A review by prested
Provenance by Ann Leckie

3.0

Ingray Aughksold isn't favored by her mother and knows that her brother, Danach, is likely to succeed her as a representative.
Still, she decides to put her best effort in the endeavor and comes up with a plan to at least shame her brother if she can't be acknowledge as a potential heir.
She frees a prisoner that's of political interest to her mother, and heads back to Hwae where her careful thought out plan is thrown off when a visiting diplomat is murdered.
Suddenly, Ingray has to deal with a murder and the political ramification of it all while trying to secure her place in her family.
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This was a good read! It was difficult at first to get into it, the first 50 pages read a little weird, but after I read a few chapters I got into it.
Ingray was fascinating and she's basically a girl in over her head whose trying to maneuvered her way out of a politically sticky situation.

I was disappointed with the conclusion of this book however.
Spoiler
Nothing really changed for Ingray.
She ended up deciding that her family's treatment of her is how it is and there was nothing she could do about it.
She basically just accepts how her life is, even though she was deeply unhappy about it and how much it stressed her out.
She does nothing about her family situation.
Telling no one of her feelings about her family (there was a implication that she discussed them with her girlfriend) but not a full on discussion and analysis of her family and its toxicity.
I just wish that was more of a focus on the family aspect of her identity.

Everyone is telling her that her family is shitty and she still clings to them because she's terrified to be alone.
She has a found family, but is ultimately separated from them and returns to her family.
It's just so unfortunate that was never fully addressed even though that was a central theme.


The main plot resolved itself nicely but I wish that Leckie went in deeper with the characterization of the cast
Spoilerthere's not a lot of depth to the characters themselves.
Ingray's family's characterization was superficial.
Her mother's absent and demanding, her nuncle is helpful and her brother's an asshole.
The only other detail I know about the Aughksolds' household is that it's toxic, and that her mother and nuncle is aware of that fact but do nothing to fix it.
Tic and Garal characterization wasn't too bad.

I did enjoy the themes of identity and social class that was mixed in throughout.

It's a good book, but there were a few things that were lacking.