This review begins with a confession: I’m a lurker. I once found a website through which you can watch people’s Instagram stories without them knowing; multiple times a day, I typed in the name of the ex of the man I was seeing. I searched everything she posted – photos of food, selfies, songs – for hints about their relationship, which I hoped would tell me more about him. I knew it was unhinged but I couldn’t stop. Even after my relationship with the man ended, I continued to mindlessly look at his ex. I felt as though I knew her.
Ana, the late-20s protagonist of Australian writer Amy Taylor’s debut novel, does the same thing when, having fled to Melbourne from Perth after a bad breakup, she begins a relationship with Evan, a man she meets not on the apps but at a bar. She tries to savour the IRL-ness of it all – but, when Evan adds her on Facebook, she finds a photo of his ex, Emily, and discovers that the woman died a year earlier. Down the rabbit hole she goes, while pretending to Evan she knows nothing. He won’t talk about it, anyway.
