What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
SOLVED: Children's/YA
>
SOLVED. Adventure; boy and younger sister try to find father in previously unknown underground world with giant sentient cockro aches and dragons and purple-eyed people. [s]
date
newest »
newest »
This reminds me almost exactly of the Gregor the Overlander series by Suzanne Collins:https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
@Nadia YES THATS IT THANK YOU SOO MUCH THATS THE ONEThank uu😀🎉
I read this book in 2013-2015 ish. I'm just gonna sum up the plot and try not to spoil anything.
Okay so the start.
It's about a boy (I think his name starts with 'O'), whose younger sister going missing down in their New York laundry room. He falls in a vent, and some air currents blow them down into an underground world. He and his sister meet 2 giant dog-sized cockroaches who debate whenther or not to give them to the rats of the human. They get to go to the humans, and they find a host of people whose decendents lived down here ages ago at the urging of a prophet (Nathan?) and they all have pale purple eyes and are bonded to dragons. There is a prophecy too, which launches a quest involving the MC, his sister, the 2 cockroaches, and 2 humans (boy&girl) and their dragons. They are trying to find MC's father who disappeared down here ages ago, thought to have run off with another woman by the New York police. He was captured by the rat king, and seems to still be alive.
Notes: in this world, the importance of never going alone is emphasised. Every creature has a bond with another, so the humans have their dragons and the cockroaches have each other. If you are alone, you'll die.
Also, emphasis is placed on time. It's all about the extension of your own clock, cause you're gonna die one way or another. Time is very important, almost like a kind of currency.
-SPOILERS BEWARE-
1 of the cockroaches ends up sacrificing herself for the MC's sister. There was a quote, it's like 'she sacrificed all her time so she could keep a few more hours" or something.
Their father turns out to have been forced to make weapons (crossbows e.t.c.) for the rats adn that's why they didn't eat him. He made sure to make them filmsy so they couldn't be re-used and more lethal and they'd have to keep him around.
The rat king had eaten the parents of one of the purple people (the girl) and they were also the king and queen. When they first see him, he has their 2 crowns hanging off each of his ears, which had a very powerful impact on that girl character.
Also, the other one, the boy, actually struck a deal with the rat king and betrayed them. He, the MC and his dragon ended up falling down a pit. The dragon had to make a choice: save her bonded human who betrayed them or the MC, who she had no official bond with. Loyalty dictated she save her bond, but she made the decision to save the MC. Near the end, she's about to be sent off into the dangerous wilderness alone, where she's gonna die, because she didn't save her bond and he died. The MC then spur of the moment offers her his bond. The female purple character had told him about this aspect of their life underground, and whispers the words to the bond in his ear while he's offering it to the dragon. She accepts, and the dragon ends up living in the underground city with the female character because the MC has to go back up to New York.
So at the end, the MC, his sister, and their saved father get blown up by the same winds to the same laundry chute, to their mom/wife. the book ends with the MC saying "mom, I'm home" or something like that.
Soo anyway if you have any idea where this ramble may have sprouted from please tell me... thanks.
BTW pretty sure it's the first in a series.