You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.57 AVERAGE
3.57 AVERAGE
“We’re children of the diaspora. All we’ve ever known is loss.”
5⭐️
Portrait of a Thief is the story of five Chinese American college students embarking on a series of heists in order to reclaim the art the West had stolen from China.
I loved this book from the start. Its beautiful writing entranced me immediately, and the characters were so individually interesting. I flew through the first half as I learnt more about them and what they wanted to achieve with the heists.
There’s something to relate to in each character: Will’s attempt to discover his history, the pressure Alex feels to support her family, Daniel’s sense of loss, Lily’s struggle with her dual identity, and Irene’s fear of change and her loyalty. I really liked seeing their journeys and how they grew closer as a crew.
In terms of the actual heists, I did have to suspend my disbelief quite a bit that dove college students with no previous experience could pull them off. But the book itself is aware of this, and I’m sure that was the point, so I tried not to think about i too much. Although we didn’t get as many details of the thefts as I expected, the focus was more on the intention than the action.
There were many parts of this novel where I sat and reflected for a little while because they were so poignant. I thoroughly enjoyed this read and I can’t wait to see what Grace D. Li writes next!
Thank you to Hodder & Stoughton for providing an ARC.
Four stars because I loved the premise, the characters and the descriptions of art but I didn’t love the book as a whole.
Thought it was a heist book - it’s more about the people doing the heist. And these people were pretty whiny and entitled. Not my fave. Stopped at 88%.
Congrats! You managed to make a heist story dull and boring!
In all seriousness: the tone of this was not what I was expecting at all. This could have been really good; a Robin Hood type story with a focus on Chinese-American diaspora but unfortunately it reads more like a 'dark academia' story but instead of a murder being the central event that brings our cast together, its a heist. And just to top it off, the characters didn't stand out to me either.
Babel by R.F Kuang did the 'artefacts of colonialism' or 'unrightful spoils of war' specifically surrounding Chinese history so much better.
Planning a heist in GoogleDocs and Zoom? Yeah no wonder these motherfuckers got caught...
In all seriousness: the tone of this was not what I was expecting at all. This could have been really good; a Robin Hood type story with a focus on Chinese-American diaspora but unfortunately it reads more like a 'dark academia' story but instead of a murder being the central event that brings our cast together, its a heist. And just to top it off, the characters didn't stand out to me either.
Babel by R.F Kuang did the 'artefacts of colonialism' or 'unrightful spoils of war' specifically surrounding Chinese history so much better.
3.75/5. I would 100% recommend this book to people who love heists, analyzing colonialism and the impact/expectations of being children of immigrants. The beginning of this book really gripped me. The first 50 pages of setting up the characters and series of events to come was done brilliantly.
I did find quite a few things to be repetitive, the amount of times Lily brings up being from Texas nearly drove me to insanity. There were some aspect of repetition that felt important and like it was a core piece of the story.
But what really shines in this book was Daniels relationship with his father and highlighting the dark side of museums and the impact colonialism has on art and culture. A very solid and entertaining read.
I did find quite a few things to be repetitive, the amount of times Lily brings up being from Texas nearly drove me to insanity. There were some aspect of repetition that felt important and like it was a core piece of the story.
But what really shines in this book was Daniels relationship with his father and highlighting the dark side of museums and the impact colonialism has on art and culture. A very solid and entertaining read.
I received an ARC from NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton. All opinions are my own.
“What’s wrong with wanting everything?”
“Nothing, as long as you know how to get it.”
Five Chinese-American students are hired to steal back five works of Chinese art from around the world to return them to the country they were looted from.
Portrait of a Thief is, in a lot of ways, less of a heist story than a story that happens to have some heists. More than anything, it’s character driven; we see all five members of the crew develop and change with each heist, we see their relationships grow and take new shapes, we see how human each one of them is. For the most part, the characters are fully fleshed out, and none of them are perfect. Each is both good and bad, not always in equal parts; there’s a point in the book for each one of them where you almost hate them, and I’ve always felt that a character I can both hate and love is a well written one.
There are moments, too, where it’s painfully clear how young they all are—all of them in their early 20s, all of them full of the self-righteous ego that often goes along with that age. Their pretentiousness and arrogance, while at times frustrating, fit both the age and the characters, who are all painted as brilliant students (or, for Alex, just brilliant). Some of their brilliance could be a bit beyond belief—Irene spoke fluent french after only learning it in high school and not using it since, for example—but, as discussed below, in the grand scheme of things a few stretched details isn’t the end of the world.
The themes of this book, too, feel much more the focus than the heists themselves. Colonialism is, of course, at the forefront; it’s the root of the motivation behind the heists in the first place. Cultural diaspora and identity also play major roles for each of the characters. In a lot of ways it felt very coming-of-age, watching all these young adults struggling to figure out who they are, what they want, and what comes next. It never felt like there was one right answer or set takeaway and I loved that open ended-ness. Grace D. Li handles all of these themes beautifully, and if it hit me this hard I can only imagine how hard it’ll hit for those who’ve lived similar experiences.
I’ll readily admit that this book asks you to suspend your disbelief pretty heavily. The main bones of the heist itself are far-fetched, and the reasons why Will and his friends were chosen for these heists aren’t the strongest. Planning a major crime through Google Docs and Zoom and all these other wildly unsecured platforms—with background narration on how thorough and careful the crew was being—was almost comical. There’s so much planning for when they’re actually carrying out the heists, then an obvious paper trail of all their planning and major gaps in their plans that are just overlooked. None of this is the end of the world, but for me personally it pulled me out of the story at times.
In addition to this, I personally wish there’d been a little more focus on the heists themselves; as I mentioned, I love how character and narrative driven Portrait of a Thief is at its heart. But I picked this up when I did because I was in the mood for a heist novel, and in the end it just didn’t scratch that itch.
Overall, Portrait of a Thief tells an exciting and heart-wrenching story full of adventure and poignant character moments. While it very much felt like a debut, and the writing could be repetitive, the story draws you in and holds you there. I loved all but one of the characters so much, and they felt so real and flawed and human. The ending underwhelmed me, but I appreciated how optimistic the last 10% or so felt. Definitely recommend, and I can’t wait to see what Grace Li does next.
“What’s wrong with wanting everything?”
“Nothing, as long as you know how to get it.”
Five Chinese-American students are hired to steal back five works of Chinese art from around the world to return them to the country they were looted from.
Portrait of a Thief is, in a lot of ways, less of a heist story than a story that happens to have some heists. More than anything, it’s character driven; we see all five members of the crew develop and change with each heist, we see their relationships grow and take new shapes, we see how human each one of them is. For the most part, the characters are fully fleshed out, and none of them are perfect. Each is both good and bad, not always in equal parts; there’s a point in the book for each one of them where you almost hate them, and I’ve always felt that a character I can both hate and love is a well written one.
There are moments, too, where it’s painfully clear how young they all are—all of them in their early 20s, all of them full of the self-righteous ego that often goes along with that age. Their pretentiousness and arrogance, while at times frustrating, fit both the age and the characters, who are all painted as brilliant students (or, for Alex, just brilliant). Some of their brilliance could be a bit beyond belief—Irene spoke fluent french after only learning it in high school and not using it since, for example—but, as discussed below, in the grand scheme of things a few stretched details isn’t the end of the world.
The themes of this book, too, feel much more the focus than the heists themselves. Colonialism is, of course, at the forefront; it’s the root of the motivation behind the heists in the first place. Cultural diaspora and identity also play major roles for each of the characters. In a lot of ways it felt very coming-of-age, watching all these young adults struggling to figure out who they are, what they want, and what comes next. It never felt like there was one right answer or set takeaway and I loved that open ended-ness. Grace D. Li handles all of these themes beautifully, and if it hit me this hard I can only imagine how hard it’ll hit for those who’ve lived similar experiences.
I’ll readily admit that this book asks you to suspend your disbelief pretty heavily. The main bones of the heist itself are far-fetched, and the reasons why Will and his friends were chosen for these heists aren’t the strongest. Planning a major crime through Google Docs and Zoom and all these other wildly unsecured platforms—with background narration on how thorough and careful the crew was being—was almost comical. There’s so much planning for when they’re actually carrying out the heists, then an obvious paper trail of all their planning and major gaps in their plans that are just overlooked. None of this is the end of the world, but for me personally it pulled me out of the story at times.
In addition to this, I personally wish there’d been a little more focus on the heists themselves; as I mentioned, I love how character and narrative driven Portrait of a Thief is at its heart. But I picked this up when I did because I was in the mood for a heist novel, and in the end it just didn’t scratch that itch.
Overall, Portrait of a Thief tells an exciting and heart-wrenching story full of adventure and poignant character moments. While it very much felt like a debut, and the writing could be repetitive, the story draws you in and holds you there. I loved all but one of the characters so much, and they felt so real and flawed and human. The ending underwhelmed me, but I appreciated how optimistic the last 10% or so felt. Definitely recommend, and I can’t wait to see what Grace Li does next.
If they had just published the article that miraculously changed the behavior of oppressive institutions several months earlier they could have saved themselves a lot of trouble. Quite possibly the most repetitive story, both in prose and in plot, I have ever read. Five points of view too many.
"Diaspora meant something different to all of them..."
I thoroughly enjoyed my time with this book, but I feel like marketing this as a heist novel does it a disservice and I can see why people who go in for that and only that would be disappointed.
The heist plot feels like the backdrop for the more important, main, character-driven story of the different ways each member of the group experiences being first generation American, what Chinese culture and heritage means to them, and how that has shaped their lives and their choices.
Given that it's a novel about a group dynamic, I thought that was incredibly well done. There's a solid balance of each of the five POV characters and I felt like the author did a great job taking it from a group with a central core surrounded by people who knew them but were strangers to each other to a group of inter-connected friends. The group dynamics in a book like this will make or break it and I think Grace Li really nailed it.
The heists themselves aren't great, but that doesn't bother me much because it doesn't feel like that's the meat of the story and our thieves are amateurs, college students in their early twenties who've never done anything like this. That said, I didn't get this book based on the Ocean's 11 comparisons (I got it in the Illumicrate subscription so I went in with no preconceived notions or expectations) and that probably helped me out a lot.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time with this book, but I feel like marketing this as a heist novel does it a disservice and I can see why people who go in for that and only that would be disappointed.
The heist plot feels like the backdrop for the more important, main, character-driven story of the different ways each member of the group experiences being first generation American, what Chinese culture and heritage means to them, and how that has shaped their lives and their choices.
Given that it's a novel about a group dynamic, I thought that was incredibly well done. There's a solid balance of each of the five POV characters and I felt like the author did a great job taking it from a group with a central core surrounded by people who knew them but were strangers to each other to a group of inter-connected friends. The group dynamics in a book like this will make or break it and I think Grace Li really nailed it.
The heists themselves aren't great, but that doesn't bother me much because it doesn't feel like that's the meat of the story and our thieves are amateurs, college students in their early twenties who've never done anything like this. That said, I didn't get this book based on the Ocean's 11 comparisons (I got it in the Illumicrate subscription so I went in with no preconceived notions or expectations) and that probably helped me out a lot.
Very well written and exciting yet thought provoking - themes of family dynamics, colonialism, and what exactly constitutes a crime.
Utterly unrealistic - but maybe that’s what fiction is for?
Regardless, this was a very meh story - I listened to it via audiobooks so maybe the narrators added to my feelings of meh because they were very monotone. my fave part of the story was Irene + Alex’s relationship and the ending lol which is why I didn’t give it 2 stars.
The story dragged along. that being said, if you’re ok with spending 11+ hrs listening to it (with a bunch of pausing in the middle of it for naps), this might be the book for you.
Regardless, this was a very meh story - I listened to it via audiobooks so maybe the narrators added to my feelings of meh because they were very monotone. my fave part of the story was Irene + Alex’s relationship and the ending lol which is why I didn’t give it 2 stars.
The story dragged along. that being said, if you’re ok with spending 11+ hrs listening to it (with a bunch of pausing in the middle of it for naps), this might be the book for you.