Best Offer Wins

I picked up Best Offer Wins by Marisa Kashino because it is Thriller/Horror/Suspense month for my book club and this title has gotten a lot of buzz. The story started out as a standard modern fiction read, so much so that I thought perhaps I had misread the genre in the description. However, much like steeping tea, it slowly began to change. Margo, the main character, began to devolve right before our eyes, dragging us into her obsession.  As I read, I wondered if maybe a bit more backstory would have helped us better understand Margo’s motives/trip into the land of the unhinged. Kashino threw us a few gory details, but most of us have a few unpleasant childhood memories and manage life in a fairly typical fashion. Margo departs from the norm to an extent disproportionate to her childhood experience as it is described to us.

Some of the auxiliary characters were well-developed, others appeared to have details thrown in as an afterthought to explain their presence. The story had events that were unexpected, but the ending left me dissatisfied as it was much too neat for the events that took place. The dangling detail as the last sentence seemed to be there as fulfillment of a requirement rather than leaving me thinking.  I rate this 3.5 stars.