Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins is about 11 year old Gregor and his 2 year old sister who inexplicably find themselves in the Underland. A place inhabited by oversized intelligent cockroaches, rats, and bats. The book was a great read, and kept me turning pages from start to finish. Well... almost. The very beginning was very mundane and unexciting, but, that only lasts for a small while until Gregor and his sister get whisked away to the Underland.
The characters are fun, especially Gregor's younger sister. While there's action and the plot is serious, the slightly over-used device of adding in a child cared for by a child does add some levity with her naivette and care-free nature. That being said, I'm getting a little tired of seeing children care for children. City of Ember, The Hunger Games, and countless others are very guilty of this trope of YA fiction. I think it's mainly tacked on to throw a bone to young girls that want their dolls and the like, but, past that I'm a little clueless as to what the point of including such baggage in such books is good for. Often they're not even hindrances, but, somehow magically help solve the problem in an unexpected way. I trail off topic on that though cause even though I'm reaching my tipping point on that particular bit, it wasn't that horrible in this book.
The book's plot moves fairly fast after he reaches the Underland and as I'm fond of saying of the books I like, it's over too soon and I was left wanting more.
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