Reviews

Grant's Review:

House of the scorpion novel review

Matteo Alacran is a normal boy. Except on thing. He was not born; he was cloned and harvested. He was cloned from the powerful and villainous leader of Opium. His name is spoken in hushed tones. His name, El Patron or The Boss. He runs a cruel and corrupt drug ring. This is where Matteo grows up. He struggles to stay alive in El Patrons ruthless and power hungry family. Matt watches as the world he lived in collapsed around him. Now on the run he faces life-threating decisions. Whom he can trust. Whom he can rely on his times of need.

Overall I feel that this novel almost has two faces. In the beginning the book was interesting and engaging then it becomes a very slow and predictable novel until the “La Vida Nueva.” Or the new life in english.  In this section Matt has to learn to live outside of the Alacran estate. He has his first experiences with other children and physical labor.  This brings out a new person in matt. He is determined to find his way home and save opium. He meets new and interesting characters as well. This had  a profound effect on Matt. Before Matt was an just an explorer. He found El Patron secret tunnel system after all.  But he never left his comfort zone while exploring. After he had left Opium he had to leave his comfort zone almost everyday. This novel also meets another thing on my checklist of great novels. It has character development. Matt is an obvious example of this. He is not the only character who changed throughout the story. Tam Lin started as a cold and cruel bodyguard for a crooked drug lord. But underneath his hard shell this is nice caring person. Matt really brought this out of him. Tam Lin also started to care for matt. Matt never had a father figure before and Tam Lin stepped up to met that role. From cover to cover this book was a very entertaining read with a few slow points in between. I would recommended this book to anyone who are fan of adventure stories. Also to anyone who has read the Airborn series by Kenneth Oppel

Curtis:
This is my own review of the novel now that I have finished reading it. I will summarize it quickly because if you have been reading my blog then you know what has happened so far. Matteo Alacran appears to be a normal boy but there is something different about him. He is treated differently and that is for a reason. He is a clone. Although he is the clone of the most power person in the country he is still hated upon because of the stamp on the bottom of his foot. In this story Matt as he is known is on a mission to prove that he can be more than a clone and exceed what is expected of him. That is until he learns what he was created for. Then he goes on a journey that will change his life forever The novel house of the scorpion in my opinion is a good book. It was written in a way that made it exciting to read. I enjoyed how the book was unpredictable and it wasn’t obvious what was going to happen. Another good feature about this book was how it was action packed for the most part. For the most part after the beginning there was always something happening to keep you attention. This helped make the book enjoyable because I wanted to keep reading. There were also a lot of small things in the novel that made it more enjoyable to read such as the way Farmer developed all the characters. She gave lots of detail of the characters and how they behaved. This made you feel like you knew the characters and makes you feel more involved in the novel. Another small detail that made the book enjoyable for me was that it was set in the future but not to far in the future. This helped to keep me reading the book because I was imagining what it would be like if we were living with all the technology they had. Such as being able to program brains like the eejits and have flying ships of course being able to clone people.

Akash:

This was a very interesting and original book and I applaud Farmer for that but at the same there some issues. To begin with this book gets into the story very, very slowly and this one of my biggest issues with books; I loose interest before I have any, I am never drawn in. Also I feel as though some sections of this book were rather pointless and could have been skipped and if not just gone through faster. The end of this book was rather interesting but disappointing, some of the event that occurred were useless and I think that it could have been done so much better. However, I believe this was a very good book, once the story actually got engaging at times I didn’t want to put the book down because it was so interesting. Also I have never read a story such as this I give Farmer lots of credit for coming up with such an original book that incorporated so much. Overall, I am going to recommend this to other readers and I give this book a 3/5.


Evan :

The main character in this book is a boy named Matt who is a clone and grows up in a  world under the control of a drug lord who’s name is El Patron. Oh, and this drug lord happens to be the man from whom he was cloned. Matt's first few years of live are peaceful. He lives away from everyone else with his caretaker named Celia, who works for the very wealthy Alacrán family, of which El Patrón is the head of. But when Matt is taken to live in the Big House on the Alacrán estate in the country of Opium a country run by drug lords, Matt's life takes a turn for the worst. Matt fortunately finds some allies in the mean Alacrán clan: his sum-what mother Celia, his bodyguard-turned-mentor named Tam Lin, friend and crush María. With the help of these friends, Matt eventually escapes from Opium  and travels to Aztlán, formerly known as the country Mexico. After more abuse, hard work, friendships, and near death experiences in a plankton factory, Matt finally makes it to safety with María and her mother Esperanza, who is heavily involved in politics and protests in Opium. At the end of the novel, Matt returns to Opium and takes over as the leader of that country, now that El Patrón has died. The novel ends on a fairly optimistic note as the intelligent and idealistic Matt sets out to undo the damage the ruthless El Patrón did during his rule and to make Opium a better place.  

I really liked this book even though many people did not.  I think that the constant action was great as well as all the secrets and lies that are throughout the book.  I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a good read filled with action, conspiracy, and dystopia.  

i would rate this book 4/5