I know many, if not all, of my readers are probably familiar with the hugely popular series, The Hunger Games. This series helped make the author, Suzanne Collins, a household name. How many of you would be surprised to hear that I was a fan of her before the published The Hunger Games. Her previous series, The Underland Chronicles, I first came across when I was a kid at my local library. The first book is Gregor the Overlander and it is essentially a modern day take on Alice in Wonderland. It opens with eleven year old Gregor watching his baby sister Margaret, usually called Boots instead, while doing laundry in the basement laundromat of their New York City apartment complex. While chasing a toy ball Boots finds a loose air vent and falls in with Gregor going in after her. Next thing Gregor knows they are navigating the confusing place called the Underland where nothing is like he is used to. First found By six foot long cockroaches that, surprisingly enough, can talk, Gregor and Boots are taken to the Underlanders, a group of humans that live in the Underland city of Regalia. Due in part to his existence as an overlander, that is a human from above ground, and in part to the ongoing tension between the underland humans and the gnawers or rats, Gregor finds himself facing numerous perilous situations as he attempts to get himself and Boots back home, preferably in one piece.
There are numerous reasons why I like this particular story. The first are the rather obvious parallels between it and Lewis Carroll’s classic, Alice’s adventures in Wonderland. Each story is about a teenager falling through a hole and finding themselves in what is essentially an alternate reality. It is the differences that make this more modern take rather compelling to read, at least in my opinion. Alice’s adventures in Wonderland was fun, silly, and whimsical. None of those are adjectives I would use to describe Gregor the Overlander. As Gregor himself says at one point, the Underland is creepy. Instead of a pastel musical forest, it is a silent, dark cave system most of the time. In terms of familiarity, the Underland is just as mysterious as Wonderland was. For both places the typical rules of how things work go right out the window, something that often leaves young Gregor floundering. The book is a superb balance of dark and creepy with just the right touch of adventure and fantasy to be appealing to children. There is a reason this book, and indeed the series as a whole, happens to be one of my childhood favorites. As such, I am giving it a 4.5 out of 5 stars.
As you have probably gathered, this book is aimed at kids and younger teens. In my opinion, it does a great job of doing so and I would definitely recommend it for that age range. I would also recommend it for older teens as well, especially if they enjoy the fantasy genre. It probably would not typically appeal to adults but I would suggest that if you are an adult who has a kid that is reading this series to read it with them. There are potentially difficult topics present in this book and the rest of series. The main one is violence but there are others such as loss or betrayal as well. Overall, I greatly enjoyed the book and hope you will as well. As always you are welcome to share your thoughts in the comments and I look forward to hearing what you think.