Books: Gregor the Overlander

       Now, living in today's world of course, I've read a couple chapters of some stuff like Percy Jackson. Though, I usually don't even get to the end by the time I have to return them...anyways, onto le review. So, as usual, in school we went to the library to get some books and I want to check out the Hunger Games books, since I've heard strongly positive things about it and loved the movie. But I found something else when I went into the "Co" section. It was another book by Suzanne Collins called "Gregor the Overlander". So, I picked it up and read the back. It sounded pretty interesting, so I checked it out. It was way better than I expected it to be. I might go into spoilers so, just warning you...
      The book follows 11-year old Gregor and his 2-year sister Boots who fall from their washing machine into a place called Regalia. They are greeted by two cockroaches, Temp and Tick, who instantly call them the "overlanders" who are mentioned in some kind of prophecy. Here, I just kind of got mad. I mean, what fantasy book doesn't involve a prophecy? But I loved the way they handled it from them on.
      It starts out with Gregor being bored with his grandma who keeps calling him "Simon" and so they go do laundry to not be bored. Wow. So, anyways, down in the Regalia (the Underland) they meet Luxa, a soon to be princess who has a stick up her ass and her grandfather, Vikus, who mentions the prophecy to he gang.
      The Underlanders are described as being really, really pale to the point where you could see their veins. That's just...gross. No wonder this didn't get a movie adaption....anyways, Gregor doesn't like the idea of staying there any longer, as his father disappeared a few years back and his mom would be traumatized (Any guesses where the dad went?). So, Gregor sneaks out and is almost killed by rats, but Vikus and the others save him.
       Soon enough, Luxa, Gregor, Boots are going on the quest with Henry, Luxa's cousin, Ares, his bonded bat, Aurora, Luxa's bat, Temp and Tick. But oh wait, the prophecy mentions two spiders who come along eventually, Gox and Treflex, both of which (SPOILER!) eventually die. One of which, dies two seconds in.
      After that, Gregor has this badass line about them all being there. Oh yeah, I sort of forgot to mention, the prophecy states something about a guiding rat. Who turned out to be, Ripred, a giant rat who loves gnawing on bones. So the gang go, in hopes of finding Gregor's lost father, who was thought to be held captive by the rats. (He was)
     There's some long parts, but I'll just spoil it...the prophecy says that about four people will do...and they do. Gox and Treflex don't make it and while walking across a bridge, Tick (I think), dies. This is bad for Boots, since she loves the cockroaches and they love her, but she is too sick to even care. The group eventually find the father, who is dying and is traumatized. Henry turns out to be an evil spy (or something of that sort) and him and Gregor fall to their death.
     Hope seems lost, but at the last moment, Ares saves Gregor from the fall. Together, they go back to the Underland. There the dad gets treatment along with Boots and all is safe. Except for one thing, Ares is going to be killed for breaking his bond. Yeah you have to save something about bonding to your flier (bat) and if they don't risk their life for you, they are going to die. So, Gregor bonds to Ares to save the day and now they go back home. But at the last moment, Vikus mentions they are going to see him again, as he is in another prophecy written by the Bartholomew of Sandwich. Ares flies them home and the book closes with the line "Hey mom, we're home."
    Overall, I give this book an A. It was a fun book, but I didn't realize that until after I read it. It's probably good for anyone whose a fan of fantasy novels and stuff. It definitely was better than some other fantasy books I've read. I'll be sure to buy or check out Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane (deshi basara) when I see it. One last thing, I'm very shocked his wasn't very popular, in fact, check out the Wikipedia pages, it's pretty stubbing sad. It's a great book and people gobble this prophecy crap up. In fact, how many of you have actually read this?