The House of the Scorpion -- Review by Adam Bryant

The House of the Scorpion
By: Nancy Farmer
Rated: ****

When I picked up the book The House of the Scorpion in the library, I was a bit skeptical about reading it. Normally, I dive deep into the adult sections at library and don't even bother with the young adult. This time, I went to check out an adult book and for the first time, got rejected. So to my disappointment, I went to find one from the young adult section. Not really caring at this point, I grabbed The House of the Scorpion because it had an interesting cover. Immediately as soon as I opened it, I was hooked. The story is very addictive and I finished it easily within a few days.
The story takes place in an area between the United States and Aztlan. In this area, all of the drug farmers have created farms. The whole society revolves around artificial people. The Farm Patrol captures people and places microchips inside of them to create slaves that have no consciousness of their own. And clones are created and used for transplants of organs to the original. In this abusive society, Matt is born a clone. He is abused at first then gradually begins to become more important. Matt faces many struggles, mainly being a clone and being lower in society than anyone else. He makes friends with a little girl named Maria and they have many adventures. Matt also discovers and creates, in his mind, his new family of bodyguard Tam Lin, servant Celia, and his shared identity El Patron.
This book is an amazing book and I highly recommend it for anyone in search of a quick, but complicated, novel. This book is not part of a series and you don't have to worry about reading anything previous. That being said, anyone who enjoyed Fahrenheit 451 would definitely enjoy The House of the Scorpion.
The ending is also very well wrapped up, leaving me without questions. It easily earns four stars on my scale.