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3.57 AVERAGE
3.57 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
An enjoyable book that reads a bit like a fanfiction.
It's taken me a while to pick up this book but my gosh, it was worth it.
Fast read with amazing characters and some romance at times.
The heists weren't as big as I expected but it didn't change the fact that I adored every moment of this book.
Fast read with amazing characters and some romance at times.
The heists weren't as big as I expected but it didn't change the fact that I adored every moment of this book.
Great book with great characters. Plenty of times I was internally screaming about the unrealistic features of the heists but still good. I love the characters and their backgrounds, relatable and probably not in a great way O.o (Only took me forever to finish bc I started graduate school semester mid book lol)
I wanted to like this SO BAD. A heist novel with noble reasons? I was excited.
Unfortunately, the start of this story is weird. Will is working in an art museum when a group of thieves steal Chinese art. He steals something in the commotion and one of the thieves takes the time to leave him a business card with a compliment of his theft. This leads to Will getting 5 unassigned tickets to Beijing. We eventually find out Will somehow put together a brilliant and talented team to steal some Chinese art for a corporation. How many of us have friends who are Ivy League students moonlighting as hackers/racers/con artists? I know so many of these people I'd have to be really picky about my crew, right? Of course.
It has a good premise, but all the characters are tortured teenagers with nothing but amazing things in their futures, but they're tortured, you see. Therefore, crimes. The book was so bloated with extraneous descriptions of weather or feelings that I skipped paragraphs just to read the next sentence in a conversation. When I found myself skipping through the whole book for the dialogue, I decided to call it quits.
Unfortunately, the start of this story is weird. Will is working in an art museum when a group of thieves steal Chinese art. He steals something in the commotion and one of the thieves takes the time to leave him a business card with a compliment of his theft. This leads to Will getting 5 unassigned tickets to Beijing. We eventually find out Will somehow put together a brilliant and talented team to steal some Chinese art for a corporation. How many of us have friends who are Ivy League students moonlighting as hackers/racers/con artists? I know so many of these people I'd have to be really picky about my crew, right? Of course.
It has a good premise, but all the characters are tortured teenagers with nothing but amazing things in their futures, but they're tortured, you see. Therefore, crimes. The book was so bloated with extraneous descriptions of weather or feelings that I skipped paragraphs just to read the next sentence in a conversation. When I found myself skipping through the whole book for the dialogue, I decided to call it quits.
DNF
My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.
The idea of the book is brilliant, something out of my dreams, as an Egyptian passionate about their heritage and ancient history I know all about colonial art looting and archaeological digging and smuggling and repatriation, catch me at 4 am crying over Nefertiti's bust being all the way in Berlin away from its rightful land. So I wanted to like this book so much.
The premise was promising, a group of Chinese American college kids stealing back what belongs to their country and its rich history, and it's not too much to expect some things from a heist novel, like an intriguing set of characters with multifaceted personalities and entertaining interactions, an interesting aspect of dark academia, some banter and connection wouldn't hurt, a smart plan, some well explored motives and goals, but what did I find instead? Utter boredom.
The characters are painfully one dimensional and I know I stopped reading past one hundred pages, but at least in those 100 hundred pages something should've evoked my interest, made me care about them, but no. There's a great deal of telling vs showing, we're constantly told how Irene is brilliant how she gets what she wants, how Will loves art and beauty, and so on with other characters I didn't give a damn about, the only character that had a little bit of potential for me was Daniel but still not enough to force me to sit through this snoozefest.
The writing...it's tormenting, I disliked how it got to nowhere, how it tried too hard to be profound and lyrical despite being so basic, and maybe it's not bad, but it's awfully plagued with repetitiveness and diluted with tons of environmental description that added no value nor aesthetic to the tone and atmosphere of the book, skies and weather and trees, please just stop. The dialogues were terrible, rigid and devoid of humor or emotion, ranging in minimal basic words as "I don't know" with paragraphs after paragraphs of characters inner monologues and unspoken thoughts.
Even the themes that should matter, immigration, culture conflict, colonization, rise and fall of power, diaspora, the weight of familial expectations, art theft and cultural appropriation, I didn't care for any of this despite having a great room to explore and discuss, everything is just touched on in a superficial tedious way, glossed over with basic prose. I think the novel could've been better if it wasn't marketed as a heist and focused on the literary sense of such discussions.
Even the heist part wasn't entertaining or slightly amusing, and maybe I'm guilt of not even making it to the first heist but I doubt it could've impressed me. We barely see parts of the actual planning, and maybe if it weren't a "heist" novel I wouldn't have cared much. But lots of things were just illogical. The way it even all started makes no sense, this big corporation dropping their contacts in the middle of a heist to a random art history student who happens to share their stance on country heritage, encouraging him and his group of nerds who have no experience whatsoever in robbery to do 5 big heists around the world with a grand price, without much of discussion or attempts of persuasion, like I expected this long lecture from the supposedly charismatic CEO, but no it's just..."go and steal those pieces and you'll get 50 millions, bye", and instead of hiring professionals, it's confusing actually like don't they already gave a team stealing art back why would they hire this bunch of randoms? Trying to expand? Without training or indoctrination? Maybe it's explained later but I honestly have no patience.
Usually when a book doesn't do it for me in the first half I just drop it and quietly remove it from my shelves, but this time I was too frustrated and disappointed because I was genuinely excited for this one so I had to drag it.
Anyway, congratulations to everyone who manged to enjoy this book and found its redeeming qualities.
My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.
The idea of the book is brilliant, something out of my dreams, as an Egyptian passionate about their heritage and ancient history I know all about colonial art looting and archaeological digging and smuggling and repatriation, catch me at 4 am crying over Nefertiti's bust being all the way in Berlin away from its rightful land. So I wanted to like this book so much.
The premise was promising, a group of Chinese American college kids stealing back what belongs to their country and its rich history, and it's not too much to expect some things from a heist novel, like an intriguing set of characters with multifaceted personalities and entertaining interactions, an interesting aspect of dark academia, some banter and connection wouldn't hurt, a smart plan, some well explored motives and goals, but what did I find instead? Utter boredom.
The characters are painfully one dimensional and I know I stopped reading past one hundred pages, but at least in those 100 hundred pages something should've evoked my interest, made me care about them, but no. There's a great deal of telling vs showing, we're constantly told how Irene is brilliant how she gets what she wants, how Will loves art and beauty, and so on with other characters I didn't give a damn about, the only character that had a little bit of potential for me was Daniel but still not enough to force me to sit through this snoozefest.
The writing...it's tormenting, I disliked how it got to nowhere, how it tried too hard to be profound and lyrical despite being so basic, and maybe it's not bad, but it's awfully plagued with repetitiveness and diluted with tons of environmental description that added no value nor aesthetic to the tone and atmosphere of the book, skies and weather and trees, please just stop. The dialogues were terrible, rigid and devoid of humor or emotion, ranging in minimal basic words as "I don't know" with paragraphs after paragraphs of characters inner monologues and unspoken thoughts.
Even the themes that should matter, immigration, culture conflict, colonization, rise and fall of power, diaspora, the weight of familial expectations, art theft and cultural appropriation, I didn't care for any of this despite having a great room to explore and discuss, everything is just touched on in a superficial tedious way, glossed over with basic prose. I think the novel could've been better if it wasn't marketed as a heist and focused on the literary sense of such discussions.
Even the heist part wasn't entertaining or slightly amusing, and maybe I'm guilt of not even making it to the first heist but I doubt it could've impressed me. We barely see parts of the actual planning, and maybe if it weren't a "heist" novel I wouldn't have cared much. But lots of things were just illogical. The way it even all started makes no sense, this big corporation dropping their contacts in the middle of a heist to a random art history student who happens to share their stance on country heritage, encouraging him and his group of nerds who have no experience whatsoever in robbery to do 5 big heists around the world with a grand price, without much of discussion or attempts of persuasion, like I expected this long lecture from the supposedly charismatic CEO, but no it's just..."go and steal those pieces and you'll get 50 millions, bye", and instead of hiring professionals, it's confusing actually like don't they already gave a team stealing art back why would they hire this bunch of randoms? Trying to expand? Without training or indoctrination? Maybe it's explained later but I honestly have no patience.
Usually when a book doesn't do it for me in the first half I just drop it and quietly remove it from my shelves, but this time I was too frustrated and disappointed because I was genuinely excited for this one so I had to drag it.
Anyway, congratulations to everyone who manged to enjoy this book and found its redeeming qualities.
Portrait of a Thief is on its surface a heist book, but it’s more an exploration of Chinese-American identity and a critical look at how even today the spoils belong to the victors. Art is in the process of being returned to the rightful owners in the case of Nazi theft, for example, but many more stolen treasures from many countries/cultures are still sitting in museums and personal collections.
Readers looking for just a fun, fast, riveting heist book will be disappointed, but those looking for this mix of heist and examination of culture, history and ethnicity should find it really good.
Read my full review, including a rating for content, at RatedReads.com: https://ratedreads.com/portrait-thief-heist-mystery-book-review/
Readers looking for just a fun, fast, riveting heist book will be disappointed, but those looking for this mix of heist and examination of culture, history and ethnicity should find it really good.
Read my full review, including a rating for content, at RatedReads.com: https://ratedreads.com/portrait-thief-heist-mystery-book-review/
I feel like it was so fast paced that all the important moments went by too quickly. I would’ve liked a few more pages dedicated to the emotional and other climaxes. The relationship between Daniel and his dad was the not compelling to me but all the major developments in that relationship only had like one page of dialogue dedicated to them.
3.5 stars rounding up. it was really good to read about the asian American characters and their want to rightfully reclaim taken art work. after reading babel like literally a week ago this was another amazing story about how western colonialism kinda sucks :) i enjoyed the characters and loved irene and alex!
Lots to like in this fun art heist book! Beautiful settings and people, car racing, provocative conversations about ownership and theft in art as it relates to Western museums holding onto art from China and other nations' despite criticism. I really enjoyed the different stakes at hand with a group of Chinese and Chinese-American college students trying to repatriate art for deeper cultural reasons than the usual heist motivation of cash or revenge. At times these characters blend together - I wish the author had dedicated less time to each heist-er gazing wistfully into the distance reflecting on ways they felt trapped by their families, and more time just observing them in their lives. Much of the dialogue, inner and outer, is given to repetitive, vague reflection on troubled times without enough detail to commiserate. Romances are forecast at first meetings and then proceed chastely forward exactly on schedule without any tension. But I still recommend this book! It's enjoyable and creative. I really look forward to whatever comes next for this author now that she's got her debut out!