The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (A Hunger Games Novel) (The Hunger Games)

but she had a sweetness, a vulnerability that invited abuse.

The cabbage began to boil, filling the kitchen with the smell of poverty.

“Myself. I killed the old me so I could come with you.”

She plucked the splinter free. “There. Well, I hope old you doesn’t haunt new you. We’ve already got enough ghosts between us.”

Someday something will kill me, but it won’t be you.

What a bitter disappointment, to have a second chance at a bright future so irrevocably stripped away.

Well, as my daddy used to say, you have to go to bed with the birds if you want to greet them at dawn.

I mean, I love all kinds of things I don’t trust.

Everyone thinks they know all about me.
They slap me with labels.
They spit out their fables.

“Some people call them swamp potatoes, but I like katniss better. Has a nice ring to it.”

“It’s a mystery, sweetheart. Just like me. That’s why it’s my song,” Lucy Gray answered.