At its core, this is a book about ownership:

Colonialism, violence, and the ownership of the spoils of war, violence, and colonialism.

Diaspora, immigration, and the ownership we hold over our culture, our communities, our countries.

Legacy, history, our ownership and stewardship of it.

To call Portrait of a Thief a heist novel would be reductive, and inaccurate. This is a story about art, colonialism, reparitions, and who gets to call what stealing. It’s a story about immigration, diaspora, and what it feels like to be stuck between worlds. It’s a story about the tangible taste and feeling of wanting. It’s a story about relationships, the threads that bind us, and the things that tear us apart. Its a love story, an ode to all kinds of love: romantic love, friendship, familial love, love of country, passion, and the thin line between love and duty. It’s a story of being young and invincible - of being fearless, while simultaneously being burdened by the weight of expectation and pressure. It’s a story about heists - the glamour, the electricity, the well made plans, and the little mistakes that make everything unravel again.

This book was stunning - Li’s prose is gorgeous, lyrical, breathtaking. I found myself reading and re-reading passages because they felt so right, so poignant, so beautiful. It took my breath away - the perfect marriage of action, character driven storytelling, and social commentary. I adored every moment of reading this, and savoured every word.

This book is a work of art.

I have no words...
the way this book was so deeply relatable and reached into my very soul as an Asian-American living in the diaspora
Grace D. Li's writing is beyond compare.

Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li combines literary fiction with the beloved heist genre in a story of five college students who plan to steal back Chinese art from western museums. I found the book’s premise and anti-colonial messaging engaging, but I had some issues with the one-dimensional characters and the lack of excitement to the heist itself. The execution may not have lived up to my expectations, but this is still a clever read that tackles some important topics.

Inspired by a true story, this book follows a group of five college students who are tasked with stealing back five Chinese sculptures that have been stolen by western museums centuries ago. Each member of the crew is exceptionally bright, only none of them have any experience as thieves. With fifty million dollars and history on the line, failure is not an option, but will a team of amateur thieves be able to return the sculptures to where they belong?

❀ CHARACTERS LACK DEPTH

Throughout the book all five characters in the crew have a voice, although I found them all lacking in depth. As the synopsis states, each fits perfectly into the heist archetypes–the leader, the con artist, the thief, the hacker, and the getaway driver–and as a result, each character becomes a one-dimensional cliche than can be summed up in a single sentence. While I appreciated the way the author gives each a unique voice and a complex relationship with China and Chinese American identity, their motivations for participating in such a risky heist are never really explained. With characters like these, I feel like there is an opportunity for humour, but as they are taken seriously, I was taken out of the story at certain points.

❀ INCOHERENT PLOT

While I adored the concept of a heist story with a critique of colonialism, I found that the execution could have been stronger. The root of this problem is the blend of genres–of literary fiction with a heist story–that doesn’t quite work out. The literary fiction aspects overshadow the excitement of the heist, and rather than exciting action scenes, the prose is mostly long descriptions and introspection which makes the plot drag. I understand that the heist is intended to be secondary to the anti-colonial messages, but I would have liked to see more of the thriller elements that a heist story suggests. I also had issues with the characters’s shaky heist planning, as they turn to Google Docs to organize their poorly thought-out schemes. Again, this feels like satire but is fully taken seriously, which makes for a confusing reading experience. I do appreciate the anti-colonial themes, as this is an important topic that I have not seen often in YA, but I wish that the story as a whole was stronger so that this messaging wasn’t lost in the incoherent plot.

❀ GENRE-BLENDING HEIST STORY

Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li is a genre-blending heist story with a critique of colonialism at its core. While I enjoyed the premise and appreciated the book’s message, I had issues with the one-dimensional characters and the lack of excitement. While this one wasn’t entirely to my taste, I am sure that many will enjoy its themes and the author’s poetic writing style.

I don’t even know how to begin to collect my thoughts on this, but rest assured that they are all good!

Grace D. Li paints a gripping story in her debut, and I found myself holding my breath as I sped through the last bits of the novel, desperate to see how any of this would work out. Portrait of a Thief switches through multiple POVs, and through it, the reader is really able to get a glimpse of what these heists–and what China–means to all of these characters. The way each individual moves throughout the world and views the heists is so incredibly different between all of them, each just as impactful as the last.

With some multiple POV novels, I find myself brushing past or not being pulled into some POVs as much as others, but I never once felt like any of their POVs were lacking! Each character was so easy to be pulled into, and I found myself desperate to see how each character’s story was resolved.

I will mention that although these characters are brought together by and influenced by the heists themselves, this story is much more about the characters and their goals and their relationships with their families, with China, and with America, so I wouldn’t necessarily go into this expecting it to be extremely heavy on the heist sections. That being said, this was an incredible debut and I cannot recommend it enough!

DNF at 37%

After being caught up in a museum robbery, Will Chen and a group of other second-generation Chinese-Americans are hired to steal back five priceless works of Chinese art that, looted centuries ago, have ended up in museums around the world.

The premise of this story was really exciting to me when I ran across it on NetGalley. Art heists? The immigrant experience? A rag-tag group of geniuses? And there's plenty to like - characters struggling with identity, for one, and interesting familial relationships, and the sheer joy of rooting for the repatriation of stolen art.

Unfortunately, though, this book could simply not hold my interest. I did not feel I had gotten a sense of any of the leads still, and could not really engage with them. The prelude to the heist did not feel very clever or interesting - the group fumbles around so much that it really doesn't make sense why they were hired. And the style of writing was not my cup of tea at all - it felt rather slick and overwrought all at once.

I think a lot of these issues are growing pains - this is the author's debut, after all. But for these reasons, I am not really interested in finishing the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

As an American-born child of South Asian immigrants and a huge fan of heist novels, this was easily one of my most anticipated reads for 2022 -- and I'm happy to say that for the most part, it lived up to my expectations! Grace D. Li writes gorgeous prose regarding the identity crises that diaspora children often go through, and this was definitely the novel's main strength. I appreciated how she depicted the diversity in background and expectations that can come even within these diaspora communities. I am always a sucker for a multiple POV story, and I thought that was an especially fitting storytelling style for this novel as each character has unique facets to their identity that differentiate them from the other characters, despite everyone still being unified in their identity as Chinese-American. This plot includes notable analysis on the role museums have played in colonialism, and I thought this was an incredibly valuable, insightful, and relevant conversation to include in this novel. Lastly, although the representation was on a much smaller scale, I appreciated the inclusion of LGBTQ+ characters in a plot that didn't center around their sexuality.

The heist aspect of the novel was enjoyable, but also a slight letdown. Due to the flowy nature of the writing style, the pace of the book was slower than I would typically expect for a heist novel, and the actual heist itself fell secondary to the deep dive into what it means to be Chinese-American (not a bad thing, just different from my expectations based on how the book has been marketed). I also had to suspend my disbelief as a reader quite a bit while reading the theft aspects of the story, which brought them down a bit for me.

Nevertheless, the book was overall very enjoyable. I'd highly recommend it to any reader, but especially 2nd and 3rd generation children of immigrants who feel like they grew up in two cultures but will never truly belong in either. I am not sure what is next in store for the author, but I look forward to picking up her future reads!

Ocean's Eleven meets Art History class! The premise of this book is so fun. It felt a little bit too long for my taste -- the chapters could have been shorter as we alternated between characters. But it was a fun read and I could totally see this being adapted to the screen!

This was a fun read! The whole time I was reading, I thought it felt very cinematic and could picture the different heists and travel scenes, so I was not surprised when I finished to see this has already been picked up by Netflix. An entertaining read with important commentary on colonialism, imperialism and what belongs to whom.

Definitely wish there had been more "heist" in this book. Most of the heists take about a couple of pages and even then there isn't much lead up or details to how they are preparing for the heist besides zoom calls and studying heist movies. I did enjoy the discussion of the characters and their experience as Asian Americans in the US as well as Europe. There was a lot to explore with these topics and characters. I would definitely continue with this author's work because the writing was very well done and engaging.

I was expecting to this to be a fast-paced and fascinating heist story based on the description, but the heist aspect unfortunately fell flat for me. I wanted more suspense and action, but things just seemed to happen and they weren’t believable in the sense that it was too easy. The writing was also very repetitive. That being said, this book was more about the characters, and I appreciated the characters’ perspectives on identity, culture, and the effects of colonialism.

Portrait of a Thief is a great reading choice for fans of Ocean’s Eleven and the Fast and Furious franchise – this cinematic heist is centered around chosen family and a celebration of Chinese culture. Upon my first time reading it, I was confident in what I thought was going to happen to these budding burglars – boy was I wrong. Li keeps you on the edge of your figurative seat with twists and turns that make you long to be a part of the action yourself. Add to that the sapphic representation and the thorough discussions on colonialism and its’ impact on museums, and Portrait of a Thief is sure to become a book club favorite.

A forger, a thief, a hacker, a getaway driver, and a conwoman are hired to pull off the one spectacular heist that could finance their futures: steal five priceless artifacts from museums in five different countries and receive a cool ten million each. The twist? These aren't professionals. They're a crew of Chinese American college students with unblemished resumes, and they're going to steal back the Chinese treasures that Western museums refuse to return. This book was simultaneously a love song to classic heist films like Ocean's Eleven and the Fast & Furious series and a clear-eyed indictment of the museum world's long history of looted art. Sometimes implausible, but always a fun ride!

Portrait of a Thief is a great heist story that’s so fun to read! It’s also such a moving exploration of what it means to be part of a diaspora and where that connects to imperialism as well as the role museums have in upholding or challenging how the public thinks about these topics.

I really enjoyed this one so much. I liked how the author combined a high intensity art heist with a commentary on social issues and stuff like that. I really enjoyed the characters and their development over the course of the book.

Now that's how you do a hesit story! It was fun and enjoyable, with loveable and interesting characters who stole my heart, but still had extremely important messages about colonialism and the west and what it's like to be immigrants. Could not recommend enough.

For fans of any heist movie: this one is for you. Five college students are tasked with stealing back some of China's greatest pieces of art from all over the world. They must use each of thier own strengths to bring the team together. There's also lots of family and frienship drama, some budding romance, and coming of age to accept your past and realize your future. Overall good read. Recommended.

Literally everybody else has said amazing things about this book and they were all correct. You should read it. I actually got this eARC to write a paper about it for a class and it delivers in every way possible. I want to own ten hardcovers of this book. Also it reminds me a lot of the Raven Cycle series of books with that really intense friendship. I mean this in a very good way. I would die for Irene Chen. Five stars and also in my top 10 books of the year.

*eARC provided through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

I totally loved this book. It has fabulous dialogue and such well-written scenes.

The character relationships aren't just linked to the "main" character, but everyone seems to have a deep/shallow relationship to one another, which is not something many multiple POVs pull off very well.

This book portrays such a sense of longing, loss, and empty futures. The beautiful heartache of stolen art was conveyed in such a meaningful way.

All the stars. 5 stars.

Unfortunately, this book did not live up to its hype for me.

What I liked: The premise of the book was exciting. A heist to reclaim stolen Chinese art? Sign me up! The characters also had intriguing, if not vain, backgrounds.

What I disliked: The prose was overdone to the point that you could tell the writer was trying to sound "literary." The characters were flat to me, and I never connected with them. The writer mentions the sky on nearly every page, and each chapter repeats the theme of "awkward-hormonal-college-student-trying-to-figure-out-their-life." Look, I get it. But there was no nuance in the writer's approach to questioning the quintessential American dream and the thorny issue of reclaiming art. I really wished the writer took the time to introduce nuance in her themes, but alas, it is debut and thus not perfect.

I'm disappointed, but I am looking forward to the Netflix series and seeing how the showrunners adapt this book for the screen.

3.5⭐ rounded up - I've always loved a good heist and this story's focus on colonialism, identity, and culture further elevated the book for me. There were one or two things that could have been developed a little more for me, but overall this was really good!

The general story and concept is what originally drew me to the book. The synopsis is a damn good one and it hooked me right away. I ended up liking the book more and more as I read. Each character's internal conflicts and development were a highlight in my reading experience. Really all of the dialogue and discussion of colonialism, identity, and culture were interesting to me. I enjoyed reading those perspectives quite a bit. Also, as I said to start off this review, I love a good heist story.

The only big drawback to the story, in my eyes, was the relationship development between the heist crew. This really improved for me as the story moved along, but Part 1 was a little bit rocky. I liked a lot of the internal, personal conflicts and those explanations, but I wanted more from the relationships between the heist crew than was there initially. Don't get me wrong, I don't think any of the character development stuff should be cut to make room for additional relationship development, but I wanted more from the relationship development that was already there.

I do also have one small complaint with the pacing, but it definitely wasn't a book-ruining level of weird. It just felt off. I can't quite put my finger on one particular reason why that might have been. Sometimes the writing felt too repetitive and in the heists themselves I sought a little more intensity. Not a deal breaker, but this could have been better for me.

This was a really great book that offers a lot to enjoy! Despite the one or two things I think could have been better, the book ended on a high note for me. The story concept is a good one and it was executed fairly well. I really liked some of the beginning and all of Part 3 was very fun for me. I felt like the stories of each character ended in a really satisfying way. I look forward to seeing more from Grace D. Li in the future. What a great debut!