Spruce is a rebel in District 12 and Lil’s brother. He, Billy Taupe, and Sejanus conspire to run away with Lil and weapons, but things don’t go according to plan: in an altercation, Spruce kills Billy Taupe while Coriolanus kills Mayfair Lipp. Spruce dies under uncertain circumstances after being brought to the Peacekeepers’ hospital with injuries.
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Spruce Character Timeline in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
The timeline below shows where the character Spruce appears in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 28
...his shoulders. She stops laughing as the gunman ushers them inside. Sejanus tells the gunman, Spruce, that they’re with him. Coriolanus figures Spruce is Lil’s brother.
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Spruce seems suspicious, but Billy Taupe reminds him that Lucy Gray is “his girl” who’s coming...
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Spruce packs up the weapons and tells Coriolanus and Sejanus that he’s keeping this to himself....
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As Coriolanus heads for the clinic for some powder, though, an ambulance pulls up—and Spruce comes out of it on a stretcher. Neither Coriolanus nor Sejanus can figure out what...
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Chapter 29
...didn’t rat him out. In any case, the weapons are still in District 12, since Spruce didn’t run away. And Coriolanus burns with shame, since he killed Sejanus. He knows he...
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...taps on the door. He avoids mentioning his role in Sejanus’s death and suggests that Spruce outed Sejanus. She thanks him for killing Mayfair—but then says that Mayor Lipp won’t leave...
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