Review - Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Lin

 

 

Title: Portrait of a Thief

Author: Grace D. Li

Pages: 385

Publisher: Coronet

Release Date: 14th April 2022

 

Blurb from Goodreads:

This was how things began: Boston on the cusp of fall, the Sackler Museum robbed of 23 pieces of priceless Chinese art. Even in this back room, dust catching the slant of golden, late-afternoon light, Will could hear the sirens. They sounded like a promise.

Will Chen, a Chinese American art history student at Harvard, has spent most of his life learning about the West – its art, its culture, all that it has taken and called its own. He believes art belongs with its creators, so when a Chinese corporation offers him a (highly illegal) chance to reclaim five priceless sculptures, it’s surprisingly easy to say yes.

Will’s crew, fellow students chosen out of his boundless optimism for their skills and loyalty, aren’t exactly experienced criminals. Irene is a public policy major at Duke who can talk her way out of anything; Daniel is pre-med with steady hands and dreams of being a surgeon. Lily is an engineering student who races cars in her spare time; and Will is relying on Alex, an MIT dropout turned software engineer, to hack her way in and out of each museum they must rob.

Each student has their own complicated relationship with China and the identities they’ve cultivated as Chinese Americans, but one thing soon becomes certain: they won’t say no.

Because if they succeed? They earn an unfathomable ten million each, and a chance to make history. If they fail, they lose everything . . . and the West wins again.

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My Review:

*I received an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thanks to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley*

Will Chen is a senior at Harvard studying art history.

When a Chinese corporation offers Will a life-changing amount of money in exchange for stealing five works of art that now reside in museums around the world, Will says yes.

Will puts together a team made up of; Irene, Will's sister, who has a way of always getting what she wants; Lily, Irene's room-mate who drag races cars for fun; Daniel, a childhood friend of both Will and Irene; and Alex, a software engineer friend of Will's.

Each member of the team has their own reason for agreeing to the heists, but can they break into several museums and avoid getting caught by the police?

The premise for this book really intrigued me, so I was looking forward to reading it. Unfortunately, it didn't live up to my hopes.

Will is the main protagonist, but we get chapters from the points of view of all members of the heist team. Out of all of them, I liked Alex and Daniel the most. I struggled a little with Will, and his chapters were probably the ones I looked forward to the least.

The themes and ideas were interesting and thought-provoking. I definitely found myself thinking about museums in a new light.

The plot was interesting for the most part, but the pacing was a little off for me and I did get a bit bored once or twice. There wasn't anything that happened that particularly shocked me, and I wasn't very invested in what happened to the characters.

The writing style was enjoyable, and easy to follow.

I am disappointed that I didn't enjoy this more.

Whilst there were some important topics covered in this book, which were well done I thought, this ended up being a mixed read for me.

Overall, this was a mixed read.