Five Chinese American undergrads plan out five heists to reclaim stolen art from China displayed in various museums across the Western world. If they succeed, they earn fifty million dollars and a chance to right the wrong of colonialism; failing is not an option. Portrait of a Thief is like smashing two separate books into one, a heist thriller and a coming-of-age journey as Asian Americans. The resulting book makes it challenging to read, with dialogues cut off by internal reflection and monologues that fail to gain the momentum of a thriller. This book could have been either contemporary literature examining Chinese American identity and family expectations as a first-generation immigrant from a more realistic "group project" or a fast-paced thriller planned by older characters with the agency to pull off heists. Just not both.