Eighteen months and eleven lost bidding wars into house-hunting in the Washington, D.C. 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, she’ll prove again and again that there’s no boundary she won’t cross to seize the dream life she’s been chasing.

I received an advance copy of this book courtesy of the publisher. All thoughts are my own.

This is one of those thrillers that starts out as a relatable story about house hunting in a frustrating market and slowly morphs into something completely unhinged, and I had so much fun with it. What begins as a domestic drama about a woman desperate to buy her dream home turns into a wild, twisty ride full of moral gray areas, terrible decisions, and a main character you can’t stop watching even when she’s doing things that make you want to reach into the book and make her stop.

Margo Miyake is thirty-seven, exhausted, and stuck. She and her husband have spent a year and a half losing bidding war after bidding war in the D.C. suburbs, watching their dream of owning a home—and maybe starting a family—slip further out of reach. When she catches wind of a perfect house that isn’t on the market yet, something in her snaps. She decides she will have this house. Whatever it takes.

At first, it’s almost funny. Margo’s determination feels familiar to anyone who’s ever chased something that seems just out of reach. She stalks the property online, walks by it too often, even snoops a little. You get the sense she’s one bad idea away from making it awkward, but harmlessly so. Then the lines start to blur. She finds ways to insert herself into the homeowners’ lives. The behavior shifts from overzealous to obsessive. Kashino keeps the tension just low enough that you think Margo might pull herself back. Spoiler alert: she doesn’t.

About halfway through, the story changes gears entirely. The mystery starts to build, secrets surface, and what felt like a satire of home-buying anxiety turns into something darker. The twist that hits around the midpoint redefines everything, and from there, the book just keeps escalating. Margo’s spiral is compulsively readable. You know it’s going to end badly, but you can’t look away.

What makes it work is how self-aware the writing is. Kashino walks a fine line between dark humor and psychological tension. She knows Margo’s obsession is absurd, but she grounds it in very real emotions. The result is both entertaining and quietly unnerving. We’ve all seen that person who wants something so badly they lose sight of themselves. This book just takes that idea and dials it up to five hundred and eleven.

The pacing is tight, and the prose is sharp. The characters all serve a purpose, and no one is wasted. That said, there are definitely moments that stretch believability, but Kashino earns those leaps by keeping the story’s tone consistent. You can tell she knows exactly what kind of book she’s writing: a thriller that leans into its absurdity without losing its emotional core. The twists don’t feel cheap because they build logically from Margo’s choices. Each one feels like a natural (sometimes horrifying) next step.

And that ending? Absolutely insane. It’s one of those finales where you sit back and laugh, not because it’s funny, but because you can’t believe how far the story went and how well it stuck the landing.

I both read and listened to this one and the narration by Cia Court is spot on. She nails all of the voices perfectly and hits every beat. She knows the story and characters as well as the author. I highly recommend this one if you are into audio books.

So, yeah, this is a smart, sharp, suburban thriller that plays with obsession, privilege, and the lies we tell ourselves about what we “deserve.” It’s fun, it’s dark, and it’s surprisingly thoughtful under all the chaos. I had a blast reading it and loved every cringy, escalating moment of Margo’s meltdown. Highly recommended.