Marisa Kashino's BEST OFFER WINS

Thanks to partners NetGalley and Celadon Books for the digital ARC of Marisa Kashino's Best Offer Wins.

Marisa Kashino’s Best Offer Wins is such a ride of a book. I didn’t really like any of the characters, and I had a hard time identifying with the things that they frantically pursue, but I couldn’t look away. The voice of protagonist and first-person narrator Margo Miyake is so compelling and so distinctive that I was drawn into the web of her over-the-top decisions and incredibly ridiculous rationalizations.

The premise is relatively simple (though the plot doesn’t let it stay simple!). Margo and her husband have been desperately house hunting for a year and a half. They (and Margo, in particular) are cramped in their tiny apartment. Their marriage is suffering, as are their plans to start a family since Margo refuses to bring a baby into what she considers to be insufficient living conditions.

Then, Margo hears word that the perfect house is going to be for sale, and she realizes that she may have a chance to get a bid in early, hopefully avoiding the frenzy of bidding and outbidding, which is a contest that they lose every time. She just wants to make sure that the house is everything it looks like on the internet.

So, she drops by. And then she invades the backyard as she fights for a view through the windows. And then one of the owners comes home. Chaos ensues.

Margo decides that the best way to grab this chance is to strike up a relationship with Curt and Jack so that they’ll *want* to give her an advance bid. Her machinations lead her to some ridiculousness that is too unhinged to ruin the fun by spoiling it here (and that’s only the first truly unhinged step she takes).

Best Offer Wins is uncomfortable and funny (in the darkest way possible) and so, so bingeable. What a reading experience. There isn’t really anybody to root for, but there are plenty of people to sit back and just watch as the inevitable crash comes closer and closer. You know something bad is going to happen, and you can’t stop it . . . so just go with it and enjoy the very swervy ride.

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