Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins (2003)

Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins (2003) – Book 1 in The Underland Chronicles

Sometimes I wish we had a better plan for our book clubs. Come December, everyone’s excited to offer their recommendations, and then by January, we’re all stoked to read the final reading lists—but for the rest of the year people, in both groups tend to be quite silent.

Book discussions might be different for this selection in our Cousins’ Book Club, though, because it’s my son’s pick—one of his favorite series that he wanted to read again. I’m so glad it won, because I loved Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games, but I never pictured a scenario where I’d intentionally read this earlier series designed for a younger audience. Once it made it to our list, though, I “had” to read it, and I’m sure glad I did.

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Quick Summary of Gregor the Overlander

Gregor lives with his mom and sisters in a NYC apartment building, and he’s been a bit shy around other kids in the neighborhood and at school, because his dad—a genuinely nice and loving guy—up and left them one day.

While doing the laundry with his baby sister Boots in the basement of their complex one morning, they disappear through a portal in The Underland—a place crawling with cockroaches (friendly), bats (transportation), rats (the enemies), and humans (who knows!).

For the remainder of the story, Gregor and Boots try to adjust to—and then escape from—this crazy place, only to find out that Gregor might actually be part of an ancient prophecy and is meant to help this race of humans survive. When he discovers that the rats have begun a war targeting Gregor’s death, he must choose to flee or to fight, though he needs a bit of motivation to help him decide.

Tiny Humans or Giant Rats?

When I first read about these children falling through a magic portal and being met by ginormous cockroaches, I immediately figured they’d shrunk and were now in a tiny world beneath Manhattan. Collins never states it explicitly, but I didn’t think she needed to. It’s cockroaches the kids can ride! I read most of this book under this impression, and the giant bats and rats only solidified that idea for me.

I’ve always loved books about tiny people—The Borrowers, The Minpins, Danny Dunn, Fantastic Voyage, Micro, etc.—but this story might not actually fit that bill.

It came up one day in conversation with my daughter, when she heard me mention this tiny world. She said, “Dad, they’re not small. Everything else is big.” I was aghast. “What!? I’ve been reading this book wrong the entire time?” Apparently so, though I still don’t buy it.

And before you ask it, no, the artifacts (i.e. the can of Root Beer and the money) do nothing to convince me. Whole cities of giant roaches, spiders, and rats are far less believable than a random can of soda falling through the portal and shrinking. Hate to say it, but my daughter’s wrong. And if Suzanne Collins says they didn’t shrink, well, then she’s wrong too.

Shades of Redwall

The more I read this story, the more it reminded me of Brian Jacques’ Redwall series. Enemy rats, a prophesied hero, lost legends and secret messages—it’s a common trope, but often a good one, when handled delicately. Suazanne Collins does well in this to entertain us readers, and she doesn’t tax our intelligence too much. This is, after all, a series for younger readers, so illogical jumps and skipped details are necessarily par for the course.

Another Broken Family?

The one thing that caught me early, though, was that this felt like yet another story of a broken family! Gregor and Boots aren’t exactly orphans, and their parents aren’t divorced, but they certainly don’t have a happy home life! I was glad to discover eventually the reason why.

Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games series also lacked solid homes led by two loving parents. Mr. Everdeen is dead, and his wife is depressed. The Melarks seem like abusive parents. Gale’s family is nowhere to be seen. And the Capitol families—yikes. The only loving parents I can recall are Rue’s. Wait. Nope. In the movie, the woman appears to be a single mother of like 6 same-age kids (which was weird in itself).

Like so many authors in recent decades, Collins seems to have the incessant need to write “real life” into her fantasy fiction, where no one has a happy home. I’ll be honest: I hate it. That’s not at all been my experience. So many authors today are perpetuating this false concept that no marriage is happy (unless they’re gay, of course) to kids—to my kids—and it just ain’t right.

I don’t read everything out there, but I challenge you to name one book published by a non-religious publisher in the last 10 years where the child protagonist comes from a happy family—a family where the parents aren’t dead, abusive, adulterous, divorced, unmarried, or gay. Just one. I’d love to hear it.

Conclusion

There I go again! Off the rails on a pet-peeve of mine that had virtually nothing to do with Gregor the Overlander!

This book was genuinely enjoyable, clean, suspenseful, and filled with fantasy. I’m not yearning to read the next books in the series, but I’m a 43 year old dude with a ministry to run, so that shouldn’t surprise you.

I enjoyed it. If you liked The Hunger Games or are looking for a more childish version of Redwall, The Underland Chronicles are worth checking out.

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