee and honestly, I think there’s poetic justice there too.