I liked this, then I loved it.

As a child and grandchild of immigrants, I related to the portrayal of pressure it brings, after all, what are we if not the embodiment of generations of hope for a better life. I thought Li encapsulated it well. I did find some parts repetitive, for example, one of the characters grapples with leaving a prestigious university ALOT throughout the course of the book. I don’t think there’s a chapter of theirs where it isn’t mentioned. It annoyed me at first but then I can understand the need for repetition. It’s expected of or wanted for children of immigrants that you go to a prestigious university, that you get a steady paycheck and you don’t struggle. In a way, the character had walked away from that (explaining this without giving anything away is harder than I thought it would be). The emotion was captured really well in all aspects of the book.

I loved that the main plot was reclaiming a stolen history and okay yes the heist scenes were short but better to be concise and well written than long and useless - this is a compliment btw. Li played to her strengths which was great because this was an ambitious plot to try and fit into one book. Here’s the part I want to talk about but can’t without spoiling.

I loved the way this ended, in that it wasn’t five heists but two because I think had they stolen all five it would have been the same thing as what colonialism and imperialism embodied theft of what does not belong to the west. Instead, having the Museums admit to wrongdoing (not with respect to the Chinese artefacts but to other morally shady stuff and outright return the statutes to China was much more rewarding.

One thing I was unsure about was pacing. I was happy with the start like ‘yep great straight into things’ but then we weren't straight into things. So definitely slow to start. But then after page 105, the heisting began and then it sped up - fast, almost too fast? And yet, Li was able to wrap up the book quite nicely. I didn't mind the overall pacing, in the end, I found myself satisfied with the conclusion. Also some stuff was overly repetitive to the point you can't really ignore it, and it got on my nevers because it felt like I had just read the same paragraph twice.

Here’s a short list of things I enjoyed: Character background was done well. I normally don’t like multiple POVs and yet I loved them in this. I loved knowing what each member of the ‘crew’ were thinking. Also, queer romance which is lovely to see. I did not like Irene and then I really liked Irene by the end of it. 

Congrats to Grace D. Li for one hell of a debut. I had hyped this up in my head and I’m glad I did.