A boy falls through a laundry-room grate and lands in a war a prophecy says only he can end.
Who drives the story
An eleven-year-old New Yorker pulled into a war he didn't choose, who wants only to get home until he learns his father is alive in the rat king's prison. He ends the war with a leap off a cliff and leaves with a bond he can't break.
Gregor's two-year-old sister, whose fearlessness disarms everything from cockroaches to scarred rebel rats. She is the heart the quest didn't know it needed.
The future queen of Regalia, Gregor's age, proud and bonded to the golden bat Aurora, her parents killed by rats. She loses her cousin and best friend twice over, to treason and to the cliff.
Luxa's fourteen-year-old cousin and heir, secretly allied with King Gorger to wipe out the Underland's weaker species. He dies falling off a cliff, believing his bond would catch him.
Luxa's grandfather and the quest's architect, who shows Gregor the prophecy and leads the party out of Regalia before leaving them to finish without him.
A massive, scarred, brilliant rat who rebels against King Gorger and guides the children through his own species' territory. Cynical, deadly, and unexpectedly essential.
A large black bat bonded to Henry, unaware of the betrayal until it kills his bond. Sentenced to banishment, he is saved when Gregor breaks tradition and bonds with him instead.
Two giant cockroaches who befriend Boots from the first moments in the dark. Tick dies holding off a rat ambush to save her; Temp survives to call her 'little queen' one last time.
Two spiders who join after Gregor proves his courage in their web-filled tunnels. Treflex is killed by rats during the journey.
The Overlander who fell into the Underland two years before his son, imprisoned and tortured by King Gorger. Rescued skeletal and fevered, he comes home alive but diminished.
How they are connected
Gregor's two-year-old sister, whose fearlessness disarms everything from cockroaches to scarred rebel rats.
Gregor's two-year-old sister, whose fearlessness disarms everything from cockroaches to scarred rebel rats.
The future queen of Regalia, Gregor's age, proud and bonded to the golden bat Aurora, her parents killed by rats.
The future queen of Regalia, Gregor's age, proud and bonded to the golden bat Aurora, her parents killed by rats.
Luxa's fourteen-year-old cousin and heir, secretly allied with King Gorger to wipe out the Underland's weaker species.
Luxa's grandfather and the quest's architect, who shows Gregor the prophecy and leads the party out of Regalia before leaving them to finish without him.
Luxa's grandfather and the quest's architect, who shows Gregor the prophecy and leads the party out of Regalia before leaving them to finish without him.
A large black bat bonded to Henry, unaware of the betrayal until it kills his bond.
Sentenced to banishment, he is saved when Gregor breaks tradition and bonds with him instead.
Two giant cockroaches who befriend Boots from the first moments in the dark.
Two spiders who join after Gregor proves his courage in their web-filled tunnels.
Go deeper
Ordinary kids, extraordinary costs · Prophecy as trap and permission · Bonds as chosen family · Home and the door left open
Themes explainedThe full story act by act, the ending explained and a quick quiz.
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