The House of the Scorpion

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Summary: potential award winner!
Review: I agree wholeheartedly with Ursula K. Le Guin's comments on the back cover, and with the published reviews; along with an exciting plot, Ms. Farmer gives readers a thoroughly imagined future setting, moral passion, and characters we can relate to on a human level. Little Matt has lived all his life (until age 6) in a shack in the fields with his loving guardian, the cook Celia. When other children discover him, Matt is both scared and excited. He longs to make contact with the other kids, but, when he tries, both wonderful and terrible things start to happen to him. Gradually Matt begins to understand that he is a clone, born specifically to provide body parts for El Patron. Although most people despise clones as less than animal, Matt is lucky to have a few people who love him - and he also has a sharp intelligence and determination. Will these things be enough to help him avoid his preordained fate? Published as a children's book (for ages 12 and up), "House of the Scorpion" should also be read by all adults with any taste for science fiction. I'd love to see it get the Nebula as well as the Printz award! It's a challenging book, for teens and adults alike, but also engaging, stimulating and rewarding.

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Summary: Adam's Review
Review: The authors purpose for writing this novel was to give the reader suspense and mystery. One example is when Matt, the main character, is framed for killing his friends dog when he didn't. He then must prove his innocents to a crowd of prejudice people. It is suspenceful when one of Matt's best friend's, Tam Lin, pretends to become evil in order to help save Matt.I think the author definitely achieved her two goals of being suspenseful and providing mystery. This book was brilliantly written.

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Summary: The House Of The Scorpion
Review: This was an exceptional story. One which draws you in and doesn't let go. It may be put in the childrens section in a bookstore but this novel deals with issues a little over the head of younger readers; diving into the world of drugs, ethics (cloning, mind controll, organ 'donation'), and corruption. The author does a superb job of developing the characters to the point in which if you saw them on the street you would know them by name. The tone of the book feels real and sci-fi at the same time. Overall, you can't find fault with this book. It was excellent and I would reccomend it to anyone older than 12yrs of age.

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Summary: this is a very good,creepy and scary book
Review: The book is a good book. The idea is good and in some of the parts of it, it is very suprising and weird. The book was well written and kept my interest. The cloning and the eejits are creepy but it is still good. I think that the idea of peeps making clones and then getting the body parts is very creeppy.The book is a good book. It seems that the author wanted Matt to suffer.

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Summary: The House of the Fantastic
Review: The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer is a book like no other for us young adults. The novel is so well written, combined with all the elements in order to make a book a classic. The book has science fiction where matt is created from chemical and genetic engineering in the not so near future. It has family which involves the relationship between Matt and his guardian Celia who was picked to watch over and protect him from the day he was born. It has friendship which involves his relationship with his bodyguard Tam Lin and also the boys he later meets in the plankton factory. It has the wonderful romance theme which involves the relationship between Matt and his girlfriend Maria and their love for one another. And then theres the triumphant battle between good and evil theme where it involves Matt trying to face the many enemies which lurk in the family that the man in which he was cloned from (who is non other than the first Matt A.K.A El Patron) has created from being a powerful druglord. Matt being the source of good as the protagonist thinks El Patron loves him but later we learn that he's only using Matt for his body parts for when he'll need them, which makes El Patron and couple of others including Matt's sinister rival Tom, the sources of evil. This book as I've partially said above has just about every genre including Action, Adventure, Drama, Romance, Comedy, and SciFi. The book also to make a great novel has a happy and satisfying ending and (thats all I'm saying about the ending). This has become one of my favorite books and I hope who ever is just starting to read it appreciates it like I did. Thank you Nancy Farmer for giving us a great novel with not only great characters but a really cool protagonist as well, you definately deserved all those awards you got for it.

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Summary: The Greatest Book Ever!
Review: This is a gem amongst Science Fiction novels. I read this book after a few of my friends recommended it to me, and i must say that it was everything they said it was, and more. You really get attached to the characters, and you experience their ups and down with them. Plain and simple, this is a good read and I would highly recommend it to any and all. The plot, characters and dialogue are all well thought out and highly devoloped and it will keep you glued to the pages for hours on end.

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Summary: really good book!!
Review: I had to read this book for school and I thought it wouldn't be good because the title isn't that appealing to me but it was really good!!! It is about a boy named Matt and he is a clone of El Patron, a really important guy who is 143 years old and basically controls everyone. Most clones get their brains damaged so they aren't like normal people but Matt didn't so he is basically a normal kid but he was never allowed to go outside of his tiny cottage near the Alacran Mansion. One day, while Celia, his "mom" type person, is out working as a maid at the mansion, Matt sees the Alacran kids outside, so he breaks the window open and jumps outside to play with them. He cuts his bare foot on some of the glass so the kids take him to their house. Then Rosa, another maid, sees the tattoo on his foot that proves he is a clone and she locks him up. Throughout the book Matt learns more about clones and about how evil El Patron really is. Even though El P might seem nice to Matt in the beginning, he is just using Matt. If you want to know if Matt escapes from the prison Rosa put him in, why he wasn't brain damaged and why El Patron had a clone made (and how he lived to be 143)...then read this awesome book!! It is very exciting and the things that happen to Matt are really interesting. It's so good you won't want to put it down.

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Summary: The best book ever
Review: The House of the Scorpion was my all time favorite book. The plot is about a boy, Matt. He is a clone of an evil dictator, El Patrón. The book takes place in the future, where clones are just used for spare parts. When a clone is born, he (or she) is supposed to be given an injection that "eats away" at their brain, leaving them like a wild animal. Everyone thinks that Matt is like that, but he was never given the injection, and is raised as a normal child. Also, instead of slavery, people implant a computer chip in a person or animal's brain, so that it does whatever you want it to. Also, almost everyone he knows is taking drugs, which most people do. The book in the beginning is about Matt's adventures, until El Patrón has a heart attack. Matt is his only clone, so the doctors start to take out his heart, but find out that he has a heart problem, that makes his heart is unfit for transplant. He ends up running away, and is enslaved at a plankton factory. The book is really good because even though it is sci-fi, what happens in the book could happen in real life. If people clone, then the clones could become slaves just cut up like animals for spare parts. Another lesson is that things aren't always what they appear to be. A group of people saves matt from being shot, then lets him live with them. They end up enslaving him, forcing him to work at a plankton factory. They start out being nice, acting like they want to be his friend, then they use that to get him to be a slave. A lot of politicians are like that. When they are trying to get elected they act nice, and say they will do a lot of good things that many people want, and then once they are elected, they do the complete opposite of that, and turn out to be nasty people. It also teaches a large lesson about prejudice. Everyone hates Matt because he is a clone, but when they don't know, they are friends with him. Many people judge someone else before they know them, except not to the extreme like the book. People actually leave him on a field to die when he is injured.

Rating:
Summary: I know many people will not agree with me...
Review: This book is well written. It perfectly protrays betrayel, wanting, isolation, and imprisonment near masterfully. There are also many things which will suddenly come which you will not expect.

Matteo Alacran, El Patron's clone, is raised and treated alternately between a peice of trash and a prince. Growing up this way, he comes to beleive he will spared the fate of other clones, but when El Patron has a heart attack, strange things to Matt. His heartbeat goes weird and he becomes unusable so he is spared..... but what will happens when El Patron has a second heart attack? WIll he be lucky again?