The House of the Scorpion

It’s sci-fi time, The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer.  The story focuses on the life of Matt, who learns he is a clone of the drug lord, El Patron, and the leader of Opium (love the name, huh?), which is located south of the border, between US and Mexico.  El Patron uses illegal immigrants who have chips implanted in their brains to follow his instructions. Matt was cloned so that as El Patron gets older he can take Matt’s organs as his own will begin to fail.  Matt was raised in his early years by the surrogate mother, Celia, who serves as a cook at the mansion of El Patron.  Matt goes through some brutality whenever people realize he is a clone, such as being placed in a room with no bathroom facilities and no human interaction, being treated like an animal.  He is set free from the location when El Patron finds what was happening to him and banishes those who have hurt him.  Matt regains his human qualities and begins to have an attraction to the daughter of the local senator, Maria.  Matt is cultivated to be cultured and smart as El Patron wants the best possible “replacement parts” he can get.  Unfortunately El Patron suffers a heart attack and needs to take Matt’s organs, BUT, he has been fooled by the surrogate mother, who has been giving Matt small amounts of arsenic!!  This means the organs would not do any good for El Patron.  During the argument with Maria, he has another attack and dies!  Matt is to be put to death, but escapes to the Aztlan where the “lost boys” or orphans are located.  Matt ends up being seen as the smart kid who can lead them, and he goes against the evil “Keepers.”.  Matt ends up being the hero and coming back to his father’s land and “cleaning things up”… but like all good sci-fi’s there seemingly is a to be continued! Ugh!  Watch out for more I am told, though not confirmed. As sci-fi doesn’t end all “tied up,” does it?  This was a good read.  Lots of twists.  Strong character and story development.  The author does an outstanding job of keeping the reader guessing and engaged in what could be our future someday…..  makes you think what will come of cloning, will it be used for good or bad?  Pick this one up.  Award winning book too!