Best Offer Wins 🏚️

By Marisa Kashino.

Best Offer Wins is one of those books that sneaks up on you.

You start reading, expecting a sharp social satire about the housing market, and before you know it you are completely invested in just how far one woman is willing to go to secure her dream home.

Margo Miyake and her husband Ian have been stuck in limbo for eighteen long months. They sold their home, moved into a cramped one bedroom flat, and have lost bid after bid in an aggressively competitive housing market outside Washington DC.

Their plans for a baby, stability and a future all feel permanently on hold. When Margo hears about the perfect house before it officially hits the market, something inside her snaps.

What starts as mild curiosity quickly spirals into obsession. Margo convinces herself that a little trespassing is harmless, that a bit of personal research is justified, and that bending a few moral rules is simply part of playing the game.

Watching her justify each increasingly unhinged decision is both horrifying and wildly entertaining. The most unsettling part is how easy it is to understand her logic, even when you know she has gone far too far.

Marisa Kashino absolutely nails the tone. The book is dark, biting and genuinely funny, but there is a sharp edge underneath the humour. This is not just a story about one woman losing the plot.

It is a pointed commentary on class anxiety, ambition, fertility pressure, marriage strain and the modern obsession with home ownership as a marker of success. The white picket fence dream is dismantled piece by piece, revealing how corrosive it can become.

Margo is not a particularly likeable character, but she is a compelling one.

Her desperation feels painfully real, especially in a world where doing everything right still guarantees nothing. The pacing is excellent and the tension steadily tightens as her schemes escalate. You keep reading partly out of disbelief and partly because you need to know just how bad it is going to get.

Best Offer Wins is smart, uncomfortable and darkly addictive. If you enjoy books about obsession, morally questionable protagonists and social satire that cuts a little too close to home, this is one to add straight to your list.

Thank you to the team at DoubleDay Books for sending me a finished copy of the book in time for publication day! The book is out now and available to purchase!

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