Portrait of a Thief follows five Chinese-American college students across various countries trying to steal back a part of history lost to colonialism. I'll be honest I loved the concept of this book, but not so much the execution of it. I had really high hopes going into this read and maybe that fault lies with me.

I'll start off by saying the portrayal of the diaspora experience amongst the members of the heist was probably the most well done and it being a major focus in the book. However, I didn't really like any of the characters that much - they felt very one dimensional and literally only played the part of leader, con-artist, thief, getaway driver, and hacker. Oh, I'm sorry Irene did have a have a horrible personality - one constantly putting down Alex for over half the book and she also leads on a straight man who's been in love with her since they were kids - but knowing fully well that she is a lesbian and has only dated women. It's a no for me for that character.

I also had high hopes for the heists that also fell flat. More times than not the heists had no suspense, and if they did it just some how miraculously worked out. Let alone the heists did not start until close to the 50% way mark and them preparing for the heists was just watching a bunch of movies and taking notes lol it was mostly 5 college students goofing their way around obstacles and somehow managing to get the art.

Another thing I had high hopes for was the discussion of the colonization of art and its reduced to art = power with no further discussion really. As a person who loves history and appreciates art within history, I wish this book could have focused more on this aspect and in depth.

I also feel like the writing style was super repetitive and hard to get through sometimes. It's hard for me to write such a negative review for a book I was super hyped to read but it may have been my own fault on that one. Overall, I'd say if I went into it knowing that mainly focused on the experiences and reflections of the characters and the heist and art history part was just a backdrop not necessarily the forefront I probably would have enjoyed this more. I think this book just wasn't for me and I truly hope it finds the people that it is meant for!

Disclaimer: I received Portrait of a Thief as an ARC through NetGalley and I'm voluntarily leaving this review.