Tearing Myself Together by Anna Whateley

Title: Tearing Myself Together

Author: Anna Whateley

Genre: Contemporary Young Adult

Publisher: Allen and Unwin

Published: 28^th April 2026

Format: Paperback

Pages: 272

Price:  $19.99

Synopsis: Hilzy’s life is forever coming undone – and so is her body. Friendship is just one more thing she can’t count on…until she has to. A wonderful YA novel that explores found family and forgiveness from the CBCA shortlisted author of Peta Lyre’s Rating Normal.

It’s Year Twelve exam time, and Hilzy has a lot on her plate. She’s just lost her job, she and her sister Max are struggling to make ends meet, and her childhood best friend Imogen recently dobbed them in to child services. The friendship is over.

There’s a new spark of joy when Hilzy grows closer to Dawn, the hippy girl who’s had a crush on her for ages. But when Hilzy ends up in hospital with a busted knee, it’s only Imogen who understands what it’s really like living with an invisible disability. Things are falling apart, but maybe it’s not all on Hilzy to put them back together again.

A smart, funny and profound exploration of the messiness of love, friendship and bodies from the author of Peta Lyre’s Rating Normal.


Perfect for:
– Readers seeking authentic, contemporary teen experiences
– Lovers of coming-of-age and found-family stories
– Empathetic depiction of disability and neurodivergence

~*~

Meet Hilzy. Disabled. Autistic. ADHD. Ehler’s Danlos Syndrome. And one or two other related co-morbidities. She’s in year twelve, and all she wants to do is finish high school, get another job after losing the one she had, and help her sister Max make ends meet. They’ve been living alone since their mother, who is addicted to gambling, took off to perform on cruise ships. Max and Hilzy grapple with food, healthcare and the bills, all whilst trying to repair the rift between Hilzy and her childhood friend Imogen.

Why? Imogen recently told child services what was going on, and now they need to keep themselves together because nobody knows how to help Hilzy like her sister does. Hilzy is determined to finish year twelve, spurred on when she meets Dawn, who has a crush on Hilzy. But then Hilzy ends up in hospital – again. Her knee is busted and she’s back in hospital, and she knows it’s going to change things for her.

Hilzy has invisible disabilities, and the only person who understands is Imogen, her former friend. Max tries, and she’s very supportive, but nobody really knows what having a disability is like apart from other disabled people. People like Dawn and Max are very sympathetic, and they do everything they can to help. This is an emotionally charged book, filled with the complexities of loving your family, but being frustrated with them sometimes. Wanting to grow up and be independent, but always having something invisible that gets in your way, or feels like it is going to hold you back.

It’s unapologetically autistic and loud about disability and poverty, and the intersections of things that we can’t control. It reflects on how addiction in a family affects everyone, not just the addict, and the raw emotions that come with dealing with everything. Hilzy and Max are allowed to be broken and imperfect, they’re allowed to get frustrated and to not know how to respond to things in the moment. Let’s face it – we all think about what we would say when we see or hear something we disagree with, yet it is realistic to freeze in the moment when under stress. And when everything feels like it’s tearing apart, it could be even harder to get things out properly.

I’m glad the instance I am talking about was dealt with well after, as Hilzy manages to talk to the person who was upset and repair a budding relationship that I think was beautifully done. I quite like it when the romantic elements don’t overpower everything else. I felt the main message of this book was inclusivity, family and creating community.  It was an emotional rollercoaster as Hilzy, Max and Imogen navigated school, work, illness and hospitals. As Imogen grapples with her own diagnosis and mortality, things are bittersweet throughout the novel, with a genuine voice that comes from Anna’s own experiences with disability.

We need more books like this, because they show the reality of disability, in the voices of disabled people, without being made into a spectacle or thing to be pitied. And I was cheering for Max, devoted sister and advocate for Hilzy who went off when she needed to, and helped her sister through everything. We all deserve an ally like Max.

This is a book for people who have experienced what Hilzy has, who have experienced invisible disabilities and who are autistic. Because it means we get to be seen, we get to be ourselves. It’s raw, empathetic, genuine and diverse, and I loved Hilzy! She’s such a great character who knows how to be herself, even if she is a bit stubborn at times. But then, she wouldn’t be herself if she didn’t have a bit of that stubborn streak.

A lovely #LoveOzYA, #OwnVoices book that I adored.