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briannareadsbooks 's review for:
Portrait of a Thief
by Grace D. Li
The plot of this book had me thinking it would be an automatic 5 star read. 5 Chinese university students plan a heist to steal Chinese art back from museums around the world that have stolen them? Sort of dark academia with an interesting take on imperialism? It sounded PERFECT.
And it started off perfectly for me. The beginning sounded a lot like a 5-star read... until the book continued on and on and became so frustratingly repetitive. It didn't take long to realize that all the characters are pretty much the same. Yeah, they have their own interests and they major in different subjects... but all of them are Chinese-Americans balancing their Chinese identity with their American ones and all of them come from the same perspective--that this Chinese art must be stolen and rightfully returned.
The number of times I had to hear each of the five main characters talk about the difficulties of being Chinese-American. Not really fitting into either culture. Readers will understand this perspective the first time around, it really did not need to be multiplied by five main characters with very little nuance. Give me a MC who's ashamed of being Chinese-American. Give me a MC who just arrived in America this year and speaks little English. Give me a MC who snitches on the rest of the group because they secretly don't agree that the art should be returned.
There was no variation, so the story got tiring a little quickly.
Otherwise, I really enjoyed it, and will read what the author publishes next, but this one read like a debut novel and I wish someone else could re-write it better.
And it started off perfectly for me. The beginning sounded a lot like a 5-star read... until the book continued on and on and became so frustratingly repetitive. It didn't take long to realize that all the characters are pretty much the same. Yeah, they have their own interests and they major in different subjects... but all of them are Chinese-Americans balancing their Chinese identity with their American ones and all of them come from the same perspective--that this Chinese art must be stolen and rightfully returned.
The number of times I had to hear each of the five main characters talk about the difficulties of being Chinese-American. Not really fitting into either culture. Readers will understand this perspective the first time around, it really did not need to be multiplied by five main characters with very little nuance. Give me a MC who's ashamed of being Chinese-American. Give me a MC who just arrived in America this year and speaks little English. Give me a MC who snitches on the rest of the group because they secretly don't agree that the art should be returned.
There was no variation, so the story got tiring a little quickly.
Otherwise, I really enjoyed it, and will read what the author publishes next, but this one read like a debut novel and I wish someone else could re-write it better.