Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li pdf download

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 Grace D. Li this book we have a group of five students recent graduates who are all either chinese live in america or chinese americans and they get approached to do a job which is break into five museums around

The world and steal these like ornamental hats from the summer palace in china which was demolished like years ago and then the heads were stolen and are not and you know now are all around the world in different museums

So our crew has to go on a heist five heists and get the artifacts back so first let's talk about writing i thought the writing was really good i did find it a little bit hard to connect sometimes because

It was just so repetitive at times one of the characters went to beijing for a semester abroad and like i already know the information but it was told to me as if it was this new thing every time she's like oh yeah that year she spent abroad in beijing for a semester abroad study

Yes i know you told me already why are you telling me again so that was kind of the only thing but there was nothing like particularly wrong with the writing i could see i didn't fall in love with it this was a weird story i'll talk about it in plot

But it i guess it wasn't about the beauty of the writing but it was good it was solid writing i really enjoyed it no gripes with it but i do feel like it was a little bit repetitive so that's my only thing now on to the plot

So i feel like it was weird because it was kind of really fast moving in terms of a time scale so like we are it's like a whole year passes but then it was so slow moving into in terms of the tempo of the story

If that makes any sense at all so i feel like when i first read the actual synopsis it's not what i just told you know there's like a whole synopsis to it like a con artist cocker uh all of this like archetypes that you know from heist movies it kind of made it sound like

It would be a bit more exciting not the book wasn't exciting but i just thought it would be like no in the first 20 of the book they mentioned like ocean's 11 fast and furious and doing all this research to like do

The heist but the heists weren't like those movies they were more like what it would be like in real life it kind of slow a lot of research a lot of zoom calls the payoff seemed really quick because you got there and you did it and you're like oh okay cool um that's done then

So i didn't hate it i still really like the story because the story turned out to be more about the experience of being a diaspora kid belonging to colonialism and all of these very deep pondering questions

I enjoyed that and it was about you know familiar relationships friendships all of that it was about those important themes and I'm gonna talk about themes a little bit more in a bit and it was all about all of those but it wasn't like a fun heist book it was not like six of crows or something although

This is like completely different i don't even know why i compared them because that one's like a fantasy this was like pure you know fiction but not fantasy but i just mean it's not you know don't expect ocean's 11

On the page because it's not gonna be it was not exciting to me really to be reading too much about these heists but at the same time i did find how it all unraveled satisfying because it served the themes well

But if this was like a heist book or that was what it was trying to be primarily not just a fine action adventure that's not where it is so i think just going in with right expectations could really help you in enjoying the book because you'll know you know okay it's not a fast-paced action story

It's a slow postering about you know what it means to be chinese-american what it means to be diaspora what it means to have left your country be an immigrant so all of those themes i highly identify well not identified with all of them obviously not chinese american not even american um you know

But i am an immigrant and i thought it was interesting you know how each character fit into different part of the diaspora how their experiences differed how their families differed all of that i thought it was really interesting and i was there for the conversation and i did read the second half of this book

All in one go today because i really wanted to finish it and it's an alright book it's not a super fast book to read but you know we got through it i think as long as you have right expectations you should not be disappointed by the plot now let's move on to characters

So i actually really like all of them because they were they were supposed to be the archetype you know the the con artist the the the getaway driver all of that but that's not what they were i think they were just fully fleshed out people which is great and that's what you want

So it was really amazing to have very five very distinct characters with their own motivations with their own agenda and with their own baggage they bring i did think it was really convenient and kind of slash weird how quickly all of them agreed to do

This heist i thought it would take a bit more time um because it's you know you could ruin your whole future you literally would go to jail and you're all like 21 future ahead of you

So that was like one thing but i think overall all of them were very distinct and especially the relationships were super fascinating um between the main characters but also familiar relationships such a big theme and such complex because all of them were completely different but also all of them kind of had

This weight of being an immigrant child of an immigrant put upon them and how that affected them so the characters were very well done i didn't like all of them equally but that's hard to do anyway and that's not the point all of them served a purpose

I enjoyed that and now themes let me read out all of them to you and we don't talk so be in diaspora growing up just period finding your purpose following your dreams belonging again so much more it truly it was about a story about being an immigrant being chinese-american but then also colonialism whether

It's okay what happened is okay for these um museums to keep loots of war keep spoils keep stolen artifacts and profit out of them continuously and kind of the morality of that

But then it was really also about growing up and finishing college and deciding what you want to do with your life and feeling lost and like you don't belong and like you achieved the dream

What was accepted you the beautiful silicon valley job with a very high paycheck and still being miserable and looking for purpose and finding that purpose in something slightly legal not even slightly i think all of those were done very well and i did enjoy the conversation

I do think that it was done very well and handled very maturely and with thought and clearly this is something that the author also can relate to but also has thought about a lot and has struggled with a lot and like as a as a person who they mentioned pandemic in this book

So as a person who also finished university during the pandemic and also didn't know what they're doing with their life is very relatable so those parts especially the you know growing up figuring out

What you want to do then also the immigrant part although in different circumstances it felt very authentic and truthful to me and kind of my experience so i really enjoyed it so overall thoughts i'm conflicted because

I did like this book and i like what it did and i think the only reason why i didn't love it and i didn't feel motivated to pick it up is literally because this is not what i normally read and it's not my genre i am a fantasy girl sci-fi girl thriller girl you know excitement girl but this was a you know fiction

But not a fantasy or anything um no magic nothing like that and not really action either um so it's just not what i'm used to but i thought it was done very well for what it was overall i would say it's really um what

If i read if anything i said about the fames sounds like it would appeal to you then pick it up if you like i don't care about the themes but the heist sounds cool then you probably will be disappointed so just fyi overall

I think i'm gonna give it 3.5 but on goodreads it's gonna be a four because i do think that this book has an audience and the people that need to find it so i would recommend it to you if it's up your alley that's pretty much

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