Gregor the Overlander

2003 book by Suzanne Collins

Gregor the Overlander is a children's epic fantasy novel. The book was written by Suzanne Collins and was published in 2003 as the first book of The Underland Chronicles. It was received well by critics, and was listed as one of New York Public Library's 100 Books for Reading and Sharing. It was featured by National Public Radio in 2005. The novel has been published in several languages and is available as both an audiobook and ebook. Its United Kingdom edition was published under the alternate title Gregor and the Rats of the Underland.

Eleven year old Gregor is left home alone in his family's New York City apartment to watch his sister and grandmother. When Gregor's baby sister Boots falls through an old air duct grate in the building's basement, he dives in after her. The two fall miles below into the Underland: a subterranean world home to humans with near translucent skin, violet eyes, and silver hair; giant sentient bats, rodents, and insects; and an escalating conflict between the human kingdom of Regalia and the rats' King Gorger. They meet several "Underlanders", among them the human Regalians' crown princess Luxa, who is Gregor's age, her cousin Henry, aged 14, and the bats who are "bonded" to them as warrior allies. At first, Gregor wants only to return home, but when he is attacked by two rats during an escape attempt and saved by the Underlanders, he inadvertently brings the conflict between the two groups to a head. It is then that he learns the real reason for the rats' hatred of Overlanders: a mysterious prophecy written by the human colony's founder Bartholomew of Sandwich hints that an Overland "warrior" will stop an attempt by the rats to take over the underground realm once and for all. The Regalian council believes Gregor to be this warrior, and tries to convince him to undertake the quest mentioned in the "Prophecy of Gray". Though he sympathizes, Gregor is reluctant to help until he learns a surprising fact: his father, who disappeared unexpectedly over two years before, had actually fallen down into Regalia just like Gregor and Boots and been taken prisoner by the rats. Gregor, his sister, and a group of Regalians go on a journey to rescue Gregor's father and recruit allies for a war against the rats. The quest group is challenged to successfully recruit allies for the Regalians, along the way facing battles with giant spiders, scorpions, and rats. The group of children are left in the care of the rat Ripred, who is a rebel against King Gorger. The group journeys to find Gregor's dad emaciated and tortured in the personal prison of King Gorger. When the rat king discovers their rescue attempt, Henry reveals that he has been helping the rats all along, hoping to ally them with the Regalians and genocide the weaker species of the realm. During the questers' attempt to escape, Gregor sacrifices himself to lure the rats' attack force — King Gorger and Henry among them — off the edge of a cliff. Henry's bat Ares, who had no knowledge of his bond's treachery, chooses to save Gregor rather than Henry as they fall. King Gorger, Henry, and hundreds of rats perish in the fall. When the few remaining quest members make it back to Regalia, Luxa and her family are devastated, both because of Henry's treason and death, and because Ares has been sentenced to banishment for allowing his bond to die. Gregor saves his life by using his status as the "warrior" to form a new bond with him. When things have settled down somewhat and the Regalian doctors have done all they can for his father, Gregor, his sister and his father return to the surface and reunite with his family.