Gregor the Overlander - Suzanne Collins

Summary:
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 wants to find his way home. But when he discovers that a strange prophecy foretells a role for him in the Underland's uncertain future, he realizes it might be the only way to solve the biggest mystery of his life. Little does he know his quest will change him and the Underland forever.

Rich in suspense and brimming with adventure, Suzanne Collins' debut marked a thrilling new talent, and introduced a character no young reader will ever forget.

Review:
I picked this one up at the library a few weeks back, not realizing that it was by the author of the Hunger Games until I got home and actually looked closely at it.  I hadn't read the Hunger Games yet at that point, but figuring it was pretty popular (the bloggers were raving about the series), I let this one take precident over some of the other I'd chosen.

I'm so glad I did.  A lot of the time when I grab a bunch of books from the library, some slip through the cracks, get missed, I lose interest, so on and so forth.  A lot of them tend to go back to the library unread and forgotten, especially if I just picked it up on a whim.  This was a whim.

But I read it.  And I loved it.  Gregor's adventure begins as he follows his baby sister Boots through a hole in their laundry room, and ends up falling so far down into the earth that he finds a secret society living down there.  In addition to these strange people, there are giant bats, rats, spiders and cockroaches, each with societies of their own.  Some good, some not so good.

Unfortunately, the Underlanders are under the impression that Gregor has arrived to fulfill a prophecy for them, and he gets caught up in a war between the humans and the rats, when all he wants to do is go home.

This book makes you look at things in a totally different way--I never thought I'd feel an emotional attachment to cockroaches, but now I do.  That's saying something.

Loved it.  I'll definately be reading it again.

I've got the second book now, and that makes me one very happy camper.

5 Stars!

-geekgirl

on Amazon.com Gregor The Overlander (Underland Chronicles, Book 1)
on Goodreads.com Gregor the Overlander