Houde Of The Scorpion

Summary The House of the Scorpion

Overview of Matt and secondary character

The main character is Matt, a lonely boy who lives in a little House in the poppy fields near the Alcaran House. Matt lives with Celia, who cooks for the Alcaran House. Matt is scared and frightened toward the beginning of the story when he is alone while Celia is cooking, but he starts to spend more time there so he becomes less frightened and more inquisitive.

Nancy Farmer also gives us a cast of well-developed secondary characters along with a powerful evildoer you don't know whether to hate or love because Matt doesn't know whether to hate or love this evil person either. You get to know the surrounding characters and they become as real as Matt does.

Plot overview

Scientists brings to life one of 36 tiny cells, frozen more than 100 years ago. The result is the main character, Matt a clone of El Patrуn, a powerful drug lord, born Matteo Alacrбn to a poor family in a small village in Mexico. El Patrуn is ruler of Opium, a country that lies between the United States and Aztlбn, formerly Mexico; its vast poppy fields are tended by eejits, human beings who attempted to flee Aztlбn, programmed by a computer chip implanted in their brains. With smooth pacing that steadily gathers momentum, Farmer traces Matt's growing awareness of what being a clone of one of the most powerful and feared men on earth entails. As the story unfolds, Matt grows into a more self-assured character, and that confidence helps him learn the secrets and feelings of the residents of the house.

Through the kindness of the only two adults who treat Matt like a human Celia, the cook and Matt's guardian in early childhood, and Tam Lin, El Patrуn's bodyguard Matt experiences firsthand the evils at work in Opium, and the corruptive power of greed. While uncovering secrets about El Patron, he discovers another person he has been searching for all his life himself

My Reaction to the Book

I was blown away when I read this book. I really thought it would be boring and scientific, but it turned out to be a suspenseful, futuristic story. It is full of characters that develop into real people. I feel like this book may really set the bar for those that follow.