About The Book

Tizzy's trying to keep her cool.

It's the 90s.

She's nineteen, fueled by caffeine, riot grrrl, and repression.

She's got a boyfriend, a job at the hip campus co-op, and a roommate who burns sage in the bathroom. But when her body starts to short-circuit, memories she's spent years keeping at bay surge to the surface. To top it off, Tizzy finds herself drawn to TJ, her boyfriend's best friend - all swagger, sarcasm, and unexpected tenderness in her leather jacket and combat boots.

With her nervous system lighting up in ways she can no longer ignore, Tizzy begins to realize she must face what she's been running from. Tizzy is a fever dream of denial and desire, a coming-of-age novel in which the key to healing is feeling everything.

About The Author

Elena Azzoni is an Italian American writer whose work explores identity, desire, and the long road back to the body. She holds an MFA in Creative Inquiry from New College of California. Tizzy is her first novel. She lives with her family in Brooklyn, NY.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Rise Books (March 26, 2026)
  • Length: 240 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781959524274

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Raves and Reviews

"In her novel, Tizzy, Azzoni intimately captures the complexity of inhabiting a body in the wake of trauma by examining the ways in which we abandon ourselves to survive, and how personal and systemic forces shape our coping strategies. Tracing the nonlinear path of somatic healing, Tizzy is a story of listening inward, reclaiming agency, and discovering that even after rupture, connection to ourselves and others is possible."

– Staci Haines, Author of The Politics of Trauma and Director of the Outer Work Project

“Azzoni's Tizzy, refuses to take the shape of a trauma narrative. True to life, Azzoni casts a net over the full spectrum of human emotion, allowing pain and grief to co-exist with joy, humor, crushes, friendships, family, and the everyday. The novel follows Tizzy as she takes on the difficult and necessary work of re-inhabiting herself—not as the girl she was before, but as an architect of herself and her future. Tizzy is an honest, tender and immersive read. Radiant, visceral, and profoundly hopeful, Tizzy is an anthem for anyone journeying through the radical act of coming home to themselves.”

– Shoshana von Blanckensee, Author of Girls Girls Girls

"Beautiful and moving."

– Andrea Lawlor, Author of Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl

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