This is a book in which nothing and everything happens - one of my favorite types of books when done well, which it emphatically is!

Rental House is a vivid, sharply rendered character study of a married couple - Keru, the only child of well-educated Chinese immigrants who hold her to impossibly high standards, and Nate, whose white working-class family is less than enthusiastic about his intellectual pursuits and "foreign" wife. At the heart of the book are complex, deeply entrenched family dynamics - both within their marriage and between their own families and in-laws. The plot, which centers on two different vacations years apart - arguably three, considering the first is shared first with Keru's parents and then with Nate's - is fairly straightforward; the drama comes entirely from the characters, the tensions and contradictions and resolutions of their own needs. In other words, the messiness of being human!

I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll keep this vague - I really enjoyed the whole book and am still mulling over the ending, which in my opinion was ambiguous leaning hopeful. I'm curious how other will interpret it!

I found Rental House absorbing and memorable, and I'll eagerly recommend it to readers looking for a character-driven story that's insightful, provocative, and at times quite funny (less ha-ha and more sardonic). Thanks to NetGalley and Riverhead Books for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.