I am so bummed to say that I was disappointed with this book. The premise sounded so, so promising - how could you not be reeled in by a heist novel that aims to steal back ancient Chinese sculptures from Western museums?! Written by a Chinese American woman and reflecting on diaspora and colonialism?! I put this as one of my most anticipated reads for 2022, and was so looking forward to digging in.

But when I started reading, things immediately began to fall flat for me. First, what I love most about highest movies and books is the amazing, unlikely cast of characters that come together to accomplish the heist. But with this book, it’s a group of five ragtag college students who have no credentials to pull off this robbery - it’s totally unclear to me how they were chosen, or why their skill sets fit the need for this project. The fact that they were able to be even remotely successful is just unbelievable.

Second, I really did not vibe with the author’s writing style. I know it’s a debut novel, but the writing just felt so flowery and pretentious. She utilizes a lot of phrases that feel like cop-outs or something from a writing seminar - most commonly, “It went like this:” followed by a string of semi descriptive phrases intended to paint a picture. For example: “‘Like this.’ It had been two months. He remembered Beijing and a rising sun, plane flights and Lily’s smile in the blue light. Stockholm, hotel rooms, champagne. Paris, pale and glittering, all these moments in camera obscura. Temporary, perhaps, but lovely all the same.“ But I just couldn’t help but roll my eyes at some of these paragraphs. And that paired with the fact that the protagonists are college students who are already so jaded and take themselves and everything around them so seriously…it just didn’t work for me.

Finally, what I want out of a heist book is an action packed plot. Of course, I want to get to know the characters and feel a connection to what’s happening, but I also want there to be a good amount of, well, stuff happening! The action was few and far between with this book - it was way, way heavy on the character development, romance, and aforementioned flowery prose paragraphs.

Overall, I didn’t think this was a bad book, it was maybe just my expectations and the hype that inflated my hopes for the execution. I think the premise is brilliant, and I’m sure it’ll be a very entertaining Netflix film when it’s adapted (as it’s already slated to be!). But it just didn’t live up to what I wanted from it, sadly. Thank you to Penguin Group Dutton for the ARC via Netgalley!

Much more than a caper/heist novel. Portrait of a Thief is about righting wrongs centuries in the making. It is about wanting to do right for your heritage and culture that you have a deep connection to. So for the group of thieves, it's not just about the big payout they will get if they are successful, it's about reclaiming artifacts and returning them to where they belong. For Will this is personal and also something that he needs right now as he's not sure what to do after he graduates from Harvard.

For me it begs the question, what do art museums owe to the cultures that had their art pilfered and never returned? Do they owe it to return it?

It made me think about the cost to other countries and cultures for others to pay to view their history. I think it's an intriguing discussion.

I loved this a lot more than I expected to, but I did have some issues. The story is captivating and I love the commentaries on diaspora and art. The characters were also really well-done, I felt their perspectives were very individual and unique.

The writing was also beautiful, but my issue lies in the repetitive descriptions. Perhaps this will be changed in a final copy, but if I had to hear the ocean in Galveston described in the exact same way one more time I was going to scream.

That said, it didn't ruin the book for me and I would definitely still recommend it.

"When she left, her friends had called it abroad, but irene had known it wasn't. China was many things--traffic and mountains and the brush of ink over paper, emperors and innovation and the heavy hand of an authoritarian government--but she would never call it foreign."

That sums up the clear-eyed yet loving way Grace Li describes China, from the various perspectives of her five college-age Chinese-American students, who are recruited by an extremely wealthy Chinese person to loot five important Chinese works of art that had once sat in the Summer Palace, but had been taken to various Western museums, and bring them back to China.

The story itself is a fantasy without magic. If the mechanics of a heist are your especially thing, aspects of this tale will drive you nuts (the students using Zoom to plan their heist being typical) but if you can hand wave that off, and sink into the characters, and the grace notes when talking about China's amazingly long and difficult history, then this might be the book for you.

It does start off slowly, as the author takes her time in establishing the backstory for each of her five students. I think I was past the thirty percent mark before they began getting to their first heist. But before then was the trip to China, which I relished, and many elegant turns of phrase.

The ending is a bit of a fantasy, too, but at heart this entire story is a plea for art to go back to the country of origin.

This was a really fun book that also had a lot of substance to it. It was a setting I know practically nothing about but I was immediately immersed in it.

Art heists and an examination of Chinese American diaspora? I couldn't get my hands on this debut fast enough!

PORTRAIT OF A THIEF is told through five POVs, all college-aged students, who are quickly assembled as a team tasked with stealing back priceless pieces of art from Western museums that rightfully belong to China. They each have their own reasons to take part, and their backstories and complicated relationship to their Chinese heritage, more than the heists themselves, is the focus of the story.

The writing is lyrical and lush, and it asks many questions that I myself have faced as a Korean American born in Seoul but adopted and raised as an American in the Midwest. In addition to the challenges and complexity of cultural diaspora, I was impressed with how themes of colonialism and imperialism were touched on within the heist setup.

That said, it was a lot to address in a single story supposedly about art heists, and I do feel like some things only got a surface-level treatment. It was as if this book was trying to be/do too many things all at once, and it affected some of the pacing and my ability to really sink into the story the way I wanted to.

I do think some of this can be attributed to misleading marketing by the publisher. This is not a flashy heist novel, so comparisons to OCEAN'S ELEVEN are puzzling at best. If you're looking for a fast-moving caper, this isn't it.

So, did I enjoy it? I did, but not as much as I wanted to. There were glimpses of really great storytelling and character development—I just wanted more. And that's okay! I think this author has amazing potential, and I'm looking forward to whatever she does next.

P.S. This story has been optioned by Netflix, and I'm excited to see what they do with the film adaptation.

RATING: B

Billed as Ocean’s 11 meets The Farewell, I found myself most closely comparing it to The Italian Job and I LOVED IT.

5 college students is hired by a Beijing art company to steal back relics stolen from the Old Summer Palace by colonists and are now on display in famous museums the world over.

Each person brings their own talents (getaway driver, hacker, art historian, etc.) and their own dreams of what the life-changing sum they’ve been offered can mean for themselves and their immigrant families.

While it might sound frivolous, it’s actually a novel with a more emotional vein running beneath. One of longing to fit in, the struggle of straddling two worlds, and the quest for individual and collective identity as Chinese-Americans.

While certainly a heist story at its core, this book is much more character-driven than plot driven. I really enjoyed getting to know the diverse set of characters and learning more about the complexity of the Chinese-American identity. I am thankful Ellen put this on my radar, I CANNOT wait for the Netflix adaptation I think it’s going to be next level, and I highly recommend watching the author’s sister’s hilarious TikTok’s/Reels about this story!! #TinyRepPartner @tinyrepbooks

Four Chinese American college students, who feel they have something to prove, form a team to steal Chinese art from various museums around the world. Each piece was originally stolen from China by one of the imperialist powers, so the kids convince themselves that the cause is noble. The $50 million that a wealthy Chinese woman promises them for the safe return of the pieces is just icing on the cake.
Grace Li's novel is well paced, and her characters believable, but the plot seemed too improbable.

Five college students plan a series of heists of Chinese Zodiac pieces from five different museums in order to return them to their homeland in Charline D. LI’s debut novel. One of my most anticipated titles for this year I thought the premise sounded amazing. Unfortunately, I wish I could say this worked for me but ultimately it didn’t. My problem as the book progressed was I couldn’t tell what this ultimately wanted to be? A heist novel or a character study of identity and Asian diaspora, and I didn’t feel that either were fully germinated, although upon reflection I would say it’s more the latter than the former.

Because of this I had a hard time, in regards to the heist component, comprehending without a large suspension of disbelief how this group would pull off the job they were offered.
Beyond explaining their various skills: con artist, computer whiz, getaway driver etc. and learning they’re watching Oceans 11 and communicating through WhatsApp we’re not let into any of what’s going into the preparation and just presented with the heist itself.
As a result it feels like something we’re just supposed to accept and marvel at, while in between jobs the characters muse about their own identities, colonialism, and art. By the books end, a lot of the personal stories were feeling repetitious and for me it could have ended chapters before it actually did. I feel like there’s a great skeleton of a really thoughtful and interesting book here that-to use a bad art metaphor- needed the colors filled in. Thanks to @tinyrepbooks and @netgalley for the review copy!

While Will, Irene, Daniel, Lily, and Alex are extremely bright individuals enlisted to steal and return Chinese artifacts, they are not skilled thieves like Danny Ocean and Rusty Ryan--don't expect elaborate, romanticized heists. The novel's strength lies in the complexity of the characters and the exploration of their experiences as immigrants or part of the Asian diaspora. The opportunity to reclaim the artifacts serves as a tangible way to assert a claim on their identities, providing an outlet to attempt a reconciliation between who they are and who they want to be.  Li captures the deep sense of longing that exists in those of the Asian American diaspora. We struggle to find a sense of place and belonging while navigating our identities and feeling like we are not enough--not American enough nor enough for our ancestral country. These are incredibly complicated struggles, but Li puts them into words so well.

- PORTRAIT OF A THIEF is a cinematic meditation on colonialism, the Chinese diaspora, art history, and rewriting history from the view of the oppressed. You can absolutely already see the movie playing in your head as you read.
- It's much more of a character study than you might expect from a heist novel, but there are still plenty of heart-pounding passages amid the exploration of the team members' motivations and histories.
- Some of the ruminations become a bit repetitive in the last third, but the ending is more than worth sticking around for.

Portrait of a Thief is a fun heist novel wrapped around a deeper discussion around culture, colonialism, and consequences.

One must ensure they have a heavy does of suspended disbelief in order to think someone would shell out millions of dollars to hire amateur college students to rob some of the most secure museums in the world. If you cruise past that the portions of the book surrounding the thefts is entertaining.

The majority of the book is spent exploring the Chinese diaspora, the ramifications of pilfered and stolen art, and what culture to means to us at a personal level.

If you're looking for a high action book, this may not be the one for you. If you're looking for a character driven story about adventures and art, then go pick up a copy right away.

Portrait of a Thief focuses on a group of Chinese-American college students form a crew to steal Chinese artifacts from western museums and repatriate them to China. Its Oceans 11 meets White Collar and I really like it.
The five members of the crew each have point of view chapters and fall into standard heist movie roles. Will is the leader, and the first one approached for the mission when he steals a jade figure from The Sackler Gallery (where he works) during a separate burglary. His sister Irene is the con-artist, a poly-sci major at Duke, she's great at navigating situations to get the team out of sticky situations and obtain information. Daniel, Will's best friend, is the muscle and law enforcement link. His father is part of the FBI's white collar division specializing in art theft. Alex, the tech person, is Will's former paramour and the outsider in the group. Finally theres Lily, the driver and Irene's roommate.

The main plot follows the team's mission to retrieve 5 fountainhead that had been looted from one of Chinese Royal Palaces 200 years prior. If they can successfully steal all five heads, their reward is 50 million dollars, split evenly. However, the main focus of the book isn't the thefts, but the characters themselves. The author uses the heists and their fallout to explore our five characters motivations and drives.

Lily is probably my favorite character as her story is focused on being the most American of the group, having grown up in Galvenston removed from her roots and culture.

My only compliant is that the book's 2nd act really slows down compared to act 1 and 3. So I found it difficult to maintain interest and momentum at that point.

However, I cannot recommend this book enough. It speaks to concepts of heritage, art history, friendship and family.

If you liked Oceans 11, White Collar, or Crazy Rich Asians, give this a try!

As I believe many readers were and will be, I was initially drawn to Portrait of a Thief because of its status as a heist story. Ever since I read Heist Society at age 12, I have loved a good heist. But as I was soon to discover, Portrait of a Thief is more than just a witty heist novel. I believe the most accurate description is that it is a quiet, intelligent novel about identity, culture, and, honestly, ethical dilemmas of art.

Portrait of a Thief covers the life of six different college students as they work together to steal back some of the most priceless pieces of Chinese art in the world. Mastermind, hacker, grifter, they are your traditional heist team. Until…they’re not. They don’t really know what they’re doing. And like most college students, they are actually quite self-conscious. They are flooded with fears and self-doubt. They bicker with each other a lot. I think one of the reasons I liked Portrait of a Thief so much is that it is really about young people attempting to find their place in the world. They just happen to be doing so while planning to rob six of the world’s highest security museums.

In each of her characters, Li captured what it feels like to be standing at the precipice to your future, unsure of what your next move should be. Honestly, it is scary and overwhelming, and Li portrays it well.

Something I really enjoyed was the way the novel incorporated discussions of diaspora into the characters and the text. Each character approached it from a different perspective, leading to nuanced and interesting discussions. I have never seen a young adult handle diaspora in the way that Portrait of a Thief did, but I think it was high time.

Li creates a satisfying plot and a compelling cast of characters. Her writing successfully captures the many emotions of being a college student, and also manages to create interesting conversations around who art really belongs to. I highly recommend Portrait of a Thief, and I cannot wait to see what Li writes next.

This novel manages to be several things at once: a heist/caper tale, a bit of coming of age story, an exploration of the Chinese-American diaspora experience, and a reflection of imperialism and its arrogance in acquiring art works from other civilizations.

Our protagonists are five young college students. They are all Chinese by culture with families who sacrificed to be successful in the U.S. Some are very bound by their feelings of where their ancestors came from and all are a little lost at where they fit into American society. They are all brilliant with some interestingly diverse skill sets: a computer whiz, a pre-med student, an art history major, a street racer, and a golden girl who seemingly rolls through life unscathed.

They are approached by a Chinese billionaire with an audacious offer: $10 million each if they steal five classic fountainhead sculptures, stolen from the old Summer Palace in China. The goal is to return these treasures to their homeland.

The heist portion of fun and event-filled. But their planned thefts do not go as planned. There is a particularly intriguing plot twist at the end. There is a little bit of dragging in the last third as the plot focuses on individual personal angst instead of the thefts, but it all gets satisfactorily sorted in the end. Thanks to the publisher and to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Tale of a Heist, but the Focus is Character

Will Chen, a senior in art history at Harvard, works at the Sackler Museum part-time. When men in black masks raid the museum and steal some priceless Chinese art, Will is caught in the museum. He sees the thieves and notices a piece left behind. He deftly palms it. This act gets him a call from a group that wants to enlist him to steal several more pieces of Chinese art that were taken from the country during Colonial times and now reside in museums. They want these pieces of China’s heritage returned.

Will agrees and recruits his friends to help: his sister Irene, the conman, Alex, the hacker, Daniel, the thief, and Lily, the getaway driver. These are all college students of Chinese ancestry. Their families have been in the US for varying amounts of time, but the students still struggle with understanding their background.

I thought the best part of the book was character development. These are college kids, they each have issues, goals, and desires. They each are struggling to understand who they are and what it means to be a person of Chinese descent. I thought the author did an excellent job showing each character. They were all distinct and quite different from each other, but believable.

I thought the heist was the weakest part of the novel. It seems unlikely that college students would be recruited for this type of job and the way they plan it using Facebook, Whatsapp, and Google is clever, but doesn’t ring true. However, the pace is fast and with the emphasis on the characters and the background history, the weakness of the heist planning and accomplishment goes unnoticed.

I received this book from Penguin Random House for this review.

What a gorgeous triumph of a book. Li deftly creates distinct voices for each POV character, and her prose is glittering and incisive. The exploration of museums, art, imperialism, and a heist stealing back what was once yours is nuanced and important—the heist story we need!

thank you to netgalley and penguin group dutton for the e-arc of this book!

leader, con artist, thief, getaway driver, hacker - the essential roles of a heist crew. so what happens when a talented group of ivy league students fitting these exact roles have the opportunity to steal back the art of their homeland?

this book was everything. ocean’s eleven meets fast and furious meets what indiana jones wishes he was. on the surface, it’s a fun heist novel. but in reality, it’s a beautiful and powerful exploration of identity and the consequences of imperialism.

i adored this ensemble cast. all of the characters felt well-rounded, and their moral dilemmas were so authentic. they were dealing with grief and identity and cultural confusion, and it all worked so well.

my only issue with this book is its references to the pandemic. i am just not in a headspace where that kind of thing works for me, but this is totally a personal preference!

🌟🌟🌟🌟 / 5

overall, this is a very enthusiastic 4 stars from me. i loved this book.

As soon as I read the title description, I knew I wanted to read this one! *Fantastic* plot, excellent character development (and particularly in description of being caught between cultures, identity, and what it means to be POC in a nation of colonizers), and I enjoyed learning of each character’s background and what motivated their actions. Thrilling and thought-provoking at the same time, this is one I’ll be recommending to others!