This book is stunning.

I could go on and on about everything I loved in PORTRAIT OF A THIEF - the crisp-yet-elegant prose, the careful attention to detail, the way the unassuming characters take on lives of their own throughout the book. But what struck me the most about this novel was something that's <i>so incredibly hard</i> to get right, and that's the heart.

There is so much heart in this book that it felt personal. Like I was reading a diary entry. Every place, every scene, every setting feels lived-in and unique, in the way only someone who lived somewhere for years could describe. From Houston, my own backyard, to San Francisco, the place I was actually flying to when I started reading this book, everything <i>clicked</i>. And it's so beautiful reading a story from someone that understands the magic of location and all the little bits of a person that come from where they grew up.

And that's the whole point of the story, isn't it? Claiming identity over one's birthplace? Maybe not their <i>original</i> birthplace, as with Will and Irene, but the place where they feel the most connected? I will admit that this was my first time reading from the perspective of Chinese diaspora outside of nonfiction and articles and Twitter threads, but I am once again floored by how incredibly informative and beautiful the world can be when you look at it through someone else's eyes. Books like this are why books should exist in the first place.

Reading PORTRAIT OF A THIEF, for me, felt the same way that the last few months of university did before the so-called real world began. It feels like a beautiful fever dream, a midnight joyride through an empty city, the simple pleasure in knowing you might not get to experience something like this ever again. It's a moment in time that's impossible to describe - you have to live it.

What an incredible debut. I cannot wait to get my hands on a final copy - you'd be missing out if you didn't do the same.

(Thanks to the heist crew over at Penguin/Tiny Reparations for the NetGalley ARC!)

I screamed when I saw that I got approved for this and it did not disappoint! The concept of students stealing back stolen art jumped out at me. I love a good heist style book and this one was almost reminiscent of the Oceans movies. The characters were all very distinct and it was fun getting to know their individual personalities. This isn't a complaint per se, but the story did seem to focus more than I expected on introspection when I was thinking there would be action. Not a bad thing! It just caught me by surprise. It didn't retract from my reading experience much and I still very much enjoyed the book. Would recommend!

I have a complicated relationship with this book-- on one hand, I adore the characters and premise of this book but on the other hand there was an element that made me feel disconnected from the story as a whole. It may have been the repetitiveness of the description or how slow the plot occurred but I felt myself not fully falling into the story and its characters. With all that being said, I still had massive amounts of fun with this cast of characters. Seeing the different realities of the Chinese diaspora and how they interacted with the culture was super interesting and I found myself relating as a child of Southeast Asian immigrants. The aspects of dealing with colonization and Asian American identity were done so well but the actual plot of heisting and the setup fell flat for me. I wish I could fall so in love with this book but I couldn't but I may try and read it again once it's out and give it a shot physically.

This was still a really strong debut. The characters felt so real and vibrant and the writing style was immersive and gorgeous. I just felt a bit more disconnected than I would have liked to in this story and that's okay!

Emotional, heart-wrenching, glamorous, anti-colonialist, beautiful, epic, priceless

Portrait of a Thief surprised me more than any other book that I've read this year. This book is absolutely stunning and I can't believe it exists. The entire book is an absolute love letter to Asian-Americans. I was incredibly underprepared. I went into this book looking for a heist to steal back artifacts that had been stolen from China and came out feeling like I had reevaluated my entire identity as an Asian-American. Grace Li's stunning debut novel is an absolute treasure and should not be missed by a single person.

Throughout history and even until today, museums have always displayed the spoils of war, conquest, and colonialism. A Chinese-American senior at Harvard, Will Chen, plans to steal priceless artifacts from museums around the world, artifacts initially stolen from China, and return them to their rightful home. He and his gang set out on their own Oceans Eleven worthy heist to make their mark in history and earn fifty million dollars, but the challenges they face force them to confront their own Chinese identity as they attempt to take back what colonialism has stolen.

This book touched my soul so deeply I can't even begin to explain how important it is to me. Grace Li explores what it means to be Asian American, or Asian diaspora, in such a beautiful way. She explains the constant battle between rejecting your heritage and fighting so desperately to hang on to what you have left and it left a huge mark on my heart. The heist slowly changed from stealing back artifacts that were stolen from China to an exploration of how urgently the characters were fighting to steal back their Chinese heritage that was taken from them, as it is taken from so many of us in ways we never expected. Their desperate attempt to get China to love them back is all too familiar and all too heartbreaking. Being Asian-American we often are told that we are neither American enough nor Asian (insert your own heritage here) enough and these characters embody it so deeply.

As Asian-Americans, we are told far too often that the way that we retell our own stories is inaccurate to the canon and we are accepted into America with too many caveats to count. The way that the characters are fighting so hard to make a mark in Chinese history resonated so deeply with me that I found myself in near tears the entire book. I too desperately wish that my Asian heritage would love me back to the same degree that I desperately long for it. I too feel neither Asian nor American enough. I too have an inexplicable longing for a people I should be able to claim as mine. I hope that in this book people find the lost diasporic souls of their friends. I hope they find characters who feel as deeply as they do. I hope that people will read this and feel less alone.

I have never read a book that felt like it was reading into my soul in the same way that this one did and I absolutely recommend it to every single person. This book is a stunning way to start to understand some of the Asian diaspora experience and I cannot wait to hold my copy in my hands. Thank you so much, Grace Li, this book spoke directly to my soul.

3.75 Stars.

This was an interesting read! One I have sort of mixed feelings about. Portrait of a Thief feels like a slick movie wrapped up in a literary fiction novel. The prose is great at pulling you in but starts to loop over and over again until you feel the whole story start to blend together. I felt like most of this book was no plot just vibes. Most of the characters spend time thinking fancy introspective thoughts about identity and future and past and it’s all very intriguing the first time you read it but a little tedious by the 20th time.

The beginning of the book was slow and then hooked me in and then it began to drag again. The characters didn’t feel exactly real because they always had the movie perfect like of dialogue just queued up. I believe this would be a fantastic movie or film but it didn’t completely hit home as a novel.

The heist part of this was so ridiculous at some parts I truly had to suspend disbelief and suppress a few chuckles. These ~super cool~ 20 somethings who always have the precise cutting phrase at the ready are out here planning a heist on GoogleDocs and WhatsApp. They’re breaking glass with baseball bats and just leaving the museum. It’s all so convenient and unbelievable it ruins the sleek effect - you’re supposed to believe these kids are mastermind planners but they’re literally making rookie errors and getting caught.

And it isn’t quite clear to me why these four kids would throw it all away for this impossible plan that’s most likely going to end with their future in ruins.
If you go into this expecting a logical heist novel, I think you’ll come out disappointed.

The prose also walked a very thin line between lyrical and pretentious. Will and Irene really irritated me because they’re so perfect and used to doing everything exactly right when it seems like their success is more the result of blind luck, privilege, and beauty than any real innate talent.


I did appreciate the cultural elements and really related to the identity struggles. And overall it was a good time but this didn’t strike me as profound as it likely was supposed to.

Great story hook -- art thieves stealing for the sake of returning priceless artifacts and art back to where it was originally stolen. Couple that with portraits of modern Asian young adults coming to grips with who they are, who their families want and need them to be, while trying to find themselves in the history of where their families originated. Great concept, and I really enjoyed the writing style, just was frustrated by the quirk of each chapter announcing the first and last name of the featured character. I don't know why that bothered me, but it annoyed me after the initial introduction of each character.

Five 20-year-olds are about to experience the adventure of a lifetime. Called to Beijing by a mysterious Chinese corporation, they unite as a crew to steal back China’s beloved art from the museums displaying it. Each member has a complicated relationship with China and their identity as a Chinese-American, and they all hope that they can right history. Splitting the 50 million dollar reward is also a pretty attractive offer. Can this group of amateurs pull off the perfect heists?

I have mixed feelings about this book, though they are mostly positive. I was very excited to read and the summary and hype had prepared me for a truly thrilling story. It was more subdued than I had expected. The beginning started off very strong, but after the first heist, that plot line became less important. The heists were a bit rushed, but I wasn’t expecting an extremely detailed and accurate description of multiple heists from a young adult fiction novel. For a novel that seemed to be mostly about stealing back art, I had expected a bit more though.

I really enjoyed the five crew members and being able to see how each struggled with finding themselves. They were all connected in different ways and the heist is what brought them together. While they all seemed very dissimilar on the outside, I also saw how they shared similar sentiments about not being American enough or Chinese enough… how they wanted to prove themselves and claim their Chinese identities. As a Chinese adoptee, I related to a lot of this and their feelings of loss over family and culture.

I wanted to see their relationships a bit more. The characters were complex and deep and their connections with their friends/crew members could have been too. There were some hints at relationships and tension during the planning, but their interactions felt a bit shallow. The ending was redeeming, and I got to experience each character’s coming-of-self moment as well as their relationships deepen. It was the last chapters that had me hoping for a sequel.

Portrait of a Thief is a solid debut novel that explores the complexities of being between two cultures and wanting to claim an identity. While for a novel about art heists, it lacks a bit on the thrilling side it is a unique and creative story about five individuals willing to lose it all to strengthen their connections to their culture and themselves.

It's impossible to describe this impossible book without a single, impossible phrase: good grief! I really, really hope this was a too-early cut because otherwise...was Li's editor asleep at the wheel? Was this really too much to catch? Because "impossible," unfortunately, is not the only offender of being constantly overused: the waiting dark/night, the Galveston/Beijing/Stockholm dark/night/sky, Beijing penthouse, possibilities...plus a half dozen other phrases and words that get worn right down to the nubbin. And it's really, really hard not to read this repetitiveness as sloppiness because the structure of the sentences themselves are so well-composed. There's a musicality to them, a sense that Li had an ear for their rhythm and variation. So to not try a little harder, to not see that there's a line where, once crossed, an ordinary word because groan inducing...well, it reads like a glaring error. And it could have easily ruined this book.

Fortunately, though, this book is saved by the strength of its' plot and the themes it addresses. It even has a delightful and well-earned ending that feels straight out of a Hollywood heist movie. And even though I would've liked a little bit more of the inherent fun of a heist played into, I understand why that was left out and enjoyed the twists and turns the book took. That said...man, does it take a lot of teeth gritting to get there. If you can turn your eye to the repetitiveness (or if it's edited again before it's published), you'll definitely find this an enjoyable, interesting read. But if you find that kind of thing too annoying, you may need to look elsewhere.

I was so honored to receive an early copy of Portrait of a Thief, as the premise excited me immensely. The representation in this novel truly made me so incredibly happy, especially the representation of diaspora in all its complexity. I am deeply in love with all the characters and their development. Portrait of a Thief has all of the breathless, suspenseful moments of the Ocean's movies, mixed with a deeply relatable, and lyrical, commentary about the experience of being part of two cultures. Grace D. Li is an amazing author, and I can't wait to buy a finished copy when it's released!

This book was a good one.
I enjoyed the storyline and the plot..
Our characters I wished their was more to them. More background to them all really.
At times I felt maybe this was rushed because of the characters and some of the things they did.
This was a very interesting story though.
The writing was great. The ending was wonderfully done.
Overall, A very good book. My.only complaint is the characters.
Still worth the read.

Dutton|Tiny Reparations Books,
Thank you so much for this ebook copy!

This book has SUCH a clever premise! Ocean’s Eleven meets The Farewell, where a crew of Chinese American students steals back stolen Chinese art from Western museums? Holy brilliant! I've been awaiting this book eagerly since finding out about it awhile ago.

So, when I was sent a Netgalley copy, I was absolutely over the moon! A friend and I buddy read it pretty much immediately.

Right from the start, the way the book addressed being Chinese diaspora had me emotional. I love the way the different characters had varying relationships to China and being Chinese or Chinese American. I love that they're conflicted about how they feel about their respective heritages. The way the story considers not only the characters' relationships to being Chinese diaspora, but their parents'. As a second generation Chinese American woman, I seek out stories that promise to address the complexities of Chinese diaspora identity, and in this regard, Portrait of a Thief is one of the best I've ever read.

In terms of the heist, it was interesting, but definitely felt more like it existed to serve the story's thematic questions (addressing colonialism, ethics of Western museums, etc.) rather than it being the focal point of the plot. In other words, I think it will help readers to know, going in, that the story is weighed more heavily toward The Farewell than Ocean's Eleven.

Overall, I definitely recommend this book and can't wait to see it go out into the world! Out April 5. Thank you Tiny Reparations Books for providing a free advanced e-book in exchange for an honest review.

If I had to describe this book with 2 words it would be repetitive and ridiculous.

I'm so disappointed, the concept of this book was amazing but the execution was terrible. Everything that happened felt like it was just happening due to convenience, absolutely nothing in the book made any logical or practical sense, and the ridiculousness of it all just annoyed me to no end.

It felt like the author didn't do any research before writing this book, everything was either irrational or preposterous.
At first this book took me in, the writing was lyrical and easy to read. But after only a few chapters, it became apparent how repetitive it actually was.

The characters were distinct but I never felt connected to them, I wasn't rooting for them and I just didn't care. We know like 2 or 3 piece of information about each character and that's all we get throughout the whole book. Take Alex for exemple, in literally every one of her chapters it's mentionned that she dropped out of MIT and isn't happy with her job, after 5 chapters I was so sick of reading this again and again I wanted to learn something else about her but no, that's all we get, and it's the same for every character. I skimmed through the last half because i wanted to get it over with.

Also, when talking about the Château de Fontainebleau, they kept saying things like "break in the fontainebleau" "rob the fontainebleau" uh... what ? Fontainebleau is a city, you wouldn't say "rob the London" when talking about the museum of London, right ? This just really frustrated me.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an advanced reader's copy

First and foremost, I love that this book exists-- even if I found it difficult to connect to, and ultimately didn't finish it.
I will consume anything and everything having to do with stolen art, museum heists, and the controversial subject of ownership when it comes to historically significant material that was once looted or ill-gotten.
All of that being said, I didn't care for the characters who set out to pull off this particular heist. Despite being presented with differing circumstances and backgrounds, their voices all sort of meshed into one; it was difficult to keep track of who was who, and what their bonds with one another were. I do suspect, however, that this book will be quite popular upon its release, and I would definitely read another book by Li, as I think she's going to get better and better.

There's a tweet out there, somewhere, that says something like, "once you see the sun set in Los Angeles, you start to see why people listen to The Eagles."

This book is like that, except the sunset is in Beijing, in the broken glass of a smashed exhibit case, in America's best universities, in the tight pinch of coming back home different from how you left, and The Eagles is the mixed-up, muddied feelings of being part of a diaspora and holding up the weight of familial and self-imposed expectations.

Which is to say, I love it, and would like to be able to gift it to several people right now, thanks.

The descriptions throughout—of art, homesickness, longing, the weather—are gorgeous and lasting, leaving behind the stickiness of summer, the exhilaration of night time thievery, and the sharp, painful ache of wanting something you're not allowed to have. The heists are just down-to-earth enough to be believable, and just idealistically motivated enough to be flung back into the realm of the fantastic, and our thieves are a refreshing, slightly warped mirror of people we all definitely knew and were in awe of throughout school.

Again, which is to say: Irene Chen could step on me and I would say thank you.

This book is really special. I was thinking about it almost the entire time I wasn't reading it, and it has left me with an almighty book hangover. So sorry to whatever I read next! All five of the main characters were compelling and likeable, even when they did questionable things (by which I don't mean multiple heists! I don't question those at all!) I felt like I completely understood their motivations, and was rooting for them all the way through the genuinely exciting and in places unexpected story. The plotting was also great. I'm not at all surprised the book has been optioned by Netflix, and really hope it makes it to the screen. In places I found the writing not entirely to my smile - there were a lot of repeated themes (light and cityscapes particularly) that I felt distracted in how much they were returned to, but thats a matter of my preference as much as anything. Highly recommend. Absolutely loved it.

It is with the greatest regret that I admit I couldn't finish this book. There is nothing I love more than a slick heist story and a crew of righteous thieves, but substance should never be sacrificed for flash. The prose and atmosphere are lush, the tone ostentatiously seductive. The tantalizingly brief glimpses into how second-generation Chinese American kids navigate their cultural history and identity were well-done. I could see the conflict (within and between individual characters) playing out with compelling tension, if it's explored later in the book. However, those moments were too few and too small in the beginning for me to latch onto.

I believe this story and tone would work better with older, more experienced characters. As young 20-somethings, the world-weary attitudes are unearned posturing, and they have the swagger and self-indulgent ennui that only the very young and very inexperienced can have. I could not understand why they were recruited for such a difficult job over the proven crews Wang Yuling surely could have hired.

I will keep an eye out for Li's next book. I love character-work, and based on this, she does, as well, and I'm interested to see what she can do with more experience.

This review will go live on December 15 on the Wellesley News website!

There are books where I read knowing exactly what to expect: the type of feelings it will make me feel, the kind of story that it will tell.

And then there’s “Portrait of a Thief,” Grace D. Li’s debut novel that immediately hit me in the face with emotions I didn’t know I was capable of feeling.

The book tells the story of five Chinese Americans in their early 20s forming a heist commissioned by a mysterious Chinese company to steal back looted artwork from Western museums. Each of them has a distinct role in this heist: Will, the leader; his sister Irene, the con artist; their childhood friend Daniel, the thief; Irene’s roommate Lily, the getaway driver; and Will’s freshman year Tinder date Alex, the hacker. (Yeah, that last one is a surprising connection.)

And that setup sounds really fun, right? This is going to be a super silly, fun time, right?

Wrong.

See, each of these five characters has a different and complicated relationship with their Chinese identities. Will and Irene are children of upper middle class immigrants, both going to top-30 universities. Daniel came to the US as a child when his mother got sick. Lily was never even taught Mandarin by her parents, who wanted to assimilate as much as possible. Alex grew up in Chinatown in New York, living above the restaurant her Cantonese grandparents started.

And as the heist progresses and they face the gravity of their actions, these characters have to confront their life experiences head-on. Long story short, this results in a lot of very heavy feelings about very heavy ideas. How do you connect with your culture when it’s so far away from you? What is the cost of righting this wrong of colonialism? What does it mean to be Chinese and American?

Amidst all this, none of them really know what they’re doing with their lives, or if they do know, they don’t like it. (As it tends to go when you’re about 21 years old.) They reckon with love and loss, navigating their relationships with the world, their families and each other, all while trying to rob several high-security art museums.

I once again find myself at a loss for how to describe a book. How can a 600-word review do justice to Li’s lyrical prose and immense storytelling prowess? How can I possibly mention everything I loved about the way this story was told?

“Portrait of a Thief” hit me in places I wasn’t aware I could be hit. It developed these characters so well that I’m stunned they’re not real people I know. It made me absolutely terrified for the end of college. It ignited in me a sense of pure, unadulterated, diasporic pain, a yearning for something more that I’m too scared to think about, and then soothed it like a warm cup of jasmine tea.

When I was in high school, I always tried to distance myself from being Chinese. I didn’t join any of the STEM clubs that all my Chinese American peers were in. I mostly spoke in English to my parents. I cooked American meals for myself when we didn’t have any leftovers.

And I can’t help but think that maybe, if I’d had this book, if I’d read this story that gives the complexity of Chinese American identity so much care and consideration, things would’ve been different. At least a little.

“Portrait of a Thief” comes out on April 5, 2022. All my thanks go to the publisher, Tiny Reparations Books (an imprint of Penguin Random House), for the early copy in exchange for this mess of a review.

(Also, I cannot end this review without mentioning the sapphic romance. It lingers in the background until you least expect it, and it is everything.)

This story is about 5 Chinese-American College-aged kids that get offered an opportunity of a lifetime: return the five Chinese zodiac heads that the West stole from the Old Summer Palace and get $50 million. The only issue? Our main characters have to break into the world’s highest security museums across the Europe and US.

This story was so great. Heist vibes, found family, suspense, and even a few romance subplots! Unfortunately, this book cannot receive a 5 stars because there were unrealistic elements. I would NOT recommend this for someone who cannot suspend disbelief for the sake of the story. Overall, I loved the characters, writing style, and constantly changing perspectives.

I can see why Grace D. Li’s Portrait of a Thief has already been optioned by Hollywood — it’s a great story, with interesting characters in exotic locations. When Will Chen finds himself involved in a museum break-in, he jumps and gets his friends and family involved, too. Portrait is being touted as an Asian Ocean’s 11, and that is pretty close to accurate with a large cast of characters and much complicated heisting. Unfortunately, Li’s writing mostly misses the mark with painfully awkward dialogue, so many similes, metaphors,and other literary devices I actually yelled at my computer screen a few times. Midway through the book the writing evens out a bit, but for me it was a little too late. Readers who favor content over style will still enjoy Portrait of a Thief, and I will definitely go to the movie.

Portrait of a Thief is a canvas gradually filled by a group of Chinese-American college students as they venture into different continents to reclaim what was stolen from their homeland. The book traverses themes of colonialism, art theft–addressing museums' lack of acknowledgement for looted art pieces, as well as the inner turmoils faced by the children of diaspora on their sense of belongingness.

Overall, the plot was engaging; it keeps you curious enough to know what’s gonna happen next, there was also one particular twist that I enjoyed (because it was less predictable than the rest), which makes Portrait of a Thief a fine debut novel. One of my favorite parts of the book was the exploration of the sense of belonging and how it’s different for each of the characters.

I was very excited for this book. It started off interesting and kept me wanting for more, but my enthusiasm ultimately faded as certain issues of the book became apparent and I was noticing them more rather than the story itself.

Firstly, I am not a big fan of the 5 main characters, although I can empathize with their emotions and what they’re going through–it wasn’t enough to keep me invested. As the story went on, it became more and more apparent that they’re seemingly one-dimensional in nature and lack multi-faceted qualities that makes them interesting. Every character had their own reason for joining the heists, they had dreams and ambitions to achieve, but those weren’t fleshed out intricately and were only explored at a surface-level. However, I really enjoyed their dynamic as a group–they complement one another’s characteristics well enough which radiates their chemistry as a team. Personally, I find Daniel a more fleshed-out character than the rest, particularly because of his relationship with his father, which brings so much depth to his character.

In terms of the plot, it was very interesting; I learned a great deal by researching the art pieces and locations mentioned in the novel. However, there are instances where the premise of the situation — especially during the heist part — isn’t plausible and convincing, mainly because they sound bizarre and leave numerous plot holes. I understand that the characters were amateur thieves and weren't properly informed with logistics and the aspects of criminology, but still, it could’ve helped if they were written and portrayed with the consideration of plausibility.

I find the prose in this book to be very repetitive. Yes, they were lyrical and matched the aesthetics of each character, but they’re also very redundant, occurring in succeeding chapters. It didn’t particularly bother me at first, but I was getting distracted each time I read similar descriptions of landscape, the physical descriptions of a character, and even their motivations and aspirations. The repetitiveness of the prose overshadowed what could have been an opportunity to dive more in-depth in the characters’ individuality.

I was looking forward to how this book explores the repatriation of art, alongside with the themes of colonialism and touching on the narratives of discovering identity in a diasporic lens.. and it ultimately let me down. The themes were discussed and explored only on a superficial level, missing the opportunity of delving deeper on the interrelatedness of the themes mentioned above. I think I was expecting a more nuanced and extensive examination of how art theft–as a result of colonialism–is a powerful political move that indicates supremacy and begets a never-ending cycle of imperialism. I suppose the fault also lies with me for going into this book with high expectations of those aspects.

All in all, I would say that Portrait of a Thief is a very educational read, since it inspired me to research on the issues discussed in the book, as well as discover locations that I wasn’t acquainted with before. Even though the book isn’t right up my alley, I’m still looking forward to the future work of Grace D. Li. I also applaud her for taking on the challenge of writing a book that explores themes that aren’t usually tackled in other books.