This reviewer has long benefited from the recommendation by Australian author Shivaun Plozza, that when providing critique to a literary work, we should trust our initial emotional response, e.g. how we feel when we first finish reading it. Ask ourselves this, before any intellectual and coherent attempt to find out why we have such a response.

Considering the fact that it took four attempts for this reviewer to finally finish Australian author Amy Taylor's debut novel Search History, it feels imperative that credible, relevant and significant reasons are found to explain why the reading has been difficult. Indeed, every other reviewer out there seems to have only praises for this book.

Perhaps it is the protagonist Ana, who begins her first-person narrative with the confession that “at some point after a breakup, the desire to sleep with someone else arrives”. She then “selected someone from an app” and, after four days of courtship via text messaging, ended up being nearly choked to death when she met him for the first time.

Perhaps it is how cynical and dissatisfied Ana is about her life, to the extent that she finds people as observed through her phone are far more realistic and reliable than their presence in real life. The moment she meets someone, she immediately goes online to examine their social media posts as a way to validate their past and present.

Perhaps it is the way Ana becomes obsessed with finding out everything about Emily, the ex-girlfriend of her new love interest Evan. Like the nameless first-person narrator in Daphne du Maurier's 1938 novel Rebecca, Ana is haunted by how perfect Emily is in her posts, which are forever preserved on the Internet even after her death.

Perhaps it is how Ana allows her imagination to run wild, depriving herself of any sense of self-confidence and security as she excessively compares herself to the wonderful fiction that is her own mind's projection of Emily. Worse, all her guesses, assumptions, deductions and speculations are based on the results of her relentless online searches.

Perhaps first-person narration and self psychology are not a good combination in fiction. As Ana repeatedly tries to analyse her own mind and its impact on her behaviour, her emotions become erratic and her actions unjustifiable. Even more unreasonable is her persistent attempt to analyse Evan's mind and its impact on his behaviour – and to respond to it accordingly.

Perhaps this is something that everyone who finds themselves in love would do. Perhaps this is a distinct “millennial” phenomenon that is highly relatable to readers of a certain demographic. Perhaps the success of Search History derives from its clever and truthful depiction of the kind of love and angst that is common in our Internet age.

As tech and culture writer Kyle Chayka observes in his article "The Rise of the Very Online Novel" via The New Public: “It's easy to hate the Internet, to bemoan its influence; it's harder to contend with it as our era's dominant mode of expression.” Perhaps this reviewer is simply too old(-fashioned) to appreciate it.

Note: This review is based on the print and digital copies of the book sourced from the reviewer's local library.

Really enjoyed the journey this character went on. the author did a good job at presenting characters as morally gray and outlining that our behaviours and decisions arent simply black and white. At times it was difficult to deal with the decisions the characters were making but that is a sign of good writing. A really cute ending.

this was such a sharp and witty debut novel from amy taylor and i am really impressed!

search history explores many of the themes of modern dating. it touches on loads of really prevalent themes, and had a great balance of sharp humour with hard-hitting truths. i really enjoyed seeing how the characters were developed.

on the one hand i didn’t feel it was particularly inspired (in the sense that they were all pretty standard observations of the challenges of modern dating) and so it didn’t challenge my thinking or give a revelatory new perspective on dating, which i was kind of hoping it would. but also i think that was okay, and i still enjoyed it for what it was. overall would recommend, this was a good read😊

“Search History” is an utterly absorbing contemporary novel, although I don’t entirely agree with the blurb on what it’s about. It’s an impressive debut, one that drew me in deeper than many recent reads.

Ana is not in a particularly good place. She moved to Melbourne impulsively after a bad breakup. She has few friends, she’s having trouble connecting with anyone romantically, and she’s doing an uninspiring job. Regularly scrolling her ex’s social media only makes things worse, as he seems very happy without her.

Then Ana meets Evan. She’s aware that the way she uses social media isn’t ideal, and she’s determined not to look him up. She’ll find out about him in real life. Except… it’s hard to know how to present yourself when you don’t know anything about someone, isn’t it? Before long she succumbs and looks him up.

That leads her to the discovery that Evan’s last girlfriend, Emily, died unexpectedly. Their relationship looks perfect, and Emily seems wonderful. Ana begins to obsess about the details of the relationship, comparing it to her relationship with Evan.

The blurb talks about this story as one of obsession, and of over using social media. Both are strong themes, it’s true. But I think this is also about perceptions, assumptions, facades and honesty. Ana is fairly acute in understanding some of the ways people interact with others and try to manipulate them – for example, she “knows” exactly what reaction Evan is trying to provoke when he gives her the silent treatment. But she’s making a lot of assumptions, based on what she sees on social media, her past experience, and indeed what Evan says and does.

The novel subtly and thoughtfully explores the impact of relying on incorrect assumptions, unexamined theories, and of not actually explicitly talking to people. I appreciated the subtlety of this, and the way things changed through the novel, underlining some of these themes.

I found Ana a very believable character. She’s not the kind of person I’d really want as a friend, but she’s very understandable. It helps that she understands herself quite well, and can express that, even while she’s fooling herself about other things. She lives the sort of life a lot of people do: marking time professionally, having bad Tinder dates, struggling to make friends.

I found the ending a satisfying mixture of things I’d totally expected and others that caught me off guard. It’s a good writing style, foreshadowing some things gently and holding others back. It’s easy to read and flows well.

This is a relatively short novel, but I found it absorbing and perceptive. It tells a good story, while also prompting the reader to think about some important issues. It’s satisfying on all levels.

I really liked this book. Like really really.

First up, Ana. She was lovable but flawed, and the book was written in such a way that had you properly rooting for her. Her family situation was explored really well, and it was really interesting to read about a divorced couple through the lens of their detached child.

I also really adored the exploration of expectation and communication, and what that does to a relationship and to a person. I’ve never come across a book that has delved quite as deep into the psyche of someone trying to come to terms with the online clashing into their relationship.

Fans of Genevieve Novak, Diana Reid and books about twenty-something women struggling through relationships will love this book.

Search History is the first novel by Australian author, Amy Taylor. Needing a change of scene after a break-up with her boyfriend of four years, Ana quits Perth, much to the chagrin of her mother, and goes to live and work in Melbourne, where she knows no-one. She has intermittent contact with her father in Bali, and her mother is stubbornly silent.

She’s living a rather lacklustre existence: a tiny, dowdy flat, a mediocre job with a wanky boss and uninteresting colleagues, and no real social life. Her best friend Beverly is still in Perth: calls and texts really aren’t enough to keep them close. Her first foray into online dating is not a good experience. She is still stalking her ex’s social media accounts, analysing every photo and comment with forensic intensity.

When she encounters Evan in a pub, she’s immediately attracted, and it seems mutual. But even though they begin dating and progress to intimacy, Ana is disturbed that Evan shares so little of his past. After initially resisting the urge, she trawls his social media and discovers that his ex died some months earlier. She agonises over mentioning this, nervous of jeopardising this fledgling relationship.

She develops an unnatural, probably unhealthy, obsession with the dead woman, haunting her social media, constantly checking it, poring over photos, clips and comments, going to yoga at the studio where she taught. Meanwhile, mentally she rationalises Evan’s reticence about his ex.

Ana is an angsty twenty-eight-year-old who constantly second-guesses herself and overanalyses every word, gesture and facial expression, every nuance of communication, or lack thereof. Connecting with this protagonist will perhaps be easier for younger readers; others may well find her frustrating, wishing they could grab her by the shoulders and tell her “just live your own life!”

While certain aspects of the story are quite thought-provoking, it does drag a fair bit in the middle, and only some rather good twists at the end redeem it from a lower rating. Nonetheless, an impressive debut novel.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Allen & Unwin.

Thank you to Netgalley & Allen & Unwin for the chance to review this book.

Amy Taylor hit the nail on the head with her debut novel. Search History portrays the angst we all feel post break up, from denial to the inadequacy we all feel when comparing ourselves to others. Amy has captured the feelings and thought processes we all go through whilst trying to navigate the mine field of returning to dating and how social media isn’t always as it seems.

I am excited to see more from her.