Gregor+The+Overlander-+Review

//Gregor the Overlander// Scholastic Inc., 2003, $6.99 Suzanne Collins ISBN-10: 0-439-67813-7

“Beware, Underlanders, time hangs by a thread./ The hunter are hunted, white water runs red./ The Gnawers will strike to extinguish the rest./ The hope of the hopeless resides in a quest.” This is the first stanza of “The Prophecy of Gray” in Suzanne Collins’s amazingly crafted novel, //Gregor the Overlander//, the first book in the Underland Chronicles. When Gregor, and eleven year old boy living in New York, is doing the laundry his two year old sister, Boots, falls down a grate in the room. Gregor goes in after her and finds an entire world underneath New York. He meets giant cockroaches who claim Boots is their princess and they take him to the humans of the Underland who live in a beautiful stone city called Regalia. The queen there is a girl named Luxa who is about Gregor’s age. She and her cousin Henry take an instant disliking to him. Soon though, it is discovered that Gregor is “The Warrior” from “The Prophecy of Gray”. They set out on an epic quest with many creatures that speak and go by different names in the Underland than the Overland. But all is not smooth for them because the Gnawers, or rats, are after them. Collins made the Underland come alive. It feels like you have been sucked down into the Underland yourself and sent along with Gregor on his quest. This book is brilliantly paced and the action flows like a river, and like all rivers there are some heart-pounding rapids. This book is fantastic for most people. It has heart, action, puzzles, romance, and suspense. An all-time favorite book of mine, //Gregor the Overlander// is a novel of epic proportions that will be nearly impossible to forget.

–Emma Shannon