The books in the series:
- Can You See Me? (May 2, 2019)
- Do You Know Me? (April 2, 2020)
- Ways To Be Me (July 1, 2021; prequel)
- All the Pieces of Me (August 4, 2022)
Can You See Me? contains examples of:
- Alpha Bitch: Skye from Do You Know Me? is a popular, "fun" girl who makes fun of weird kids. She almost gets kicked out of the camp after she steals some other kids' letters to make fun of them, but is allowed to stay after her dad threatens to sue. She mentions at one point that the only reason she's on the camping trip is that her parents valued their ability to take a cruise over her happiness.
- Bad Mood Retreat: In Do You Know Me? Tally goes on a residential trip, which she finds very stressful and unpleasant. She finds a quiet spot in the woods where she can hide out when she's feeling overwhelmed. To her annoyance, the other kids soon discover the spot and start hanging out there, making it harder to get any solitude.
- The Bro Code: In All the Pieces of Me, Tally hears her older sister Nell crying and asks why. Nell explains that she's been hanging out with Tyler, a boy her best friend Rosa liked, and she thought it was okay until they got in a big fight about it and Rosa stopped talking to her or answering her texts. Tally suggests that Nell write Rosa a letter, which Nell admits is a pretty good idea.
- Character Tics: Tally flaps her hands when she's stressed or excited. She tries not to do it in front of her classmates.
- Commonality Connection:
- Tally connects to Rupert, a three-legged dog the family takes in after his owner is placed in a nursing home, because she knows what it's like to be seen as defective.
- In Do You Know Me? Tally befriends Jade, another autistic girl, and Gregory, an anxious, hyperactive boy who's seen as weird and annoying by everyone else. Due to her own problems with anxiety, she knows how to use logic to calm his fears.
- In Ways to Be Me, Tally goes horseback riding and is paired with the "spirited" horse Peaches. Tally gets along well with Peaches, who she feels is nice but misunderstood, like herself
- Cosmetic Catastrophe: In All the Pieces of Me, Tally copies one of Lucy's make-up tutorials so she can look cool at school. But when she gets to school, the other girls laugh at her, saying she looks like a clown, or a little kid who raided her mum's room, and tell her to wash it off before anyone else notices. Tally can't tell what she did wrong no matter how hard she studies her reflection, but she scrubs her face with paper towels until she's sure all the make-up is gone.
- Counting Sheep: Tally tries this in All the Pieces of Me. It doesn't work, because the sheep keep jumping the wrong way, and she can't keep track of which ones she's already counted.
- Dedication: "For Mum. Thank you for understanding me and helping to understand myself. This book is also dedicated to every girl that feels like she doesn't fit in - stand out and be brave!" from Libby Scott and "For Adam, who from the very first, glorious day has encouraged me to look up at the sky instead of down at my feet" from Rebecca Westcott.
- Desk Sweep of Rage: Nell says she'll take Tally to get ice cream in "a few" minutes, which Tally thinks means two. When Nell still doesn't want to go after two minutes, Tally is so angry at her for saying something that's not true that she knocks the lamp off Nell's desk.
- Five-Finger Discount: In All the Pieces of Me, Tally's "friends" pressure her into stealing a top from a store by smuggling it out under her T-shirt. She goes along with it because she's terrified of being friendless at school. She shoves it into a bin at the first opportunity, but still hates herself for stealing it.
- Go to Your Room!: In Ways to Be Me, Nell insults Tally, and Tally attacks her and yanks out some of her hair. She's ordered to her room for it.
- Gym Class Hell: Tally hates gym class. She's so unathletic that the teacher assumes she's being deliberately lazy, and she hates changing in front of other people.
- Happy Place: Tally likes being high up, so her happy place is floating on a cloud, miles above everyone else. In Do You Know Me? Skye, who is secretly afraid of heights, freezes up on a climbing course in the trees. Tally, trying to think of the opposite of her own happy place, tells Skye to imagine being in a cave or a dark cellar, which only scares her more.
- Instant Humiliation: Just Add YouTube!: In All the Pieces of Me, Lucy films Tally humming, stimming, and covering her ears and uploads it to Instagram, where her classmates post increasingly nasty comments about her. Tally is so upset that she misses three days of school. When she gets back, Lucy offers a "Just Joking" Justification. Tally doesn't buy it and finally ditches her "friends," but another kid films that and posts the sped-up footage on Instagram, where commenters accuse her of being ungrateful. Instead of trying to get revenge, Tally films herself singing songs that express her feelings and uploads them to YouTube; when her songs get more views than the cruel videos, Tally is satisfied that she's shown people who she really is.
- Messy Hair: Tally hates the sensation of hairbrush bristles so much that she almost never brushes her hair. Her older sister Nell complains that her hair looks like a bird's nest.
- Missing Mom: Tally's cruel classmate Luke tells her he feels sorry for her parents for having to raise her. Tally retorts that his parents must have a horrible life putting up with him and says, "I'd run away if I was them," remembering too late that his mother actually did run away last year. This causes all her friends to turn against her.
- Nonconformist Dyed Hair: In All the Pieces of Me, New Transfer Student Annie has rainbow coloured hair that Tally compares to a unicorn. Tally finds her a little scary, because she's never met someone who looks different on purpose, like she doesn't mind being stared at. Annie later stands up to Tally's thieving, bullying friends instead of changing who she is to fit in with them, like Tally does. Tally eventually realizes that it's better to be alone than to cut off pieces of yourself to fit in, and that Annie would make a much better friend than any of the girls in Tally's group.
- Parental Fashion Veto: In Ways to Be Me, Tally persuades Mum to buy her a crop top if she promises not to wear it in public. In fact, she wants to wear it to a laser tag party because her friends will all be wearing similar tops, but Mum makes her wear a T-shirt instead. When she arrives, she finds that Layla's mum made her wear a T-shirt, too.
- Put Off Their Food: Tally stopped eating bananas after she saw a video of a spider emerging from a banana after it was opened.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Tally and the drama teacher, Mrs Jarman, don't get off to a good start. Mrs Jarman is frighteningly loud, and mistakes Tally's attempts at providing helpful suggestions for deliberate rudeness. However, once she realizes Tally is sincere, she follows her advice to speak more quietly, among other things. She refuses to tolerate bullying and does her best to help all the students feel comfortable and express themselves.
- Sensory Overload: Tally finds the hallways and cafeteria of Kingswood Academy horribly overwhelming.
- Sitting on the Roof: Tally likes to sit on the roof of the garden shed, even though she isn't supposed to be up there.
- Sore Loser: Tally deals badly with losing at games because it makes her feel like she's useless at everything. She once ripped down the curtains after losing at Monopoly.
- Tantrum Throwing: In Ways To Be Me, Tally has a habit of throwing things around when she's really upset. She's become somewhat calmer by the next two books.
- Tears of Joy: Nell cries when Mum calls her to tell her that Dad will be fine; he collapsed due to appendicitis, which has now been successfully treated.
- Title Drop: Tally used to say "Can you see me?" all the time whenever she put on her beloved tiger mask. In the present, she says it to Rupert when she sees him in his new muzzle.
- Tropey, Come Home: Tally's dad collapses and has to be taken to the hospital while out walking Rupert, who takes the opportunity to escape. Tally and Nell go out at night to search for him, even though Nell thinks it's a terrible idea. They find him in his former owner's front garden.
- Troubled Fetal Position: In All the Pieces of Me, Tally becomes increasingly burned out from overload and masking at school. One morning she wakes up and finds that she doesn't have it in her to go to school again. When her mum tries to persuade her to go, she wedges herself between the wardrobe and the bed, curls up in a tiny ball, puts her hands over her head, and enters total shutdown, unable to move and mostly unaware of what's happening around her.
- What You Are in the Dark: In Ways to Be Me, Tally steals her classmate Carrie's ladybird necklace, which is a good luck charm. Tally knows she can get away with keeping it, because she thinks it's working for her, but even if nobody else found out, she'd know, so she confesses to the theft and gives the necklace back to Carrie.
