A review by bluejayreads
Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li

Did not finish book. Stopped at 28%.
This is not a heist story, this is a book about immigrant identity, and to a lesser degree art and the Western habit of stealing other countries' art and saying it's not theirs anymore. I really appreciate a book critiquing Western imperialism's art crimes and I love the idea of a Chinese diaspora team stealing them back, but the idea would have been better done in a movie or TV show - or even a more action-oriented book. These characters aren't a cohesive team (and aren't putting effort into becoming one), they go about heist planning terribly (watching heist movies and discussing committing felonies over Zoom), and they're focused more on inner monologues about their immigrant identities as both Chinese and American than the heists. If you go in expecting that it might not be bad, but calling it a heist book is major mismarketing. 
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