Best Offer Wins by Marisa Kashino

 

Summary (from the publisher): An insanely competitive housing market. A desperate buyer on the edge. In Marisa Kashino’s darkly humorous debut novel, Best Offer Wins, the white picket fence becomes the ultimate symbol of success—and obsession. How far would you go for the house of your dreams?

Eighteen months and 11 lost bidding wars into house-hunting in the overheated Washington, DC suburbs, 37-year-old publicist Margo Miyake gets a tip about the perfect house, in the perfect neighborhood, slated to come up for sale in one month. Desperate to escape the cramped apartment she shares with her husband Ian — and in turn, get their marriage, plan to have a baby, and whole life back on track — Margo becomes obsessed with buying the house before it’s publicly listed and the masses descend (with unbeatable, all-cash offers in hand).

A little stalking? Harmless. A bit of trespassing? Necessary. As Margo infiltrates the homeowners’ lives, her tactics grow increasingly unhinged—but just when she thinks she’s won them over, she hits a snag in her plan. Undeterred, Margo will prove again and again that there’s no boundary she won’t cross to seize the dream life she’s been chasing. The most unsettling part? You’ll root for her, even as you gasp in disbelief.

Dark, biting, and laugh-out-loud funny, Best Offer Wins is a propulsive debut and a razor-sharp exploration of class, ambition, and the modern housing crisis.

Review: Margo Miyake is at her wit's end. She has spent 18 months in a tiny one-bedroom apartment, losing out in numerous bidding wars in the insane housing market of the Washington, DC suburbs. She's convinced that if she can only get the perfect house, in the perfect neighborhood, then everything will be back on track. When she gets a tip about an ideal home about to go on the market, she becomes obsessed with doing whatever it takes to be the one to buy it. 

Woah! This was the most unhinged character I have come across in some time. Margo is an interesting study in the lengths people will go to get what they want. She is also an interesting case study in psychology and how we define achievement and getting ahead in life. She gave me anxiety and I kept wanting to yell at her to be a better employee as she is just constantly blowing off her boss and work responsibilities the entire book. I wanted to feel bad for her husband for being caught up in her obsession, but he honestly felt like such a weak character, and I kept wishing he had the guts to call her out or walk away from it all. 

This was so bingeable and a propulsive, fast read. Not once did I predict what Margo would do next! I thought it was so brilliant to make the focus of this the competitive housing market. This felt so relatable, as we all have witnessed housing prices soar and competition to buy grow. 

I frequently have a hard time with a lot of thrillers because they feel far-fetched and its difficult for me to suspend my disbelief. While there were certainly some elements of this that felt ludicrous that she could have pulled them off, it was far less so than many thrillers and for much of this I genuinely bought into the idea of this character who is going to do what it takes to get her dream home. 

Stars: 4