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gertrude314 's review for:
Portrait of a Thief
by Grace D. Li
I wanted to like this SO BAD. A heist novel with noble reasons? I was excited.
Unfortunately, the start of this story is weird. Will is working in an art museum when a group of thieves steal Chinese art. He steals something in the commotion and one of the thieves takes the time to leave him a business card with a compliment of his theft. This leads to Will getting 5 unassigned tickets to Beijing. We eventually find out Will somehow put together a brilliant and talented team to steal some Chinese art for a corporation. How many of us have friends who are Ivy League students moonlighting as hackers/racers/con artists? I know so many of these people I'd have to be really picky about my crew, right? Of course.
It has a good premise, but all the characters are tortured teenagers with nothing but amazing things in their futures, but they're tortured, you see. Therefore, crimes. The book was so bloated with extraneous descriptions of weather or feelings that I skipped paragraphs just to read the next sentence in a conversation. When I found myself skipping through the whole book for the dialogue, I decided to call it quits.
Unfortunately, the start of this story is weird. Will is working in an art museum when a group of thieves steal Chinese art. He steals something in the commotion and one of the thieves takes the time to leave him a business card with a compliment of his theft. This leads to Will getting 5 unassigned tickets to Beijing. We eventually find out Will somehow put together a brilliant and talented team to steal some Chinese art for a corporation. How many of us have friends who are Ivy League students moonlighting as hackers/racers/con artists? I know so many of these people I'd have to be really picky about my crew, right? Of course.
It has a good premise, but all the characters are tortured teenagers with nothing but amazing things in their futures, but they're tortured, you see. Therefore, crimes. The book was so bloated with extraneous descriptions of weather or feelings that I skipped paragraphs just to read the next sentence in a conversation. When I found myself skipping through the whole book for the dialogue, I decided to call it quits.