Gregor the Overlander (Underland Chronicles, #1)

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Gregor the Overlander (Underland Chronicles #1)

3.96 of 5 stars 3.96 · rating details · 29,490 ratings · 3,226 reviews

When eleven-year-old Gregor follows his little sister through a grate in the laundry room of their New York apartment, he hurtles into the dark Underland beneath the city. There, humans live uneasily beside giant spiders, bats, cockroaches, and rats, but the fragile peace is about to fall apart.

Gregor wants no part of a conflict between these creepy creatures. He just want

...more

Paperback, 311 pages

Published May 1st 2005 by Scholastic (first published September 1st 2003)

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Feb 18, 2010 Ceridwen rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: the boy, the girl

Recommended to Ceridwen by: Sparrow

Shelves: america-and-environs, daddy-drinks-because-you-cry, fantasy, young-adult, middle-grade

I wanted to like this more than I did, but I fell into two of my crazy personal holes, and then I couldn't climb out in time. I have a problem with fictions that try to reclaim absent fathers, a big one. There are lots of fictions that do this, and I will now date the crap out of myself with the following movie references: “Liar, Liar”, “Mrs. Doubtfire”, “The Santa Clause”. All of these admittedly shitty, populist “comedies” have the common theme of absent fathers learning a Valuable Lesson Abou...more I wanted to like this more than I did, but I fell into two of my crazy personal holes, and then I couldn't climb out in time. I have a problem with fictions that try to reclaim absent fathers, a big one. There are lots of fictions that do this, and I will now date the crap out of myself with the following movie references: “Liar, Liar”, “Mrs. Doubtfire”, “The Santa Clause”. All of these admittedly shitty, populist “comedies” have the common theme of absent fathers learning a Valuable Lesson About Sharing through hijinks and nut-shots. These are fictions aimed at families – read: women, mostly – but even in your more manly fare, the theme pops up. The Road , Cell and a bunch of other post-apocalypse fiction hinges on fathers protecting/returning to lost children – read: sons, mostly.

For whatever reason, a lot of my friends growing up had apocalyptically bad relationships with their dads, and I don't think we were some kind of statistical anomaly. My friend C., who had to flee the country of her birth because her father had set up his pregnant girlfriend in the next apartment and then removed her mother, his wife, from all of their joint finances. His brother gave her the funds to leave. He then set to trying to prosecute his ex-wife for kidnapping, and bled her dry with lawyers fees until he was finally prosecuted successfully for embezzlement at work and spent five years in jail. Every single time C. had a graduation or important event, she believed, BELIEVED, that that son of a bitch would appear and give her the respect and admiration she deserved, and every single time he failed to appear. Even at 12, the rest of us knew this was folly and lost hope, but what can you say to that at 12? What can I say to it at 35? I could go on telling horror stories, but I shouldn't. There's a crisis here somewhere, a crisis of masculinity and parenthood, and I inescapably brought my own crisis into my reading.

Now that I've accidentally gone on a rampage, I'd like to apologize to Gregor; this book is simply not just escapist wish-fulfillment for the kiddies. Er, you know, it *is* partially escapist wish-fulfillment, but I don't mark that as a bad thing, and I'm beginning to trust that Collins has a sense of subversiveness towards young adult fiction that I can really groove on. Gregor is an abandoned 11 year old boy. He had two sisters: one slipping into the edges of adulthood, the other a two-year old munchkin. After his dad disappeared two years before, the family fell on hard financial times, and the early sections that take place in the real world, the here and now, have a crunchy, brittle realness to them that make my chest ache. His mother can't afford to send him to summer camp this year, using him instead as day care for a failing grandmother and a tiny sister, and the way Gregor both begrudges and accepts, but mostly accepts, this hard reality is true, painful, exact.

And Boots, ah, Boots. Boots is Gregor's tiny sister, and I just love her. I've had some babies, and it has only reinforced for me how awfully small children tend to be written; how twee, how precious, how prone to the insightful outburst at the most opportune moment. Gimmez-moi un break, as the French would say. Boots naps, she fills her pants, she has tantrums and sings the same song so many times everyone considers killing her. But she also loves with a capacity that is both haphazard and infectious. In short, she's real, maybe realer than the Underland that makes up the geography of most of the book.

Boots and Gregor fall down a hole in their laundry room and land in the Underland, a sort of subterranean world like Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere or China Mielville's unLondon. They are lucky enough to fall in with people, not with the rats or bats or roaches that also inhabit this world, and learn of a prophecy and Gregor's father's possible existence. This is where my next personal hole yawned before my feet, because prophecy, of any kind, makes me itchy and crazy. Short of the Orestia, I think that all authors should abandon the idea of prophecy as plot-point, because it results in terrible poetry and godawful plot-twists. Again, this book doesn't commit the worst of these prophecy sins, but from the minute Gregor began close-reading the prophetic lines, my chest felt tight. When is the horrible other shoe going to drop? And how horrible will it be? Not horrible, but I worried.

But there's still something here, despite all of my personal insanities: a world of wonder and pain, of discomfort and ease. Gregor falls down a rabbit hole, and the Underland blooms with the soft light of the almost-blind luminescence of deep-sea fish: beautiful, terrible, foreign. I look forward to the day when my own kids can discover this world. (less)

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Jan 16, 2012 Chandra rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: kids-young-adult, sci-fi-fantasy, 2012-reads

This is certainly a rousing, fast-paced story, but what really got me were the characters. For example, when I learned that a toddler was going to be involved in an action-adventure story I was more than skeptical. In my humble opinion authors almost always miss the mark with characters under about six or seven. Boots is the most realistically written toddler since Knuffle Bunny. Anyone who has been around small children for a reasonable amount of time knows they are very *present*. They don't f...more

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Aug 16, 2012 Kay rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: spiders and roaches and rats, oh my!

Recommended to Kay by: just don't fall down any holes in the laundry room

Shelves: gods-and-beasts, kiddy-lit, urban-fantasy, war-and-conflict

So, my workplace and a few other firms are a part of this program where we got to a local elementary school to read to kids. I was paired up with a fifth grader who loved to read as much as I did. She blew through Breadcrumbs, which was amazing, and we had just started on Gregor the Overlander when school was dismissed for summer vacation.

Me being my usual ADHD self, I left this book unread for months and months while I pursued other books.

Now, after reading the entire Underland Chronicles in t...more

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Mar 14, 2010 Laurel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, fiction, fantasy

With a few exceptions, I am not typically a big fan of science fiction/fantasy, nor of bugs and rats and dark places. Had I not read and loved The Hunger Games, I never would have even considered reading this book. And I would have most certainly been missing out.

This is Suzanne Collin's first novel, and it is quite a first novel. Gregor the Overlander centers around an eleven-year-old boy and his little sister who fall through a grate in the laundry room of their apartment complex. After being...more

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Nov 14, 2008 Rfrancik rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 6-fictional-chapter-books, 1-e

When Gregor falls after his little sister down the laundry shoot he finds himself in a new land. He is faced with deciding where to place his loyalties, how to survive and given the opportunity to search for his father who unaccountably disappeared 2 years ago.

This book has ruined my entire day! I have laundry to fold, dinner to cook, breakfast to eat, 3 papers to write and lesson plans to develop. Instead, I've spent my morning snuggled under a down quilt devouring Gregor the Overlander. As so...more

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Sep 09, 2010 Eh?Eh! rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: goodreaders-made-me, babble-added

I recently went solo dining with the 2nd book in the series and sat down at a counter, speeding through the large font and well-spaced text. The restaurant started to fill up and another solo diner sat down next to me. I glanced over at his magazine and saw that it was a scientific journal open to an article about the brain. I casually angled the cover of my Scholastic-published book away from his view and kept reading, very self-conscious of the approximately 18 grades of school between our rea...more I recently went solo dining with the 2nd book in the series and sat down at a counter, speeding through the large font and well-spaced text. The restaurant started to fill up and another solo diner sat down next to me. I glanced over at his magazine and saw that it was a scientific journal open to an article about the brain. I casually angled the cover of my Scholastic-published book away from his view and kept reading, very self-conscious of the approximately 18 grades of school between our reading materials.

Sigh.

I'm bouncing around in my reading material lately. I've been trying to force the weighter books and it's like an overtight pair of jeans. Lay back on the bed, take a deep breath, and hope you can wrestle that zipper up before the oxygen runs out or the button pops off and you lose an eye. The YA and younger books are more like comfortable sweatpants, the waistband slightly stretched and the material over the seat taking on a sheen from wear. I need to take in a few sweatpants books before attempting another jeans book. Who am I trying to impress? No need to do the David Hasselhoff on Baywatch stomach suck.

This is what I repeat to myself when I sit next to someone reading a scientific journal open to an article about the brain...you couldn't sit somewhere else, brain guy???

The beginning of the 2nd book helped me pinpoint why I liked this 1st book so much. With the next in the series, Gregor is suddenly having these abilities he never had before. Booooo. The first book moved forward with his own average self, no special powers needed. While he may have been written as more selfless than the typical boy his age, he made mistakes and was cranky like a real boy. When he was courageous, loyal, loving, or expressed empathy, it wasn't unusual - it could be duplicated by any child who read this book. The value of that! You too can be like this!:

[Gregor]* nodded. He could never hate people very long because he always ended up finding out something sad about them that he had to factor in. Like this kid at school everybody hated because he was always pushing little kids around and then one day they found out his dad had hit him so much, he was in the hospital. With stuff like that, all Gregor could feel was bad.

Wonderful.

Oh, the story was set in this quest for his father with a fantastic imaginary world underground featuring people who had lived there so long that they were pale-haired, translucent-skinned, and violet-eyed. The allies and enemies were gigantic bats, cockroaches, and rats. This is meant for a younger audience than The Hunger Games trilogy, so probably elementary age. The quest kicked off with an awful set of prophetic verse (not as bad as Brian "One Trick Pony" Jacques but nowhere near the soaring glory (to me) of Susan Cooper). The ending was rushed. But I loved it for keeping the hero ordinary.

My favorite line? From my favorite character, the little sister, Boots: "I poop!"

*Lookie! The square brackets don't insert a colon anymore!(less)

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Nov 14, 2010 Janina rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: children-s, on-my-shelf, fantasy, read-in-2010, male-pov, series-in-progress

I actually got all teary-eyed over the death of an insect. Can you believe it?

A great book, I'm glad I gave it a try although I wasn't sure at the beginning if it would be too young for my taste. Collins has created a fascinating world with the Underland and the book is full of amazing characters (insects and rodents included!).

On to book two!

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Feb 21, 2013 June rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Fantasy readers

Shelves: fantasy, bookclub-childrens, alternative-world

I was skeptical about this one when I first heard about it. A sympathetic cockroach? Right! Well, I'm a sucker. I cried for it. 03

I just had a blast reading it to my son. Though he had to read the two pages where the cockroach died, because I cried again. He thought Boots was awesome. 09

Re-reading for my Children's Book Club. They seemed taken with the idea of a book that made me cry for a cockroach. Finding some good discussion points. Wondering about activities.

"Gregor nodded. He could never h...more I was skeptical about this one when I first heard about it. A sympathetic cockroach? Right! Well, I'm a sucker. I cried for it. 03

I just had a blast reading it to my son. Though he had to read the two pages where the cockroach died, because I cried again. He thought Boots was awesome. 09

Re-reading for my Children's Book Club. They seemed taken with the idea of a book that made me cry for a cockroach. Finding some good discussion points. Wondering about activities.

"Gregor nodded. He could never hate people very long because he always ended up finding out something sad about them that he had to factor in." p.146

"Do you think something deserves to die if it's not strong?" p. 158

"Just as he steeled himself against replying, Gregor thought of the last two years, seven months, and, was it fifteen days now? There were so many things he wished he had saidto his dad when he'd had the chance." p. 214

"Gregor thought this was the saddest thing anyone had ever said to him. p. 231

Question how many cried for Tick? "Temp, whose antennas had drooped down over his head, reached out and touched Gregor with a feeler. "Thank you. To weep when Tick has lost time.""

Bookclub: Everyone drew their impression of Underland. The pictures led into a discussion of our favorite characters which included Boots (friendly, natural ambassador...), Luxa (adventurous), Gregor (main character, likeable...), Ripred (powerful, awesome fighter, complicated), Ares (like Ripred sides against natural ally because he realizes he/they are wrong), Vikus (liked was nurturer, wise...) We discussed why we would have or wouldn't have gone on the quest and what we would have brought (there was some wondering where the questors went to the bathroom). Since this is a bookclub books were mentioned as something to bring along. Spinners were also mentioned as really nice to have for catch clothes, bandages... All of our younger readers said they would have accepted the sword from Vikus. At the end a nice discussion was also started comparing Gregor and Percy (Lightning Thief). There was some variation on the rating of Gregor the Overlander. We had a 6, a 9/10, a 10 and two 10+. 1/10/13

Just finished reading this with my youngest and have been told to get Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane. He also asked if we could read during the day, instead of just before bed.(less)

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Sep 07, 2007 Courtney rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone who likes...er...fantasy?

Oh, dear! I've read another children's book, haven't I? Well, if I may be so bold, I liked it a lot more than some of the so-called classics. (I'm so immature, but at least I enjoy myself!)

Though I've never really been one for the 'guy gets sucked into another world' kind of genre, this one put a spin on my thoughts. I've not enjoyed a book so much since... well, a long time. It keeps you in such connection with the characters, despite their being fictional. I especially enjoyed how, as the read...more

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Sep 27, 2011 Qt rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

I started the audio version of this one, but had a little trouble getting into it, mostly because there were long delays between each time I could listen to another chapter. Still, I wanted to know what happened in the story, so I got the book and skimmed through it fairly quickly. (And now, of course, I'm thinking I should have read it properly :-p)

I really like the concept and the characters--it's so nice to have a hero who takes care of his little sister and is a decent guy. And, it's really...more

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Apr 04, 2008 Valerie rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: 10+

Once again I have to say, I'm not big into fantasy, but I fell hard with Boots and Gregor! I finished listening to this one on audio and immediately sought out its sequel Prophecy of Bane; I finished that one and grabbed Curse of the Warmbloods. Now I'm ready for Marks of Secret - but it's not available at my library in audio. I may just have to grab the book and read it myself because I've now seen teasers for Gregor and the Code of Claw (May, 2008).
Gregor is a good one to recommend to readers...more

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Apr 22, 2011 Annalise rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nook-borrowed-fling, 2011, nook, fantasy, junior-and-ya, own, bookclub-2012

My 10-yr old son moped around for days after he finished this series because he was so bummed there were no more books left to read. I decided I needed to see for myself what all the fuss was about, and I was also intrigued to see Suzanne Collins' work prior to The Hunger Games. I wasn't disappointed! It is geared towards a younger crowd than Hunger Games, but was still enjoyable for me as an adult. What I really loved is that it has at its core a functional family. Gregor is the hero, but he st...more

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Jan 29, 2013 Trey A. is currently reading it

1-29-13 This book is getting vere good so far they just escaped from the spinners because they had them as prisoners. I thing the theme of the whole book is sometimes the worse things are the best.

1/14/13. Gregor the Overlander is a very Todd book so far what is happening is Gregor is trying to escape from the underlands he try's to escape by going down the river and he gets stop by giant rats and they try to kill all humans, and what happens is they start attacking him. If I were Gregor right n...more

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Oct 05, 2008 Q-man rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: age 8 and up

too young for me, but good.

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Mar 29, 2013 Carolyn S rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'm currently reading the book "Gregor the Overlander" by Suzanne Collins. So far I really like this book because... it's action packed, I can actually keep up with the pace, and I love reading fantasies. What's happened so far is, Gregor and his 4 year old sister Boots, both have fallen down from the laundry room through a huge hole. They end up at a place called the "Underland" and they encounter creepy crawlers the size of regular humans. Even though I haven't gotten very far into the book, I...more

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Oct 10, 2011 Smash added it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, children, favorites, middle-grade, read-2011, male-protag, read-own-audio

Read this review at Smash Attack Reads! http://www.smashattackreads.com/2011/...

My interest in the book: Hello! It’s a reimagination of Alice in Wonderland! If you don’t yet know, I’m a major lover of Alice and I usually enjoy a new spin on the tale.

My Synopsis: Meet Gregor, an eleven year-old boy who lives in the heart of NYC with his toddler-aged sister, Margaret – aka Boots - his 7 year-old sister, Lizze, his mother and his grandmother. Gregor’s father disappeared a few years ago, and the fam...more Read this review at Smash Attack Reads! http://www.smashattackreads.com/2011/...

My interest in the book: Hello! It’s a reimagination of Alice in Wonderland! If you don’t yet know, I’m a major lover of Alice and I usually enjoy a new spin on the tale.

My Synopsis: Meet Gregor, an eleven year-old boy who lives in the heart of NYC with his toddler-aged sister, Margaret – aka Boots - his 7 year-old sister, Lizze, his mother and his grandmother. Gregor’s father disappeared a few years ago, and the family has been doing their best to move on since.

One day, Gregor and Boots are in the laundry room and *poof* Boots disappears through a grate in the wall. Frantic over her safety, Gregor follows her thought the grate, only to fall, continue falling, and fall some more, until he finally hits the bottom. There, he’s greeted by gnawers and crawlers, known as rats and roaches to us Overlanders.

But they are life-size. And they talk.

Say what?

It seems as though the humans of Underland live beside such creatures, albeit uncomfortably. Besides gnawers and crawlers, you can also find flyers (bats) and spinners (spiders) in the Underland. Some are friends, some are foes, and Gregor gradually learns that your “species” doesn’t designate which side you are on.

Gregor is thrust into this world and wants no part of the conflict between humans and the beasties. His main priority is getting his sister home safely. Unfortunately, the Underworld gods have a different plan for Gregor. You see, the humans inform him of a strange prophecy they believe he will fulfill. A prophecy that foretells Underland's questionable future…

My Favorite Characters: Gregor is so easy to connect with, being a normal pre-adolescent boy. He is very protective of his family and yearns for the return of his father. Boots is a precious toddler who begged to be hugged and snuggled with. I adored her innocent perspective on life, and it reminds me how much society really does shape who we become. Luxa is the young heir to the throne of Regalia, the Underland city. She rubs you the wrong way in the beginning – and Gregor too – but her prideful, antagonistic behavior morphs as the story unfolds. Tik and Temp are two crawlers who call Boots “Princess” and are very protective of her. I adored these characters, especially the way they spoke. Way creative. Ares and Aurora are two fliers who are integral to the story, and Ripred is a gnawer whose courage is as big as his attitude.

Worldbuilding: As stated, most of the story takes place in Underland, a vast web of sewers and caves, filled with wonders and horrors at every turn. Gregor travels a great distance during his journey and we are introduced to the homes of many species. The society of the Underland humans is a breath of fresh air, as they are not held to the strict cut-throat ways of Overland, but they must always be on alert, for they too are not safe from harm.

Lasting Impressions: Hands down, the narrator for this book, Paul Boehmer, is GENIUS at what he does, and he completely made the story come alive for me. If he narrates the rest of the series, I will squee like a 12 year old girl at a Justin Bieber concert. His narration as Boots was amazing, and he made that two year old bigger than life. She was the most standout character, and it was because of him. I am quite glad that I decided to do the audiobook of this one, as I cannot imagine enjoying it even a tenth as much via hardcopy. Spectacular!(less)

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Apr 28, 2009 Sparrow rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: School Teachers and Librarians

Shelves: classic-young-reader, young-reader, do-not-judge-by-the-cover, favorites, reviewed

The covers of the Underland Chronicles do them no end of disservice. Since my policy is to judge a book by its cover, it took reading The Hunger Games to convince me to pick them up. I had always assumed they would be machine generated chapter books with mythical creatures protecting or seeking some ring or sword, or who knows what, that has some symbolic meaning - or doesn't. Suzanne Collins, however, is in no way machine-generated. She is Dostoyevski for the young-reader crowd. While she uses...more

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Nov 27, 2008 R.j. rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Feb 24, 2008 Becky rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: 4th grade and up, fans of City of Ember

Recommended to Becky by: Riley B.

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This book was a lot like "The Golden Compass" for me, in that I couldn't seem to get through the first few chapters for many months, but once I broke through, I read it nonstop.

Riley at Genoa insisted that I read this when I said I liked how Ananka in "Kiki Strike" falls into another world, much like Alice in Wonderland. I was relieved to read that Suzanne Collins thought about Wonderland as well, and "how pastoral the setting must seem to kids who live in urban surroundings." Gregor becomes an...more This book was a lot like "The Golden Compass" for me, in that I couldn't seem to get through the first few chapters for many months, but once I broke through, I read it nonstop.

Riley at Genoa insisted that I read this when I said I liked how Ananka in "Kiki Strike" falls into another world, much like Alice in Wonderland. I was relieved to read that Suzanne Collins thought about Wonderland as well, and "how pastoral the setting must seem to kids who live in urban surroundings." Gregor becomes an urban Alice when he falls (with his baby sister, Boots) down a grate behind the dryer in his laundry room and finds himself in the Underland. Here, humans have adapted with very little light, living in various states of harmony and war with oversize bats, cockroaches, spiders, and (all together now) evil rats. [Someone should do a comparison study: in the anthropomorphizing of animals in literature, who is ahead in terms of representing evil: rats or snakes?]

Gregor finds himself the unwilling subject of a prophecy that names him the long-awaited warrior who will join the different creatures and go on a quest to save the human city of Regalia.

I give Gregor four stars, but for underground stories, I prefer City of Ember, and for quest stories, I prefer The Lightning Thief. However, fans of either of those series, or even kids wanting something more "urban" than Wonderland or Oz, Gregor is perfect. Older readers would like Gaiman's "Neverwhere." As it says in the bonus "Create your own Underland" section....."Choose your rabbit hole."

Favorite quotes:

"Gregor could never hate people very long because he always ended up finding out something sad about them that he had to factor in."

"'Most rats read. Our frustration is, we can't hold a pen to write.'"

"'Mutual need is a strong bond. Stronger than friendship, stronger than love.'"

"Wasn't Luxa's strategy just an extreme form of his own rule? True, he didn't think about dying every day, but he denied himself the luxury of thinking about the future with or without his dad. If he hadn't fallen through the grate in his laundry room and discovered his dad was still alive, if his dad had never come home, how long would he have gone on refusing to be happy? His whole life?"

"Gregor had thought he would get a parent back when he found his dad. Then he could stop having to make hard decisions. He could just be a kid again. But the man before him was even needier than Boots was."(less)

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Sep 29, 2007 Tamsyn rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Fantasy and adventure lovers

Shelves: favorite-books, adventure, best-books-in-the-year-i-read-them, boys-book-club, children-s-fantasy, humorous, literary-lunch, multiple-read

This is a wonderful beginning to the Overland Chronicles. It is set in contemporary NYC, until Gregor and his sister, Boots, fall on wind currents down into the Underland. They are met by 4-foot-tall cockroaches (referred to as "crawlers), and taken to meet the Underlanders, people who have been living in a colony underneath the earth for hundreds of years. Their founder was a seer, and they believe Gregor to be a warrior/hero of one of their prophecies. Though Gregor does not believe this, he a...more

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Jun 17, 2008 Phoebe added it

Shelves: sciffy, fantastic-kiddy-lit

This is a solid example of children's speculative fiction. While the prose is simplistic, Collins takes great care in both creating a vivid, (almost) believable underworld as well as crafting an equally believable hero. Gregor is noble, but not cloying--though he wants to protect his sister, he's plagued by the jealousies and insecurities common to 11-year-olds. Unfortunately, his actual quest feels a little tacked on, but the character- and world- building are more than adequate for keeping the...more

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Oct 14, 2012 April rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: audio, middle-grade, fantasy, library

Maybe you have Hunger Games fever and in your withdrawal you have considered checking out Suzanne Collins’ middle grade Gregor The Overlander series. While the first book, Gregor The Overlander lacks the complexity of The Hunger Games and romance, it’s not a terrible read if you adjust your expectations and don’t assume it will be written in the same way as The Hunger Games.

Read the rest of my review here

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Oct 26, 2011 Jason rated it 5 of 5 stars

I love this series

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Mar 09, 2009 Chelsea rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

I LOVE GREGOR! This is by far one of the best series I've read in a long time. Gregor is a working class kid in urban NYC struggling to keep his family (mom, 2 sisters, grandma) going since his dad mysteriously disappeared years before. In a twisted Alice in Wonderland sort of thing, he falls down a hole in the laundry room and discovers an entire world underground - bats, mice, rats, cockroaches, spiders, and humans live in fragile peace, and he may be involved in determining whether or not it...more

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Feb 28, 2009 Heather rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: teen-lit-and-i-love-it

My sister, the librarian, is always telling me what to read and this was one of the those "you need to read it" books. I had just read Hunger Games by this author and loved it so thought, 'sure thing little sister.' Boy, I have a smart sister.

This book was a lot of fun. The plot was very original but still slightly Jules Verne-ish. The characters were fantastic. Gregor was such a great character. He loves his family and is brave but thinks he's not. He's smart but unsure of himself. He's normal....more

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May 07, 2013 Brenan Weidmer rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Everyone! =D

Shelves: books-i-own, books-i-would-read-again, favorites

This was a fantastic read! I couldn't put it down, and ended up finishing it in one day flat (I started it around 7 last night, and finished it around noon this morning). Then I went straight to the bookstore to buy book two because I just have to know what happens next.

As I expected from Suzanne Collins, Gregor the Overlander was incredibly well written. This series may be less popular than her other series, The Hunger Games, but it was just as fantastic. Gregor the Overlander pulled me in comp...more

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Apr 30, 2013 Henry Martin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: children-s-books

Being an active parent, I get to read at least four books every day (small books) with some larger volumes thrown into the mix. Because of the volume, I generally chose not to review these books, nevertheless, every now and then I have to make an exception. My favorite 'kid's authors' are Kate di Camillo, Brian Jacques, and now Suzanne Collins.

It is not often that a book I read to my kids grabs me as much as this one. I truly enjoyed the read.

Collin's character development was very realistic,...more

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Apr 04, 2013 Dhiksha rated it 4 of 5 stars

Initially I had second thoughts about borrowing this book as it involved creepy crawlies including cockroaches,spiders and yes it also involves rats.So reluctantly I borrowed this book it it turned to be a really nice book, nice writing style and enough humour.

Coming to the characters ... Boots is so cute and to think she actually makes friends with two cockroaches

(view spoiler)...more

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Mar 24, 2013 Von Fritz rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi-and-fantasy

Suzanne Collins is the next JK Rowling.

It's just my opinion and it's no exxageration.

I bought a copy of Gregor the Overlander at Lopues East for 50 Php. I was much curious with the teaser. It's the story of the boy named Gregor, living in New York City, who happened to fall in a hole in their laundry room and finds himself in a strange world undergound. Yes, a world beneath New York City.

Welcome to Regalia, a magical kingdom with only lamps for light. No sun, no moon, no stars. Where the Underla...more

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Mar 07, 2013 Eric rated it 4 of 5 stars

Gregor the Overlander falls into the genre of fantasy. I couldn't help but notice the similarities between this book and Hunger Games. Obviously being written by the same author Suzanne Collins explains most of this. I found the two books to have similar structures, being broken into three parts: the intro/set up, the adventure, and the conclusion/end to the adventure. Overall, I found this book to be very entertaining, but written for a younger audience than those who read Hunger Games. Some of...more

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Books 4ever!: The Underland Chronicles	5	3	May 07, 2013 04:55am
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About Suzanne Collins

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Since 1991, Suzanne Collins has been busy writing for children’s television. She has worked on the staffs of several Nickelodeon shows, including the Emmy-nominated hit Clarissa Explains it All and The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo. For preschool viewers, she penned multiple stories for the Emmy-nominated Little...more

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Books by Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games Trilogy Boxset (The Hunger Games, #1-3)

Gregor and the Code of Claw (Underland Chronicles, #5)

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Quotes from Gregor the Overlander

“If you are not trying to hold on to time, you are not so afraid of losing it.” — 108 people liked it

“His dad said even the cavemen had geniuses among them. Somebody had thought up the wheel.” — 56 people liked it

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Gregor the Overlander (Underland Chronicles #1)

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