So I just finished the book. I loved the parallels and foreshadowing and what have you. I knew next to nothing about Lucy Gray before reading and still feel like I know very little.
So her name comes from the ballad of the same name and the what happens to the girl up to debate on whether she’s gone or just simply dead.
I heard the theories that Lucy may be related to Coin or (what I think is a little dumb) is Coin herself. I think for the most part that should be ruled out, as Suzanne Collins helped to make this movie too and if Lucy was Coin I think they would have chosen a white girl since Coin is white (I’ve only watched the movies so I’m not sure if she’s described differently).
I also saw a theory that Lucy Gray drowned but to me that honestly makes no sense because Snow went into the lake to get rid of the evidence from his crime. If she was in the water he would have seen her, plus I think she would have been to far to make it to the lake since it seems to be implied that Snow was able to hit her.
Lucy Gray was the victor of the 10th hunger games and even without Snow’s help I think she could have made it to at least the final 5. She’s smart. So I don’t think she died, at least not until some time after Snow left the woods.
Though this bit of text does make me think she may have died to her injury by Snow:
“If he’d felt better, he’d have laughed at the irony of how quickly their relationship had deteriorated into their own private Hunger Games.”
That’s interesting everyone thinks she died. I’m of the belief that she disappeared up North like she intended and lived well into old age. Part of the reason the mockingjays, the hanging tree song, and Katniss herself upset Snow so much is because they’re all a reminder that he couldn’t control Lucy, and in extension, has no idea of her whereabouts. He doesn’t know if she’s alive or dead, up North or somewhere else, telling people the truth about him or not. Everything about her is uncertainty and a mystery, and I think that haunted him for the entirety of his life.
I definitely don’t think she’s Coin, those theories don’t make a lot of sense. I do think Maude Ivory is Katniss’s grandma though, or some sort of relative.