The House of the Scorpion

Nancy Farmer

May 2010 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

Discover this internationally bestselling, National Book Award–winning young adult classic about what it means to be human with an updated, reimagined cover!

Matt Alacrán wasn’t born. He was harvested.

His DNA came from El Patrón, the drug-lord ruler of the country of Opium. Most people hate and fear clones like Matt—except for El Patrón. El Patrón loves Matt as he loves himself, because Matt is himself.

As Matt struggles to understand his existence, he is threatened by a sinister cast of characters, and realizes escape is his only chance to survive. But escape from the Alacrán Estate is no guarantee of freedom.

Ratings and reviews

This novel is perfect. It have the right amount of symbolism, similes, metaphors, etc. The most interesting part is when you get deep into the novel and watch Matt (the clone) develop over the pages you keep reading. Matt show the most improvement because he came from hidden from the world to having a best friend to show him the world. However, the chapters I like most is the final when Tim Lee (I think that's the bodyguard name) died and put his heart in the letter (to Matt) of why he must go with Mateo (Matt's orginial creator). This novel is a must read.

This is a book that I could not set down. I read it in 1 day and loved every minute of it. For 5 years I have been waiting for the sequel and it is almost out. Anyway my point is if you want a story that will shatter your heart and then slowly piece it back together, This is the one.

Prior to this book I barely read and it was thanks to my wife I was introduced to this book. It's actually an exciting book that makes you want to keep reading to find out what's going to happen. I think the author does a great job writing this story and if you're interested there's a sequel to this called "The Lord of Opium".

About the author

Nancy Farmer has written three Newbery Honor books: The Ear, the Eye and the Arm; A Girl Named Disaster; and The House of the Scorpion, which also won the National Book Award and the Printz Honor. Other books include The Lord of Opium, The Sea of Trolls, The Land of the Silver Apples, The Islands of the Blessed, Do You Know Me, The Warm Place, and three picture books for young children. She grew up on the Arizona-Mexico border and now lives with her family in the Chiricahua Mountains of Arizona.