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schnaucl's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
But the thing I really kept coming back to was the money. I suspected the author would sort of hand wave hiding the money from the taxing authorities by saying the people paying them are certainly sophisticated enough to hide it from U.S. taxing authorities, which she did. And fair enough, but it wasn't mentioned until almost the very end of the book. And sure, most readers probably aren't thinking about USA PATRIOT ACT reporting requirements (or even know that they exist) but still.
But more than that I kept going back to a question the FBI agent asks Diane Court in Say Anything, essentially, does your dad have stuff that seems a little too nice for what he's earning from his job? They have all these great plans for what they're going to do with their ten million dollars, and they're all highly intelligent people, but none of them is ever like, it would be great to pay off all my loans and pay off the student loans of everyone else in my family or put cash into the restaurant but how would I explain the fact that I have this kind of money? And sure, Alex is in tech, and maybe her family has no idea what kind of money she makes and assumes all tech people have fund the entire family's college educations money. Or maybe she plans to set up some kind of fake scholarship(s). And Daniel is going to be a doctor so presumably he'll be able to pay off his loans eventually. (After all, his dad knows he was involved in the thefts but not that he got a cash reward for doing so). But it's never mentioned as a problem, let alone a proposed solution. And sure, they could just not say anything, I guess. Although they're all doing a lot of international travel and while I think some of the families are well off, I don't think that's true for everyone. So are they planning to do all this travel and just not tell anyone or not have souvenirs or never have family in their homes?
It's not that I think the police would necessarily be able to pin things on them (Daniel's dad notwithstanding) but other people in their lives who have some idea of what their income is are going to wonder. It just seems like it should be a concern and it was really, really distracting for me that it wasn't.
Anyway, the parts about feeling like you don't really belong to either country and what it means to be a loyal citizen and what it means to have your art stolen and the burdens and expectations of being an immigrant or the child of an immigrant were all very well done. It was just some of the theft stuff that I found frustrating.
Minor: Colonisation, Grief, Death of parent, and Cultural appropriation
just_one_more_paige's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Cultural appropriation and Colonisation
Moderate: Death of parent
madelinelindy's review against another edition
Major portion of the book are repetitive and the entire heist subplot is more stealing from the principals office than mutltimillion dollar “project”. The characters themselves added little to the plot since it was mostly their inner struggles about growing up and not knowing who they were.
Overall, this was not a heist book or even that tense of a book since the heist were barely touched upon.
Graphic: Colonisation and Cultural appropriation
Minor: Death of parent and Cancer
yvonne_cl's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Colonisation, Xenophobia, and Grief
Moderate: Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, Cultural appropriation, and Racism
Minor: Hate crime
laurenkimoto's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Moderate: Colonisation, Hate crime, Racism, and Cultural appropriation
Minor: Death of parent and Gaslighting
amandas_bookshelf's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, and Racism
Moderate: Death of parent
vaniavela's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, and Racism
Minor: Death of parent
Portrait of a Thief tells the story of 5 college students who receive a once-in-a-lifetime proposition: steal 5 Chinese sculptures and receive $10 million each. The heists are realistic, something you don't see often. Visualize this. They plan it all by watching Ocean's 11, discussing things via zoom, putting all their research and plans on a google drive, and keeping in touch via WhatsApp. Mind you, Portrait of a Thief is much more than that. We can examine issues regarding colonialism, immigration and identity. It is a critique of Western imperialism. I loved the multitude of identities we encountered. While I personally can't speak to the Chinese and Chinese-American representation in this book, I found it amazing to read. My problem is that it's hard for me to think that anyone would hire these random college kids to do something like this. It seems like an odds-on thing to me. The romantic subplots also seemed unnecessary to me, as they were poorly developed. Literally everyone ended up with someone in the group. The only one who didn't was Daniel. Something I also disliked a tiny bit was the attempt at Sapphic romance. I know it was somewhat enemies to lovers, but Irene literally kept insulting or being rude to Alex for no apparent reason. As a sapphic person, I wish I would have read the correct terms (lesbian, bisexual) because I was really confused. Also, I loved the writing in this book. If more books are written in the future, I will definitely read them. I'm sure it will make an interesting Netflix movie when adapted.internationalreads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Graphic: Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Terminal illness, Alcohol, Racism, and Xenophobia