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

“He didn't mind the jabberjays so much — they seemed rather interesting from a military standpoint — but something about the mockingjays repelled him. He distrusted their spontaneous creation. Nature running amok. They should die out, and die out soon.”

Foreshadowing to Snow hating mockingjays and Katniss.

“Drawing close, he took in the song she sang as she quietly strummed her guitar.
Are you, are you Coming to the tree
Where they strung up a man they say murdered three?
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree.
He didn't recognize it, but it brought to mind the hanging of the rebel two days before. Had she been there? Had it prompted this?”

And he wanted to keep her. Safe and close at hand. Admired and admiring. Devoted. And entirely, unequivocally his. If what she'd said just before she kissed him — "The only boy my heart has a sweet spot for now is you" — was true, then wouldn't she want that, too?

"I don't know. I didn't have any choice."
"I know that. Of course I know that." Tigris put her arms around him. "I just hate what they're doing to you."
"I'm okay," he said. "It won't last much longer. And even if I don't win, I'm a shoo-in for some sort of prize. Really, I think things are about to take a turn for the better."
"Right. Yes. I'm sure they are. Snow lands on top," she agreed.

Slowly foreshadowing

"You're not alone." He took her hand. "And you won't be alone in the arena; we'll be together. I'll be there every moment. I won't take my eyes off of you. We'll win this thing together, Lucy Gray.
I promise."
She clung to him. "Sounds almost possible, the way you say it."
"It's more than possible," he asserted. "It's probable. lt’s inevitable, if you just follow the plan."

It’s good but why so long? 😂