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Details of Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li Book

• Book Name: Portrait of a Thief
• Authors: Grace D. Li
• Pages: 344
• Genre: Mystery, Thriller
• Publish Date: Apr 5, 2022
• Language: English

Book Review:

Portrait of a thief by Gracie lee has been one of the most anticipated books of 2022 for a while I was anticipating it 

so part one beginning thoughts and opinions like I said there was a lot of anticipation for this book 

went in with high expectations never go into a book with high expectations especially if it's an anticipated book that you really want to read you will always be 

let down no matter how good it is anyways for a debut novel this was actually pretty impressive however i will say if you're looking for your like typical heist book this isn't exactly it 

like i think my biggest problem with the book was that the plot synopsis didn't accurately depict what the story is actually about or what i gained from the book it's not so much of like a typical ocean's 11 

heist book as it's advertised it's more about like the people behind the heist and their emotions and their lives and their experiences along with some 

you know stealing and robbing or whatever it's it's kind of hard to explain but nonetheless i think that the writing was really really beautiful really captivating and the author is amazing at imagery 

like her descriptions of settings and places is just however i will say i also do think the writing did take itself a little bit too seriously the entire time and felt a bit repetitive at parts which 

i will get to later but first let me give a brief little pause for me so the book follows five college students who are given a job a legal job by the way and their job is to steal back these valuable pieces of chinese art from like 

these western museums essentially a huge like thank you to colonialism which was one of the selling points for me and it's also about the asian americans experience specifically 

like chinese american as the entire cast and this book is chinese american which was another selling point for me because i am a chinese-american believe it or not so moving on to part two thoughts on plot writing and other elements 

where do i begin first off let's talk about the plot now like i said this isn't like your typical heist book it isn't like you go in you steal one thing and you successfully come back out off 

the bat they're talking about five heists and i was like five high sounds a little bit ambitious i would like lower it to at least three especially when you're like writing and thinking of terms of stories stories 

stuff always happens in threes and i was right it ended up just being like pre-heist but even then i think that was ambitious and i don't really know if you can classify these as like heists 

when i think of heists i think of like elaborate plans disguises with fake accents like dropping down from like a ceiling with like the wire strapped on your back you know 

what i mean those are heists this just is more of like a like robbery straight up just smash the windows grab a thing and drive away that's it there's no sincere and elaborate planning going behind 

it which is what i was kind of hoping for well yeah it's probably more realistic i don't have these super complicated and comprehensive plans i don't think it necessarily has to be realistic like that's the 

whole point of fiction that's the whole point of books it's to escape from reality to do the impossible i would have liked to actually see five college students put their brains together and think of a clever elusive overly complicated 

way to get into these museums but instead they just like smash a window and go in yes it's clever but it's not like the clever i was going for however i do think the ending did give me that satisfactory feeling i have whenever 

i finish like reading or watching a heist the whole email leak thing and their plan being like a fake diversion to unleash the real plan i love those sorts of things i love it so much that is what a heist is like 

you have a fake plan and then you have a real plan and the whole email leak thing having the colonizers themselves like revealing that oh yeah we know about colonizing we just don't care that's genius on to the writing 

i think the writing was definitely like more poetic and it was full of descriptions of settings and it really painted like vivid portraits of the characters you know which is all beautiful but i don't think it fit the overall 

tone of the story and it didn't really match the potential of it again i feel like with this type of story like a heist story with five college students you need to let the story breathe a little bit you need to let the characters crack a joke or two 

i don't think it hurts to be funny at times you know like i'm gonna be honest the entire story is low-key emo they're so emo like the character is constantly pondering about their futures 

their vast possibilities over a horizon of self-reflection or whatever like girl this is not like riverdale you can have characters be a little bit lighthearted because i feel like with that much like heavy-handedness of these characters not balancing them out with a little bit of like humor just makes them feel 

not as fleshed out as they could be you know real humans we laugh we make jokes it's supposed to be a heist don't be afraid to poke fun at the story you know overall though the writing is really stunning and the author's ability to set a scene and a vibe is incredible however 

i will say also does get a little bit repetitive at times after all there are only so many times i can read about hazy durham lights in beautiful california skies like but again this is the author's debut novel so we're cutting it some slack also i wanted to touch on the author's ability to encapsulate chinese American

experience i think it's absolutely incredible there were so many times when i would just pause and think like i finally got the book you know the book where i feel seen where i feel heard 

where i feel represented and it's an absurdly like normal thing to do i think every person has that piece of media or content that they really feel represented in but it's it's not normal at least not for poc 

you know we've spent so long without any representation that when we finally do get it it's like it's so easy it was so easy to get how come we haven't had it before now you know before we had to demand it it's just 

it's really weird kudos to the authors for that i really think that the book is beautiful in describing this immigrant chinese-american kid experience but honestly i think the book

would have fared better if author just sort of focus on that i think like the book revolving around it being a heist really took away from some of like the impact of these characters and their experiences 

i feel like it should have been two separate books you know one with heist and one just talking about like five college kids and their asian american experiences like i would read both of those books separately and while 

i was certainly ambitious to combine them both i don't really know if it meshed as well as it did in this book like it was still good but it could have been like amazing you know what i mean but also i also just think 

it's kind of a problem with the way the book was advertised and the plot synopsis like it's not really about like your typical heist story with your scrappy but genius criminals it's more about just like five chinese american college students 

who really have no idea what they're doing planning a heist and they're just trying to figure themselves out and what they want to do with their lives okay so moving on to part three characters and relationships 

let's start off with will chen i'm gonna be honest this man has a lot of red flags okay first off he's an art history major at harvard male manipulator male manipulator off the 

bat i'm betting you he listens to like man manipulator bands like what like the smiths neutral milk hotel car seat head rest by the way guys did you know my car seat head race concert got postponed i'm so mad will toledo got coped 

i was heartbroken anyways other than that i think will is pretty chill i rhymed again you know i will give props though to will for drawing lily 

he just like thought she looked pretty so he just started like scheduled her where are the men like that nowadays it seems like men don't know how to be romantic anymore

 if you're not good at drawing don't bother make us a playlist on spotify or something but if you can't draw and you like women go draw more women men what the hell are you doing moving on to little sister irene 

i knew something was going on with her and alex i i knew she was gay as hell i called their relationship from their first interaction i love the whole enemies the lovers that 

i still kind of hate you thing top tier anyways irene nikon slay and she's championing younger chinese sibling struggle icon next alex to be honest alex is not the most memorable out of all the five of them her and irene are definitely a vibe though but i'm gonna admit 

i was a little bit worried in the beginning that it was gonna be a love triangle between will lily and alex but ended up being like sort of a love triangle between irene alex and daniel instead which speaking of daniel oh my god 

i love him but poor dude i think he's got it like the worst out of the five of them like his dad is literally the one leading the investigation against them he didn't have any siblings he's in love with somebody he can never have and his mom is dead like dude just takes hit after hit after hit and 

i think out of like the only two jokes i found in this book he cracks both of them finally let's talk about lily now i'm gonna be honest the entire time i was picturing devin aoki from the fast and furious movies and i'm like 99 sure that's who the author was writing her as to because 

i read the acknowledgements and the author was not her love for the fast and furious movies you're not slick i know i know exactly who you're picturing and i'm pretty sure every other reader was picturing her too 

so it's all right out of all these characters i wish i was literally the most she just seems like such a vibe she's a mechanical engineer she can write in books like devon aoki am i saying that name right aoki aoki 

i don't know moving on to part four final thoughts and opinions now overall for a debut novel this was pretty good the writing is beautiful with wonderful imagery and well-thought-out characters who represent different facets of the chinese-american experience 

however i do think the writing was a little bit melodramatic at times for my taste i would prefer to high story to take itself a little bit more lightly but that's just my preference and 

i personally think that the book was just not like summarized and marketed quite in the right way that accurately depicts the story however i will say it was a pretty thoughtful read and it acknowledged evil that is 

western colonialism especially in the form of stealing other countries art as somebody who loves learning about art history that aspect of the book was really vindicating overall i rated the book a 4.6 out of 5 well 

i think there were certainly parts of books that could have been done better it was an overall pretty excellent book and although very impressive debut novel is it a mess read honestly yeah like

i know it's not the best most amazing like brain exploding book i don't know out there it was still a pretty excellent read and i think people should read it or they need it to read it you know once you look past the flawsome book 

you unearth beautiful story with a very important message not to mention the representation in this book is amazing and just i really do think it deserves a lot of attention and the anticipation it's been getting 

i cannot wait to see what the author will do in the future because i can only tell her works are only going to go up from here.

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 THANK YOU SO MUCH