Sound odd? I know, I know, I thought so too. Book 1, Gregor the Overlander was one that I didn’t think I would love, but a couple chapters in, I was hooked.
I found the Underland books through a book you may have heard of. The Hunger Games?
I thought so. Of course, the waiting list for ‘The Hunger Games’ was a bit long, but I thought, I wonder if Suzanne Collins has written anything else? And she had! Wonder why these books have been so under the rug? Because they came out at the height of the Harry Potter Mania. But if you like books with that feel of a world that can exist just around the corner and just out of your perception. These books are it.
Gregor is an 11 year old boy who lives in the lower economic apartments of New York City. He lives with his mom, his grandma who’s suffering with Dementia and arthritis, his 7 year old sister Lizzie and his 2 year old sister Boots. Gregor’s life changed about 2 and half years earlier when his dad disappeared one night and he waits every day for his dad to come home. His life changes again when he chases Boots through a vent in the community laundry room and ends up in a world miles below the earth’s service.
The Underland is home to a pale skinned, violet eyed people who have lived down there for several generations. But humans are not the only life in the Underland. Their world is filled with gigantic cockroaches, rats, mice and bats. Their world is also filled with devastating war that drives the different creatures of the Underland to extreme measures. One of those measures if believing in the prophecies of their founding father, Bartholomew of Sandwhich made and wrote on the walls of his room. A series of those prophecies are about an Overland Warrior and ‘the Princess’. Immediately, Boots
is designated the ‘Princess’ by the gigantic cockroaches and Gregor is shoved into the role of the Warrior, with whom the fate of all the Underland rests.
The series includes five books and four prophecies that totally grabbed my attention and made me want to learn echolocation! (ask my roommate, she thinks I’m crazy. But I’m taking up archery after “The Hunger Games” so why not other life important skills?)
The books are geared toward a little bit younger age than “The Hunger Games” but still involve some hefty issues like warfare (including biological) and holocaust like themes woven through the lives of the different creatures. I’m 25 and I loved them, they were a quick and easy read and could even be enjoyed as a family.
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