The House of the Scorpion

Author: Nancy Farmer
Challenge: YA Lit Challenge
Rating: 5/5

After some of the heavy reading I've been doing lately, it was nice to read a book that I didn't have to force myself to read. I'd run out of adjectives long before I'd fully describe this book, but let's start with engrossing, thought-provoking, and page-turning.

On the border between the US and what used to be Mexico is a vast region of drug kingdoms called Opium, where the powerful drug lords live on enormous sprawling estates and illegals that have been unlucky to be caught trying to cross the border toil away as slaves. The most powerful drug lord is El Patrón, and on his vast estate lives his extended family, friends, and also a young boy named Matt. Matt is different from the other children on the ranch. He was harvested from a cow at birth, and his foot bears the words "Property of the Alacrán Estate". He doesn't know why everyone in the household despises him, he doesn't know at first what it means when they call him a filthy clone.

Still, despite the malice and backbiting of the Alacrán family, Matt finds allies: his bodyguard, Tam Lin teaches him about the dirty reality of Opium that lies behind the manicured lawns and ornately decorated hallways. His caretaker, Celia, who spends all her energy keeping him safe from the schemes of the Alacráns.

Matt has a destiny. Matt rides through the opium fields, dreaming that El Patrón wants him to one day run the estate, but El Patrón had Matt created for his own selfish, life-prolonging purposes. After 140 years, his life is sustained by little more than a thread, and his next heart attack could mean the end for Matt.

Even though I was rereading this book, it was once again, unputdownable (is that a word?). I read it straight through in one sitting. It is a deceptively simple at first, just a story about a clone (not an unusual topic in scifi) but Nancy Farmer writes so beautifully and keeps us engaged in the Matt's story. It is a rarity in scifi to have an author who can write about concepts and keep the characters engaging, but this is that kind of book. Matt is a character that will stay with you. He has to fight, from birth, against impossible odds.

While very young, he lands in the care of a cruel housekeeper named Rosa, who imprisons him in a tiny room full of sawdust because she doesn't want the bother of caring for him. Nancy Farmer writes these chapters with an understanding of what a child might actually be thinking and feeling as they experience those horrors. They are not sloppy or sentimental, which makes them all the more powerful.

This is a book I recommend to you whether or not you read science fiction or YA fiction, because it simply transcends those labels. It is a breath-taking read, and I promise the story will grab you and not let go.