marilu’s Reviews > The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes > Status Update

“His girl. His love. His Lucy Gray. They had survived the dean, the doctor, and the Games somehow. After all the weeks of fear and yearning and uncertainty, he would wrap her in his arms and never let her go.”

“He felt his lips stretching into an insane grin. He had won. He’d won glory, and a future, and maybe love, too. Any minute now, he’d have Lucy Gray in his arms. Oh, Snow lands on top; it most certainly does. ”

“Already high, the stakes of these Games shot into the stratosphere. Focus, he told himself, drawing slow, deep breaths. Focus on helping Lucy Gray.”

“The savory layers of meat, potato, and cheese consoled him, as did Tigris’s gentle reminder that the situation with Lucy Gray was not of his making. They were both, after all, still children whose lives were dictated by powers above them.”

“It’s nothing.”
“Not to you maybe,” she said. “But it’s meant the world having someone show up like I mattered.”
“You do matter,” he said.
“Well, there’s a lot of evidence to the contrary.” She rattled her chains and gave them a tug. And then, as if remembering something, she looked up at the sky.
“You matter to me,” he insisted. The Capitol may not value her, but he did.