Gregor the Overlander (The Underland Chronicles) [Paperback]

I cannot reccommend this book highly enough! My 9 year old son had finished Harry Potter book 7 and we were at a loss as to what to suggest next. We read the first in the series of Artemis Fowl(which is also good) and then began with Gregor. We read some together at bed time and then my son continues alone. The story is so exciting that bedtime reading became after school reading aswell!! A great read for all, can't wait for the next one to arrive!!

19/11/11

Vasilis

Book Review

Gregor and the Overlander

By Suzanne Collins

Gregor an ordinary kid falls into a vent leading him to an under world where people live with giant rats and roaches.

Gregor after a deep fall finds an Underland. There he is taken as a guest from other people. As time passes the people there reveal that he is the warrior according to an old prophecy. Gregor has to lead a quest to save the underland from the rats. Gregor passes through a series of adventures leading him to the evil rat king. The rest is for you to find out.

If you have a huge imagination you are going to love this book. Imagine living in a world with giant bats that not only talk but are pets too. The book takes you through a quest, with its amazing descriptions and Gregor's baby sister Boots!
As an overall ranking of the book I give it a 4/5 for its marvellous descriptions of the setting and the plot, the ongoing adventure of the plot and the twists and turns of it, this book is truly great but it made one mistake Gregor along with his little sister never get hurt and just keep on getting out of trouble safe.
I believe the author did the best job on characters. Each character expressed hisown thoughts through dialog and facial expressions described. My favourite are the Giant roaches and their silliness. The author used to describe one character leaving you to make very easily a visual image of the character.
"Hands down, she was the strangest person Gregor had ever seen. Her skin was so pale, he could see every vein in her body. He thought of the section of the human a anatomy in his science book. Flip one page see the bones. Next, the digestive system. This girl was a walking circulatory system." The author not only describes the characters well but gives Gregor's interpretation. The same thing occurs with the setting. The setting in this book is amazing. My favourite description was the different caves that they would go to get shelter in. The setting is one thing the author perfected. As the plot goes a lot the author includes many different settings. This makes it very enjoyable.
"The buildings were all a lovely misty grey, which gave them a dreamlike quality. They seemed to rise out of the rocks as if they had been grown, not made by human hands. Maybe they weren't as tall as the skyscrapers Gregor knew by name, but they towered high above his head, some at least thirty stories and finished in artful peaks and turrets. Thousands of torches were placed strategically so that a soft, dusky light illuminated the entire city."
The plot of the book is what kept you going. The mix with descriptions and plot really made you suspenseful and anxious about its development. "Gregor heard his name in the distance and sped up. He had just reached the mouth of the tunnel when he ran headfast into something soft and furry. Startled, he staggered back a few paces, dropping the torch. The something stepped out into the dim light. Gregor's knees turned to jelly and he sunk slowly to the sand. The face of a monstrous rat broke into a smile." The author finishes off a chapter with these words which makes you want to see what will happen in the next chapter!

I am very disappointed on the way the author makes Gregor always get out of trouble every time he gets in trouble someone appears and saves him. This I found fun the first time but it kept on happening I concluded that this event was too repeating and I always knew Gregor would be okay in the end with the people again. An example is the encounter with the crawlers, Gregor gets caught in the crawlers webs and his friends come and talk the spiders out of eating him. The other problem which appeared rearly and was really rarely found was in some evnts some character were not mentioned in fight but even around Regalia. These characters were previously described but not again for a while making you feel they were missing.

What really made me think this book was great was the growth of the main character through the book he realizes he is not a baby anymore and needs to start facing the real situation instead of thinking of his mom and how nice it was back home. Gregor at first could not imagine himself as a warrior but in the end he turns out to put his life at risk to forfill the prophecy of the warrior. This shows us that through different circumstances a person changes, and so Gregor realizes that he had to be the warrior to save many lives.

The author's words of choice were amazing in description. The words although were not hard to understand a 9 year old and uo would be able to read it. The author also paid much attention to feelings.
"Gregor felt sick with worry. He couldn't lose Boots. He he just couldn't. He should have left her in Regalia. He should have never have agreed to the quest. If anything happened to Boots, it would be his fault" I noticed that the writting is very similar to the Hunger Games by Suzzane Collins too. The feelings and settings are mostly described.
When I just finished the books my first thoughts were I have to read the second one. The author of the book, Suzzane Collins, did the best description I have ever read from characters to settings. The book as an overall suffered by very few errors in the plot everything else was amazing. This book can get even a person with no fantasy drawn into it making the reader never let down the book.

I loved the first book in the Hunger Games Trilogy, and enjoyed the whole series. After reading this first book in Suzanne Collins' earlier series, I like it even more. The story begins in New York City, but soon moves to the Underland. Gregor is a typical 11-year-old boy. He lives with his mother, grandmother and two younger sisters. His father has been missing for 2 Years, 7 Months and 13 days. Gregor stays home from summer camp so his sister can go; he is helping to look after his aging grandmother and his baby sister Boots. One day while doing laundry, Boots seems to disappear. Soon Gregor finds himself falling and falling. When he lands, he is in a strange Underland, full of giant bats, spiders, roaches, rats and a human colony that came below ground many years ago. There is an uneasy peace among the rats and the other Underland kingdoms, and Gregor seems to set off a war between the humans and rats. And many of the humans seem to believe he is fulfilling an ancient prophecy. The prophecy states:

"Underlanders, time hangs by a thread. The hunters are hunted, white water runs red. The gnawers will strike to extinguish the rest. The hope of the hopeless resides in a quest.

An Overland warrior, a son of the sun, May bring us back light, he may bring us back none. But gather your neighbors and follow his call, or rats will most surely devour us all.

Two over, two under, of royal descent. Two flyers, two crawlers, two spinners assent. One gnawer beside and one lost up ahead. And eight will be left when we count up the dead.

The last who will die must decide where he stands.
The fate of the eight is contained in his hands. So bid him take care, bid him look where he leaps, as life may be death and death life again reaps."

Gregory does not believe he is the predicted warrior. But if this is his best chance to get back to Overland he will do so, especially if it means saving his system and himself.

This is the first book in a quintology and it looks like it will be an incredible series. I highly recommend this first book and believe you will become as hooked as I did.