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A review by bisexualwentworth
Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I really wanted to like this book, but it was just sort of fine. It wasn’t a great heist book cause the heists were barely described and felt under-researched when they were. It wasn’t a great character study cause none of the characters were explored in much depth. The author was getting at some really interesting and good stuff about Chinese American identity and art repatriation, but the whole thing ultimately fell short for me because the actual plot and characters felt so surface-level.
Lily was kind of a nothing character. We kept being told that she and Will had so much in common, but the narrative never really showed us that. She had more chemistry with basically everyone else than she did with Will. Their relationship felt very forced.
Alex and Irene’s romance was much better. It was a really small part of the story, but I felt it was developed well and it made sense for both characters.
Daniel’s complicated relationship with his father was by far the best part of the book for me. I related to Daniel a lot, much more than I ever expected to, and he felt like the most complex character with the most developed relationships—funny, that, because I often felt like the narrative cared about him the least.
Hated Daniel’s crush on Irene. I also think it would have been much more compelling for him to have had a gay crush on straight Will than a straight crush on gay Irene (not that either Irene or Alex actually identified as anything).
I thought that the prose was very lyrical and poetic, but it didn’t quite work for a book that was marketed so heavily as a heist story and that centered so much around the (underwritten) heists. I would definitely read another book by this author cause I think she has a ton of potential and a lot to say, but this one just didn’t quite work for me.
One more thing: the mentions of COVID-19 and BLM felt super weird and out of place, especially considering there were no Black characters in the book and no mentions of the pandemic having any lasting presence or impact despite the book seemingly being set in 2021. Super weird.
I did really enjoy the final heist/etc., though.
Lily was kind of a nothing character. We kept being told that she and Will had so much in common, but the narrative never really showed us that. She had more chemistry with basically everyone else than she did with Will. Their relationship felt very forced.
Alex and Irene’s romance was much better. It was a really small part of the story, but I felt it was developed well and it made sense for both characters.
Daniel’s complicated relationship with his father was by far the best part of the book for me. I related to Daniel a lot, much more than I ever expected to, and he felt like the most complex character with the most developed relationships—funny, that, because I often felt like the narrative cared about him the least.
Hated Daniel’s crush on Irene. I also think it would have been much more compelling for him to have had a gay crush on straight Will than a straight crush on gay Irene (not that either Irene or Alex actually identified as anything).
I thought that the prose was very lyrical and poetic, but it didn’t quite work for a book that was marketed so heavily as a heist story and that centered so much around the (underwritten) heists. I would definitely read another book by this author cause I think she has a ton of potential and a lot to say, but this one just didn’t quite work for me.
One more thing: the mentions of COVID-19 and BLM felt super weird and out of place, especially considering there were no Black characters in the book and no mentions of the pandemic having any lasting presence or impact despite the book seemingly being set in 2021. Super weird.
I did really enjoy the final heist/etc., though.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism, Death of parent, Cancer, and Colonisation