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lbarsk's review against another edition
4.0
I swear to god I had already reviewed this? Anyway, absolutely devoured it, and for the most part really enjoyed — it makes total sense that the book is being turned into a TV Series because it felt very cinematic and fast-paced! Total fun heist times, with lots of cultural commentary on what it means to be Chinese versus American versus Chinese American thrown in.
The only thing that kept snagging for me, and which I couldn’t ignore when I noticed it like maybe 50 pages in, is that the voices for each character are all SO similar despite them having very divergent wants, needs, personalities, etc. that DO come out VERY clearly when they interact with each other! Li clearly has some favorite sentence structures (and who among us doesn’t!) and some favorite ways to introduce similes, and I guess I just wish that those had been varied from character-POV to character-POV.
Overall, though, a fun NA heist.
The only thing that kept snagging for me, and which I couldn’t ignore when I noticed it like maybe 50 pages in, is that the voices for each character are all SO similar despite them having very divergent wants, needs, personalities, etc. that DO come out VERY clearly when they interact with each other! Li clearly has some favorite sentence structures (and who among us doesn’t!) and some favorite ways to introduce similes, and I guess I just wish that those had been varied from character-POV to character-POV.
Overall, though, a fun NA heist.
laralachtgern's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
aisliing's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
informative
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
bribribri's review against another edition
These characters are all obnoxious. Also couldn’t with being beat over the head by unnuanced moralizing
emiliasuzanne's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
cassidyzang's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
torivanorder's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
takesthecake_'s review against another edition
2.0
it's like Li copy & pasted the main points of her art history class into the outline for her book. Maybe would've been stronger if she focused on developing one character and their motivations for an art heist rather than a whole cast of characters.
frenchleigh's review against another edition
2.0
The author’s note mentions that the book was finished over the course of years, in fits and starts, and it shows—I think the editor did Grace Li a huge disservice (I wanted to play a drinking game for every chapter that started with “it went like this.”). Readers learn not twice, not three times, but at least eight times that a certain character is from a town called Galveston, that the town is small, and how childhood was spent there.
The “twin pandemics” racism and COVID were forcibly injected into the story, and it didn’t feel like a match to the book’s reality. I hated how self-serious the characters got when quietly revealing that they’d learned it was okay to steal, or that they’d started seeing a therapist. Yet despite these “lessons” they also don’t display much respect for gig workers (getting “kicked out” of restaurants), the author is intensely focused on credentials (every single chapter has to remind you which Ivy League school the character attends), and one of the characters is ridiculously cruel and superior toward her peer for the entire novel —either characters or author could’ve done more self reflection if this was going to be a part of their world.
Strengths: interesting idea, easy to see the deep emotional connection between the author, characters, and themes. Some nice lyrical writing about Beijing, diaspora, and art—(but it gets old when it’s happening in every single chapter).
Weaknesses: redundant sentence structure, overly dramatic emotional style, weird and forced references to the pandemic and uprisings against racism, basic information was repeated so often it was a slog to get through the whole thing.
The “twin pandemics” racism and COVID were forcibly injected into the story, and it didn’t feel like a match to the book’s reality. I hated how self-serious the characters got when quietly revealing that they’d learned it was okay to steal, or that they’d started seeing a therapist. Yet despite these “lessons” they also don’t display much respect for gig workers (getting “kicked out” of restaurants), the author is intensely focused on credentials (every single chapter has to remind you which Ivy League school the character attends), and one of the characters is ridiculously cruel and superior toward her peer for the entire novel —either characters or author could’ve done more self reflection if this was going to be a part of their world.
Strengths: interesting idea, easy to see the deep emotional connection between the author, characters, and themes. Some nice lyrical writing about Beijing, diaspora, and art—(but it gets old when it’s happening in every single chapter).
Weaknesses: redundant sentence structure, overly dramatic emotional style, weird and forced references to the pandemic and uprisings against racism, basic information was repeated so often it was a slog to get through the whole thing.