Search History is a dark, comedic retelling of Rebecca for the modern age, exploring the influence of social media in our relationships, our sense of identity, and our understanding of the lives of others.

Nothing seems to be going right for Ana: she’s just moved to Melbourne after a nasty breakup, her new job at a tech start-up is proving to be unfulfilling and unpromising, and a particularly questionable dating app experience has left her rattled.

Then she meets Evan, who is funny, charming and kind. He’s everything good that Ana needs in her life right now. But as much as she tries to let their relationship naturally blossom, she can’t help but look him up online. When Ana discovers that Evan’s ex-girlfriend, Emily, died unexpectedly in a hit-and-run, she becomes obsessed, and soon haunted, by the idea of Emily. She cannot go a day without going on Emily’s Instagram account, seeing Evan in her pictures, learning who her family members are, and seeing how perfect Emily’s life was before she died. Soon, Ana begins to worry that she will never compare to Emily in Evan’s eyes. Why does Evan refuse to talk about her? Was their life really as perfect as their social media made it out to be?

I cannot emphasise enough how much I adored this book. Full of wit, humour, and wisdom, Amy Taylor’s debut offers a deeply relatable exploration of the endlessly inquisitive nature of humans, and asks how far into someone else’s private world we would go to have our curiosity satiated. If you’ve ever stalked a person online, or accidentally revealed information you could only have known from searching their social media, or if you’ve ever experienced the very human emotions of love, jealousy, obsession, loss of identity, or confusion about one’s future, read this book. Basically, everyone please read this book!