Portrait of A Thief was a very interesting read. It might have some of my favorite literary characters yet. The five protagonists are all perfectly fleshed out and beautifully written. I loved that each of their backgrounds and motivations was explored and received the same amount of care and attention, it really paid off. The author did an incredible job of capturing the diasporic experience and raising important ethical issues about museums’ cultivation of art. I also think the prose was beautiful and added to the already great atmosphere of the novel. That being said, I did expect more from the heists themselves, especially with the amount of build-up and planning that went into them. What should have been thrilling and exciting ended up falling flat for me.

Okay! When I’m holding my ereader and taking final look at a digital arc copy of this unique, totally different, intelligently written book but I have to say something about its advertisement as Ocean’s Eleven meets Farewell!

First of all: this book is about five amateur thieves’ gathering to accomplish a heist and the main five characters are Asians but this doesn’t mean the book has similarities with both of the movies!

I found two things differentiated and well- executed in this book:
Perfect , detailed, very relatable characterization with impeccable psychoanalysis.

The author represents perfect criticism of cultural diaspora, colonialism, identity crisis of Chinese society by emphasizing crucial facts!

Those two facts pick up your interest! Even though this book seems like about a heist: don’t you plan to read something similar to high rated Spanish series- Money Heist ( La Casa de papel) only similar thing this book with that series is focusing on character development.
Will- the leader of the gang, street racer Lily, sharp witted, queen of sarcasm Irene, sweet Alex, and Daniel who does his best to find his father, we get introduced to bunch of characters: who have different perspectives, dreams, choices, motives. It was absolutely to read their back stories!

The heist parts are not so smart, well planned, detailed, mostly haphazard: they luckily accomplish their mission with more luck less brain work!

Overall: it’s promising and riveting reading pick my interest by its complex characters. I wish publishers chose to find better movie examples to give clearer clues what this plot is about!

We can define it as action packed/ psychological/ multicultural interest fiction! And I truly enjoy the writing style of the extra I tell author!

Special thanks to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP DUTTON / Tiny Reparations Books for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.

This was a great book! This book had a lot more going on than being a heist adventure story. There was a lot of discussion about what it means to be the child of an immigrant, and where "home" is. I really liked this addition to the story, it gave it a lot of depth. The book is both plot and character-driven in my opinion, but at times the pacing was pretty slow and focused on the characters instead. Overall it was a really enjoyable read.

I think portrait of thief is going to be my favourite 2022 debut. It’s incredible, left me absolutely speechless. Grace Li is such a talented writer.
I’m quite intrigued by her writing style. Also, I adored the parallels that are drawn in the character’s conversations. I enjoyed the plot. It was dynamic and entertaining. Although, sometimes the prose gets quite repetitive, but I really didn’t mind it as in my opinion, gave the book lyrical touch and flows beautifully. All in all, it was a good read.

The concept and characters of this book are wonderful, and I appreciated the art side of this book. I wish there had been more time to get to know each character (which is difficult with such a large cast of characters.) As well as more time describing the actual heists. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed myself the whole time and would recommend it!

I could tell from the first chapter that this book was going to be amazing. But, I didn’t expect for it to become one of my favorites. It has. As a child of immigrants I really related to the characters. Our stories weren’t the same but the way that they, especially Lily, felt about China and their futures is often how I find myself feeling. The commentary on western imperialism and art that the book provides was really really good. The heist was amazing too. I would recommend this to anybody who is a fan of dark academia, a child of immigrants, and/or a fan of the ocean’s franchise as well as Six Of Crows.

I really wanted to like this book but I just didn't. I will start with the some of the positives such as the relationships between the characters. I enjoyed how they interacted with each other and seeing them grow but that's kind of it.

Now the negatives, for a book that's based around heists, the heists are barely described. They each last about a page and a half max. Also at the beginning when they are planning them they write the information in a google doc, that makes no sense and would make it so easy for them to get caught.

I received a copy through netgalley

Hello? What are you doing with your life if you haven't put this on your to-read list yet?

I loved the amazing characters and the thrilling plot. Poised to be a brutal takedown of colonialism, I loved that extra flair. Because this isn't just a heist. This is the reclaiming of theor culture

I love the voice of this book and how each character is filled with a different type of longing. Personally, I think longing is a necessary component to every successful heist. It was wonderful to watch the team come together and form these strong relationships. Robbing a museum is definitely one of those activities that bonds you together for life. I loved too the exploration of the different types of relationships a person can have where so much is left unsaid. This was apparent in the relationship with Daniel and his Father and Will and Irene. The unsaid language between family members that only you know how to speak makes the revelations much more deep when you realize you've been misreading someone for a very long time. If you're someone who enjoys learning about puzzles such as security systems and the way people interact with each other then you'll love this book. If you love the show Leverage then you will love this book. If you get mad about museums and what they are doing then you will love this book. Go read this book.

Let me just preface by saying that as a Chinese American woman, I already knew that this book and the characters were going to become my new personality and obsession. What I genuinely didn’t expect was for Grace Li to start psychoanalyzing me within the first five chapters. I would describe the experience reading Portrait of a Thief as being emotionally and psychologically invaded (but in the best way possible) in the midst of a heist with sexy people. Li does a phenomenal job in capturing the Chinese American diaspora and the identity conflicts that are prevalent to children of immigrants. Genuinely, it was as if she reached into my brain and plucked out all of the insecurities and issues I grew up with. As such, this book is so so special to me because of how seen and validated I felt which goes to show how truly important accurate and authentic representation is. POAT also manages to check off everything I could ever want in a book: found family, hot people committing crimes, representation of the lived Chinese American experience, anti-colonialism commentary, and so much more. Each and every character was well developed and wholly perfect. Their individual personalities jumped through the pages and one cannot help but fall in love with all of them. Li’s prose was absolutely beautiful and enrapturing at every turn. Suffice to say, Portrait of a Thief exceeded my expectations and after finishing it, I am demanding Grace Li to pay for intensive therapy for the seven different types of trauma she dug up within me.

This was one of my most anticipated books for 2022 and I was beyond excited when I got approved for the arc. Unfortunately it suffered from a case false advertisement.
I was drawn to this book as it was widely pitched as Ocean’s Eleven meets Farewell. The Farewell comparison could be true but since I have not watched that movie I can’t be the judge of that. But the Ocean’s eleven comparison was definitely not met.
Before I go deep into what disappointed me let me quickly go through what the story is actually about and what dod work. Will Chen is a witness to an art heist. His actions during the heist draws the attention of the art thieves and he gets himself a mysterious invitation from them. He decides to take along some of his friends and his sister for this mysterious meeting and the story takes off from there.
The beginning was a bit abrupt but soon we get immersed into the lives of these 5 characters who are figuring out their place in this world, their identities as Chinese Americans and battling through their insecurities, doubts and confusions amidst familial expectations. The care with which Grace Li builds up her characters shine through bright and clear and that is the biggest plus point for this book. You get completely immersed in the heads of Will, Irene, Daniel, Alex and Lily. The discourse about culture, racial identity, colonisation and art were well researched and executed. For a debut this was super impressive.
But my problem came with the heist element of the book. By the way the book has been promoted, you come to expect the righteous heist intended to return ancient stolen artworks to their original country to take centre stage. For me, it wasn’t so. I felt like the heist felt relegated to the side while the story focused on the inner turmoils of the 5 main characters. It simply wasn’t the sophisticated planned heists carried out with finesse as I was brought to expect. Rather it was more of a grab and run executed by amateurs, succeeding purely due to chance. As it should, since all our protagonists are college students with no idea how to carry out heists and not professionals. But the comparison to Ocean eleven did absolutely no justice to what the author was trying to convey through her story and I blame it entirely for my disappointment.
The climax managed to patch up some of that disappointment by surprising me. It was very well done and was very realistic, which I appreciated very much. Overall if you pick this book up for the heists and the Ocean eleven comparison, I think you would end up disappointed. But if you pick this up for the its deep insights into the Chinese American Identity then you would have a much more satisfying experience.
Rating: 3.5 stars

Truly one of the most breathtaking books I've ever read. Grace D. Li is a mastermind, creating five characters all so well developed, unique, relatable, and amazing that you can't help but be drawn into them and their lives. At its core, "Portrait of a Thief" is a heist story, but surrounding these impossible dreams of five college students is love, friendship, and the desire to be and do something more. This was such an incredible read, probably my favorite of 2021 so far, and I cannot wait to hold the physical book in my hands in 2022. Outstanding story, add it to your lists now, because you do not want to miss out.

I loved this so fucking much. It's a heist story yes, but the characters are the heart and soul of it. They are fierce and bright and hungry. Sharp, cool Irene. Street-racer Lily and brilliant Alex. Will, the leader of this amateur thief team, who has so many wants that he almost can't contain them all in his heart. Daniel, finding his way back to his father. A lot of this book resonated with me, especially with Daniel's character. HE IS MY LOVE.

"What do you dream of?"
"Healing."
"That's it?"
"That's all there is."

Portrait of a Thief follows five young members of the Chinese diaspora as they band together to reclaim stolen art from the West — Will, an art history major at Harvard; his cunning sister Irene and her street racer Duke roommate Lilly, Will’s straight-laced friend Daniel, whose father investigates art theft, and Alex, an MIT drop-out working as a software engineer. When enlisted by a wealthy Chinese corporation to pull off five heists for fifty million dollars, they spring into action.

The chapters jump between all five characters, which results in some POV whiplash. I wish it had only followed just one character, which could’ve rendered them deeper and more realistic than the frantic switches between five different perspectives. I found myself wanting more of the heists or more of the personal struggles of the characters, rather than a smattering of both. I enjoyed the discussions of colonialism and the cultural violence of museums hoarding and refusing to repatriate stolen loot. I just couldn’t get attached to the characters and the plot seemed unrealistic at times (crime planning over Zoom seems like an unwise move that clever characters wouldn’t make).

2.75/5: I really wish I enjoyed this one more, but I still enjoyed reading a diverse heist story. I appreciated the novel’s honest confrontation of museum ethics and the lasting legacy of imperialism, and the characters’ moral justification for stealing already-stolen art resonated with me. Give it all back!! I will also say that Li’s writing is good, and I’m interested in reading more from her in the future.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

overall:
this book is so gorgeous. there’s...like no other way to put it. the way that grace d. li writes, it surrounds you, envelopes you in her world and her characters, and her writing makes you feel. i’d been looking forward to this book ever since i saw a snippet of it on twitter, and finally reading it, i can say that it’s as good as i expected.

plot:
the plot follows five college students as they team up to rob five museums and return stolen art back to china. it was hella thought out and you genuinely feel like you’re next to the characters. it was well-paced, for the most part, and i always found myself excited to turn the next page. a minor gripe i have, though, is i’d have liked to see more tension with the heists, and more heists in general. i don’t think you should be coming into this book expecting a heist novel, but i enjoyed the story nonetheless.

writing:
li’s writing is so fucking good. the way she writes, the way she strings sentences together and makes you feel like you’re in the moment with the characters...yeah that’s some good shit. also, i loved how she handled the characters and their connection to china. the way li describes cities, people, and scenes is so rich and good. every single character’s point of view was well-written, and i could understand their motivations, hopes, actions, and thoughts.

characters:
i think the strongest point about this book are the characters. all of the main characters are just...so good. this is definitely a character-driven novel, and you can clearly see that. every character had a purpose. they had individual goals, struggles, and dreams. also, the relationships between the characters were so well-developed. it didn’t feel fake. i loved how they were written, and they’re just… so good

misc:
- it kills me that they were planning heists over GOOGLE DOCS??? LAMFS
- irene and alex!!!! if i don’t get them as the next book couple y’all are fake!! literally they are so gay and their relationship...chef’s kiss
- i think the ending is unexpected but it feels right
- this book will speak to anyone who’s a child of immigrants

final thoughts:
this book was so well-written. this was my first ever arc and it definitely lived up to the hype for me, but i just wish it had more heists. you should go in expecting a character-driven novel, but it was hella good! 4.5/5 stars.

Portrait of a Thief is an ambitious story of 5 Chinese-American students who take it upon themselves to return stolen Chinese pieces of art to their homeland. The book explores the themes of art theft, museums perpetuating modern-day imperialism and repatriation of art, as well as the life of Chinese-American diaspora kids and the crises they face in the modern day United States.

Portrait of a Thief is a fine debut novel; it’s engaging and entertaining and has enough charm to keep the reader interested throughout the book. One of my favorite things about Portrait of a Thief is how it portrays the experience of being a diaspora kid and the burdens and worries that come with it in a very multi-faceted way. I think this theme was explored quite well and provided a lot of insight into how diverse an experience of a single community can be.

That being said, I was largely disappointed by this book. It started off interesting, but my enthusiasm quickly dwindled as the problems became more and more obvious.

I’m not the biggest fan of our main cast of characters. None of them felt multi-faceted or interesting enough to get attached to. I liked how the diaspora experience of each of them is explored through a different lens, but ultimately, their wants and needs didn’t feel convincing and they themselves didn’t feel likeable at all. Yes, they were all very flawed in their own ways, but there wasn’t enough to make me sympathize with them and appreciate them even more for the aforementioned flaws. Every characters seemed to be defined by one particular thing and never ventured beyond that and after several repetitions of their goals throughout the book without any novelty to them, it got exhausting to read for the 5th or 6th time how the characters wanted something bigger than they had, without every delving deeper into their motivations and desires. However, I did enjoy most of the dynamics between the characters—they played off each other nicely and provided sufficient entertainment. I have to say, Daniel as a character, and the dynamic with his father were written quite well—the difficult father-son relationship struck all the right chords.

I enjoyed the plot. It was dynamic and entertaining enough. Of course, at certain points I had to suspend my disbelief, but the experience was still fun. Certain aspects of the story were very unconvincing, especially when we got to the actual heist and how the crew of characters pulled it off. And while it seemed a bit bizarre, the world of art itself is nothing short of bizarre, so I didn’t take much issue with that. I still have some questions and certain plot holes bug me, but ultimately, it was okay.

The prose in this book is very repetitive. It is lyrical and flows beautifully, right until a sentence seems like something I’ve already read at least 5 times in the last 5 chapters. It didn’t bother me at first, but as the book progressed it became more and more distracting. I could count how many times the California sky was described in the same manner throughout the book, and while it was beautiful and entertaining the first few times, it quickly became irritating. Be it the description of the environment, the museums, the art works, or the characters’ motivations, this repetitiveness permeated the whole book and it definitely made the experience more boring.

Perhaps the thing that disappointed me the most was how the themes related to art were explored, since the book lacks depth when it comes to its themes. Repatriation of art and its use as a tool of power and politics is a fascinating topic and I was so hyped to see it discussed through the diaspora lens. I wasn’t expecting phenomenal characters, or a phenomenal plot or prose, but I definitely wanted to see this thing discussed and explored in great detail while still keeping it entertaining. Art theft, its use as a tool of colonialism and imperialism, art repatriation are all such hefty topics, and truth be told, going into this book I was expecting a somewhat more comprehensive examination of these issues. Instead, it ended up being repetitive and superficial. It was still discussed, but the depth of the discussion created an impression that this was intended for the younger readers—the same idea rehashed over and over again without any additional nuance. Of course, we Want China to get its artifacts and works of art back, but we’re never given any chance to explore this issue in greater depth. We’re told that art signifies power, we’re told how museums engage in smuggling, but we’re never given anything beyond a few repetitive remarks. Again, I suppose the fault mostly lies with me, since I went into this book with overly heightened expectations in that regard. However, kudos to the book since it inspired me to go on a googling spree about the Old Summer Palace in Beijing—I was definitely very interested to learn more about the palace itself as well as the fates of the stolen artifacts.

This might be one of the hardest reviews I’ve written. When I first heard the premise of Portrait of a Thief I got insanely excited—I am very interested in art history, preservation of art and how it became a tool of imperialism. So, when I heard a book about repatriation of art delivered in a dynamic heist story, I couldn’t resist. However, upon reading it I quickly discovered that this book isn’t my cup of tea. All in all, I think this book needed a lot more polishing. The repetitive prose, the characters that didn’t feel real enough, as well as certain areas that needed a bit more research pile up on top of each other and take away a lot from the enjoyment. I’m pretty sure this book will find its audience and people will be able to enjoy them; sadly, I'm not one of them.

I think this author has a Lot of potential and even if Portrait of a Thief wasn’t up my alley, I’m excited to see what Grace D. Li does next.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an advanced reader's copy of Portrait of a Thief.

3.75 / 5

Positives: On the sentence level, Grace D. Li's writing is exceptional—lush and evocative. She had excellent command over language. Her prose is beautiful, and I would read more of her work for her writing style alone. She also crafts her characters well. Every character has clear motivations, a delightful personality, and enough flaws to spring them from the page and into my heart. My favorite is Irene, our gorgeous, persuasive conwoman. (I also loved Irene and Will's sibling relationship!) More personally, as Chinese-American, it's wonderful to see a novel centered around a ragtag group of Chinese-American college students / thieves / tentative friends. The representation is heartwarming, just like the romance. Though romance isn't the core of Portrait of a Thief by any measure, the romantic relationships are lovely, particularly the sapphic romance between Alex and Irene. The friendships in this novel—whether longstanding or tentatively formed—were all sweet. The characters' team dynamic was perfect, simultaneously funny and tender.

Negatives: Portrait of a Thief is pitched as a heist novel…but it's really not. This is a character-driven novel, so the plot is occasionally lost to the characters' inner monologues. The heists occupy only a fraction of the screen time. While Portrait of a Thief was not the "edge of your seat" read I expected, I still enjoyed it and would recommend!

This book was so fun to read and gave me much to think about, especially regarding art and colonialism, as well as Chinese diasporic identity. As someone who is a part of the Chinese diaspora, I loved how this book shows that Chinese-Americans are not a monolith; although each character is Chinese-American, they have different relationships with China.

A full-length review will be posted on Instagram @movedbyprose on publication day, i.e. April 5, 2022.

The Portrait of a Thief follows our crew of five: Will Chen, Irene Chen, Daniel Liang, Lily Wu, and Alex Huang. Charged with an impossible task, the five must take back the looted bronze zodiac heads from Western museums across the globe.

This book was absolutely exceptional… I already knew it would be based on description alone, but I went into this book with not much idea of what it was about to save myself from everything that came ahead, and I’m glad I did.

The real world elements and setting I think is what added to making this book as good as it was. You see heists everywhere in movies, books, and TV shows. The crew are faced with the impossible and seem to come out unscathed. Li enters a world where these things aren’t possible for children of Chinese immigrant. With so much weight on their shoulders, how are they supposed to pull this off?

The reasoning for everyone’s motives in this book seemed so truthful and elegant in a way, that makes me relate to them all. Each with something different, all with so much in mind.

Our cast all had loving qualities, and I found myself liking all of them which is extremely rare in my case. Lily, who I felt I actually related to the most. Lily doesn’t know the language of her people, as it was never taught to her. Despite me being Indian-American, I saw exactly where Lily felt out of place in this world. She was never enough of both worlds, and to see her struggle with it was too real.

Daniel and his father, I felt was such an emotional relationship to read about. Growing up, I always felt alienated from my parents, but more so my father. He was just a man who I never understood. It wasn’t until I grew up that I realized everything he did, he did it for my siblings and I. It didn’t seem that way, but after so long of trying to figure some things out, it’s better to just let things fall in place.

It was probably silly of me to hypothesize the outcome, but I appreciated the reality of this book. Nothing is like the movies, that’s why they’re for enjoyment. Reading this, however, made me feel like it was real. Like, real, real…
All the characters seemed like I had had the same struggles and expectations, whether it be from oneself or those around me.

Also… Irene and Alex, enough said! I loved them from the started.

Definitely pick this up, especially children of immigrants! I think we can /all/ relate to these characters. 5/5

Thank you to Grace D. Li, Tiny Reparations Books, and Netgalley for providing me with an ebook arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I love a good art heist. And the concept behind this one-a group of Chinese-American college students struggling with diaspora teaming up to steal back stolen Chinese art-is SO good. I love the discussion of these complicated feelings alongside art because art has always been so important to humanity. I was a little disappointed with the actual heist portions of the book; I was expecting high stakes, high action heists, but instead the actual burglaries were almost tertiary to everything else going on, and all but the last heist were short and lackluster. Where this book focuses its narrative is on its characters, their thoughts, relationships, and complex ideas of identity. Paired with the very descriptive text, the book comes off fairly philosophical at times. The writing style was very tell, don't show, focusing on short descriptive sentences that really just repeated the same ideas over and over, and I struggled with that part of this book. While it wasn't what I was expecting, the concept of kids stealing their culture back is so good. Just, don't expect a lot of action to come of it.