Reviews tagging 'Cultural appropriation'

Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li

18 reviews

laneyreadz's review

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, and Death of parent

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders and Xenophobia

keelirae113's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Classism, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Grief, Racism, and Violence

Minor: Cancer and Death of parent

kimveach's review

adventurous hopeful informative mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I wish I had read this book in print.  It was excruciatingly slow on audio.  I even increased the speed (which I rarely do as I like the narrators' performances.)  I found the male narrator annoying while trying to mimic female voices.  It would have been better if he'd read the lines instead of falsetto.  This book is primarily a character study of the five members of the theft ring.  Unfortunately, they all had similar issues that sounded like repetitive whining.  I did appreciate elements of the American-born Chinese diaspora.  It paired nicely with similar problems in "Yellowface," which I read at the same time.

I did enjoy the parts of the book dealing with the thefts.  That was fun.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cultural appropriation, Racism, Dysphoria, Classism, and Death of parent

brianna_moye's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Alcohol, Colonisation, Grief, and Cultural appropriation

hmetwade's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, and Racism

amberinpieces's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Colonisation and Cursing

Minor: Death of parent, Alcohol, Cultural appropriation, and Grief

recycled_personalities's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

knowing that it will be made into a netflix film definitely describes it better than i ever could. it could be a decent netflix movie.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Colonisation, Toxic friendship, Bullying, Cultural appropriation, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Xenophobia, and Grief

i_island's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful informative reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.75

I was initially thinking that I would give this book one star, but that’s honestly very hard for me to do and it redeemed itself a lot at the end.

I found the ending to be a very interesting and satisfying conclusion to an otherwise—at best—mediocre book. 

The characters blended together too much to be seen as separate and, in the end, the heists themselves seemed to get both too much and too little attention.

It’s not the worst thing in existence (so far that title still belongs to lord of the flies), but its not good in any stretch of the word.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cultural appropriation and Colonisation

katekatiekait's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful reflective tense 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: War, Racial slurs, Terminal illness, and Racism

parasolcrafter's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

how can a book about an international art heist be so boring. how can it have almost no stakes. how can you hit almost nothing right

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Death, Death of parent, Racism, and Xenophobia