Hey! What's up, you guys? It's Connor, and
today I'm gonna be doing a book review
for Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne
Collins. If you guys don't know, Suzanne
Collins is most well known for her
Hunger Games trilogy which is now
getting a prequel. It hasn't come out yet
at the time that I'm filming this, but
it's coming out sometime this year. But
she has written a middle grade series, so
I decided that it's finally time for me
to give it a shot. I've had this book for
so long on my shelves, and I just
neglected it for years. So today we're
gonna be talking about Gregor the
Overlander, the first book in this middle
grade series. If you guys don't know, this
follows an 11 year old boy named Gregor.
At the beginning of the book, he's living
with his mother and his two younger
sisters. His father has been gone for
quite a while now, and his life has been
basically on pause. He hasn't really
started making plans for the future. He's
just stuck, and he's just in a funk. One
day, he's doing laundry with his youngest
sister who is called Boots.
She's 2 years old, and they together fall
through a grate and fall into Underland.
In the Underland, there are giant
versions of animals that people
generally don't like, so there are giant
spiders, giant rats, giant bats, and giant
cockroaches as well as a few other giant
things. And there's also a group of
humans that live in the Underland all
the time and have been living there for
a very long time. When Gregor and Boots
are found in the Underland,
they figure out that they have to go on
a quest which will either save the
humans that are in the underworld or
potentially destroy the humans in the
underworld, and that is what they have
to do to be able to get back home to
their mom and their other sister. The
reason they have to go on this quest was
that a long time ago, there was a
prophecy and people think that it might
be starting to come true.
As usual with my book reviews, I'm gonna
go through my pros, go to my cons, give
you my rating, and be done. My first pro
for this book is that I just really
enjoyed following Gregor in this. He's
such a good main character. I thought
that his feeling of being down and just
putting his life on pause was one that a
lot of people would be able to relate to.
Like, I think that even adults would be
able to relate to that feeling when
something happens that is beyond your
control and then you just kind of go
into a funk. It was nice to see that
Gregor, throughout the course of this
story, is starting to come out of that,
and starting to realize that he can
start making plans for his life again,
and start, you know, having hopes for the
future. I also really like that Gregor is
very
respectful to people. He definitely owns
up when he does something wrong, and he
tries to do better in the future.
So I think that that is something that's
really important for middle grade
readers and everyone to know is that
when you do something wrong, you address
it, you promise to do better in the
future, and then you act accordingly.
Fantastic. And so I'm just really excited
to see where Gregor goes in the future
of this series. I also freaking adore
Boots. Boots is such a cute little
toddler. I really enjoyed her. She treats
all of the characters exactly the same.
She has a vast amount of trust, and she
really recognizes people for how unique
they are even if they look the same.
She's like the only person in the
Underland that can distinguish between
different cockroaches, and I just love
Boots.
I love how Gregor and her interact and
how Gregor is always taking care of her
and making sure that she has what she
needs. I have a feeling that Boots is
going to be very important for the
series going forward, and I cannot wait
to see Boots's role in the future of
this series.
I also liked a lot of the side
characters like Luxa, who is a
princess, and Vikus, who is this old man
who is really, really wise but people
don't always listen to what he has to
say. I also really liked this character
named Ripred. I also am more curious
to know more about him because I think
that there are a lot more things that we
will learn throughout the future of the
series, and so the whole cast of
characters was one that I got invested
in and I want to see more of. That's why
I'm really excited to continue along
with the series and pick up the second
book at some point . My next pro for this
book was that I really loved the setting.
I really like the juxtaposition between
the Overland, where people are in charge
and people have been ruling the earth
"ruling the earth" -- I mean, you know what I
mean-- for such a long time and then the
Underland. It's not like that. It almost
reminded me a little bit of the
Nutcracker where there's giant rats, and
there's giant toys, and stuff like that.
Humans are not the only intelligent
beings in the Underland, so I like seeing
the rats, and the spiders, and the
cockroaches, and the bats and the humans
all have to try to live in the same
world at the same time. It's one where
there's a lot of tensions between the
different groups, but I think that's
something that's going to be explored
throughout the entire series. It's
one where a lot of the different groups
are not equal and they don't view each
other as equals, so it causes a lot of
problems. And that's a lot of what is
addressed in here is equality and stuff
like that. I also just love that Suzanne
Collins decided to use these animals
that people generally don't like: rats
bats cockroaches and spiders. It was way
more shocking to see them so intelligent
and also on equal footing to humans than
it would be if there was just super
smart dogs and cats, so I really liked
the use of cockroaches and stuff like
that because you end up caring for these
characters. Like I was really invested in
these cockroaches which is such a weird
thing to say, and I think that Suzanne
Collins did a really good job of setting
up this world. I definitely had this
picture in my mind of what everything
looked like. It's very dark down here. The
humans that live in the Underland all
have really pale, almost translucent skin,
and they use a lot of stone work to do
their buildings and to create their
structures because there is not a lot of
light so there are not a lot of plants.
And I really like the whole setup of
this world. My next pro for this book is
that I think that it was really well
paced. There is constant action. The plot
is always moving forward but not at a
breakneck speed. It's a quick adventure
story, and the characters have to tackle
small skirmishes as they go along, and
then there's a bigger climactic scene at
the end. But I just think that everything
was well-timed and well-spaced, and it
didn't feel contrived at all. I just was
shocked. I also think that this book gives a
lot of catharsis at the end. I was really
satisfied when I finished reading this,
and then I also want to know more. There
is some hinting of things that will
happen in the future, and so I'm excited
to learn those things, but I feel very
satisfied with the ending of this book. I
think that's enough pros. I definitely
really, really enjoyed this. As for cons, I
was trying to think of things, and the
only one was that I felt like the
spiders in this didn't get as much time
as all the other species. I know that
there are a couple of other species that
are in the Underland that haven't really
been explored all that much, but I was
hoping to get more on the spiders
because I got really invested in these
cockroaches, but I wasn't as invested in
the spiders, and I would like to know
more about what's going on with them. We
know that the humans are very organized.
The rats are a little more brutal and
chaotic but for the most part fairly
organized. The cockroaches are a bit more
flighty, and they don't seem as
centralized as the humans and the rats.
But I don't feel like I know all that
much about the spiders and how their
culture is set up and everything like
that, so I was hoping to get more about
that. I'm sure it will be in the future
of the series, but that was like the only
con that I can think of. When I first
finished this book, I rated it four
stars on Goodreads, but now that I'm
talking about it and now that I'm thinking
about it more, I might bump that up. Like,
I think this might be a five-star book
for me. It was so fun. I really loved all
the messages. I really loved the
characters. I love the pacing and the
world. I think I'm gonna say that this is
a five-star book for me, and I definitely
definitely recommend it. So that's gonna
be my review of Gregor the Overlander by
Suzanne Collins. If you liked it, please
give it a big thumbs up. Nook didn't like
me propping the book up against him. If
you've read this book, let me know what
your thoughts were on it.
Anything else you want me to know, leave
it down below, and I will talk to you
guys next time. Bye!
 
