Search History, Amy Taylor's first novel, focuses on Ana, a woman in her late 20s who is navigating the dating world, both online and in real life, following a significant breakup. Ana's ups and downs center mainly on the new relationship she begins with Evan, a man with a past. But a variety of experiences in her own and other women characters' romantic lives are more alarming than encouraging when it comes to the modern dating landscape.
After the end of a four-year relationship, Ana starts over by moving from Perth to Melbourne and beginning a new job. Her friends are astonished when she meets Evan at a bar, rather than online. "Have you found him online yet?" a work friend asks anxiously. When Ana replies that she has, her friend sighs with "genuine relief." Evan seems perfect--perhaps its own red flag--but Ana has found his ex-girlfriend online, too, and rapidly begins an obsession with that other woman's online presence, a preoccupation that threatens to overshadow her real-life relationship with Evan. Meanwhile, the men Ana and other women encounter via dating apps or in person showcase a variety of tendencies, ranging from troubling to outright threatening. And Ana struggles as well to connect with each of her parents: her passive-aggressive mother back in Perth, who is giving Ana the silent treatment, and her "belligerently optimistic" father in Bali, where he exclaims a lot (in rare phone calls) over breath work and intimacy coaching.
Search History is concerned with relationships, (mis)communication, and fear. Ana is frightened of the strange man running behind her in the dark, of the man taking the drunk woman home from the party, of sending Evan a text that will scare him away. And in its central theme, the novel questions the usefulness of an online dating persona. Ana notes Evan's eye color from a picture online: "It was a piece of information I should have learned the first time I saw his eyes catch sunlight, not through a screen." Is she better off Googling her next potential lover? Is that research necessary for her safety? Or should she allow him "to reveal himself to me piece by piece in real life, unburdened by my preconceived assumptions"? Which version of Evan--and of Ana--is the real one?
With its expert pacing, Search History offers frank handling of sexuality and desire, and unvarnished descriptions of sexual violence and harassment (which may be triggering for some readers). Ana is self-aware and funny, lonely and self-questioning. Her first-person narration is stark, vulnerable, and approachable. Taylor presents a clever and often harrowing examination of 21st-century dating. --Julia Kastner, librarian and blogger at pagesofjulia
Shelf Talker: This wise debut novel explores modern dating themes and pitfalls in on- and offline realms.