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readingwithcoffee's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
sad
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
3.75
A very warm 3.75 I love the premise but there’s some weakness in the writing around certain character’s relationships not in even direction or dynamic but execution that I will note further later :)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Chronic illness, Death of parent, and Terminal illness
thewordsdevourer's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
i had an inkling a few pgs in that i wouldnt vibe w/ this book, and unfortunately i was right. portrait of a thief has an intriguing premise, but the suspension of disbelief, the writing thats unsuited for the story, and heavy-handed approach to its themes are simply not for me.
the book's built on a flimsy foundation, and how things develop just dont make sense. for example, that a billionaire art thief chooses will for a $50 mil job literally just bc he's chinese-american - having not an idea whether he'll have the skills to pull it off - is ludicrous to me. some of the crew agreeing to the job bc of will's sheer charisma is also far-fetched bc he has no charisma whatsoever.
moreover, this is a heist story, but the writing's totally unsuited for it. there are wayyy too many ~reflective~ moments - most of them being the same thing said over and over again in a slightly modified way - and it's all overdramatic and lamentative. tbh this book's more like a volume of the characters' emo introspection peppered w/ some action, so infrequently we ever get out of their heads. there's way too much boring stuff and not enough of the fun ones. i also think this book's written in a very amateur way, a playbook of a failed show-not-tell esp when the phrase "it goes like this..." is a given in almost every chapter.
as a result, the whole story falls flat for me, including the characters who im impartial to; i simply dont feel anything reading this. again, the tell-not-show approach also means li couldnt be more heavy-handed w/ the themes, which could benefit from more subtle exploration.
although the last couple chapters are markedly better than the rest of the book, they arent enough to save it. this is a novel brimming w/ potential, one that could def be sth better in more adept hands. alas, that cant be helped and this is what we get.
the book's built on a flimsy foundation, and how things develop just dont make sense. for example, that a billionaire art thief chooses will for a $50 mil job literally just bc he's chinese-american - having not an idea whether he'll have the skills to pull it off - is ludicrous to me. some of the crew agreeing to the job bc of will's sheer charisma is also far-fetched bc he has no charisma whatsoever.
moreover, this is a heist story, but the writing's totally unsuited for it. there are wayyy too many ~reflective~ moments - most of them being the same thing said over and over again in a slightly modified way - and it's all overdramatic and lamentative. tbh this book's more like a volume of the characters' emo introspection peppered w/ some action, so infrequently we ever get out of their heads. there's way too much boring stuff and not enough of the fun ones. i also think this book's written in a very amateur way, a playbook of a failed show-not-tell esp when the phrase "it goes like this..." is a given in almost every chapter.
as a result, the whole story falls flat for me, including the characters who im impartial to; i simply dont feel anything reading this. again, the tell-not-show approach also means li couldnt be more heavy-handed w/ the themes, which could benefit from more subtle exploration.
although the last couple chapters are markedly better than the rest of the book, they arent enough to save it. this is a novel brimming w/ potential, one that could def be sth better in more adept hands. alas, that cant be helped and this is what we get.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief, Racism, Chronic illness, and Colonisation
Minor: War and Death of parent
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