ahhhhhkim 's review for:

Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li

4.0

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just an fyi i thought this book was a high 3, but i'm rounding up. maybe a good 3.7 or 3.8

spoilers ahead

Spoiler

i'll start with what i liked. i enjoyed the dialogue and the relationships. the conversations were fun and the r/s didnt feel too forced, which is more than i can say for a lot of YA fiction nowadays. this book was an easy read and i guess we don't normally see aapi in literature so i'll give that a plus.

i really enjoyed the concept of the story, but i couldnt suspend my disbelief long enough to imagine a group of college students being able to pull off a stunt of this magnitude. it felt like the charas play into the stereotype of being high achieving, esp with all of them attending a "prestigious" brand name school. the book was also really philosophical. there was way too much time spent contemplating being an immigrant or a child of diaspora as well as colonialism in general. it started getting real repetitive real fast.

i will say i have a lot of mixed feelings about china and western colonialism since china was (and still is) a very aggressive imperialistic power in southeast asia. i mean i could see why some of the charas felt strongly about bringing back chinese art but it just feels...iffy.

i will say that some of the scenes got me emo lmao. overall a fun, light read. the ending felt a bit rushed but it was an attempt.