one interesting thing I haven't seen people talk about is the way lucy gray baird's personality is very reminiscent of the manic pixie dream girl trope - and that's not to say that she's poorly written or one-dimensional in any way, but the dress, the spontaneous singing, all her "quirky" behaviours, the way she's seen through the eyes of a guy who's "stuck in a societal system" and sees her as this completely different, rebellious, being that "breaks him out" of the mold he's in - sound familiar? but this is a dystopian novel and not a romcom - her character was very specifically crafted this way because of the role she serves in the greater narrative in the end: a legend, a myth, a mystery - and that's why her mpdg-type personality works so perfectly. to snow and the reader, lucy gray is always going to have that air of intrigue around her, because she ultimately lives on in our memories not as a person, but as an idea and an icon.