The House of the Scorpion (Matteo Alacran, #1)

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The House of the Scorpion (Matteo Alacran #1)

by Nancy Farmer (Goodreads Author)

4.12 of 5 stars 4.12 · rating details · 28,918 ratings · 2,940 reviews

Matteo Alacran was not born; he was harvested with the DNA from El Patron, lord of a country called Opium. Can a boy who was bred to guarantee another’s survival find his own purpose in life? And can he ever be free?

Paperback, 380 pages

Published May 2004 by Atheneum Books for Young Readers (first published September 1st 2002)

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Jun 17, 2012 Emily May rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ya-na, dystopia-utopia, 2012

This book has been on my goodreads shelf since pretty much the beginning of time... so why on earth have I been wasting my time with every other poorly-constructed dystopian world instead of reading this? I have absolutely no excuse: I own a copy, it's won practically every award going, and all my reviewer friends have been constantly singing its praises. Perhaps I am way more influenced by title and cover than I like to admit - though there's nothing actually wrong with either, I still feel like this doesn't scream at me "awesome dystopian setting + interesting questions about what it means to be human!!". It's good. Really good. If you liked Unwind, then you should also like this.

I loved the setting - Mexico - and it was obvious to me that the author was very familiar with Mexican culture and legends, she incorporates a lot of this into the story. I suppose one of the quickest ways to mess up your novel is to write about places and things you don't have a clue about, but I still really wish more authors would try to use different settings. There's a whole world out there that I'm not in a position to explore right now so I like to pretend I'm there by visiting other countries in books. Plus, is it that hard to do a little research on a country's culture, traditions and legends (etc.)?

In The House of the Scorpion we are immediately introduced to a boy called Matt who is a clone that was grown in a cow and harvested. The man who shares his DNA is El Patron, the extremely rich head of a huge opium empire and a man with the power to deliver to himself a longer than usual life with the help of clones. Matt's relationship with El Patron is conflicted. On one hand, Matt knows he is evil and corrupt - he plants chips in people's heads to make them obey his orders without question - but Matt also knows that El Patron is himself. They are both intelligent and talented individuals, Matt acknowledges multiple times how alike the two people are. But Matt is treated by others as an animal, they do not see how anything grown in a cow can be human and some of the treatment he endured really pissed me off, never mind the fact that his genetic make-up is identical to El Patron's.

Matt questions himself and the world around him throughout the book. He finds it hard to believe that El Patron could possibly mean him harm - because how could you harm yourself? It's also a look at what makes someone human and how easy it is for people to dehumanize and convince themselves that a person is nothing more than an animal.

The House of the Scorpion, in my opinion, could only be improved by removing that chunk of story after Matt escapes. It felt at odds with the rest of the book and it was clearly the author's attempt to quickly drop in one more big issue - socialism - but it just felt forced and wasn't needed, it's not like we don't already have enough to go on with all the ethical questions flying around in this novel. Take that out and this book would be five stars. But anyway, it's still a really great story about cloning and about humanity that will probably make you want to punch several of the characters at times. But, as with Sisters in Sanity, I seem to like books that make me furious, guess they just make me care more.(less)

36 likes · like · see review

Sep 11, 2007 Linda (Librarian) rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is one of the almost perfect books written for young adults. It is an exciting story that will keep you turning the pages, but it also makes you think about the world we live in. It is a Newbery and Printz honor book and winner of the National Book Award.

In the House of the Scorpion, Nancy Farmer tells the story of Matt, the clone of 142-year-old El Patron, dictator of Opium, a country between the United States and Aztlan. In Opium, clones have one purpose, to extend the lives of those whos...more This is one of the almost perfect books written for young adults. It is an exciting story that will keep you turning the pages, but it also makes you think about the world we live in. It is a Newbery and Printz honor book and winner of the National Book Award.

In the House of the Scorpion, Nancy Farmer tells the story of Matt, the clone of 142-year-old El Patron, dictator of Opium, a country between the United States and Aztlan. In Opium, clones have one purpose, to extend the lives of those whose DNA they possess by providing them with a source for spare parts. The brains of most other clones are destroyed at birth, but Matt’s is left intact on the orders of El Patron. At the beginning of the novel, Matt knows none of these things. He is cared for in isolation by El Patron’s cook, Celia, who loves him. He only becomes aware that he is different from other people when he becomes a resident at El Patron’s estate where he is viewed not as a human, but as an unclean animal without a soul. Matt is educated and lives in luxury, but is looked on with disgust by most of the estate’s inhabitants. The exceptions are Celia, El Patron’s bodyguard Tam Lin, and Maria, one of the children who discovered him. These three people see the humanity in him and teach him to be a good person.

Farmer does a masterful job of creating the world that Matt lives in from the cloning technology to the old fashioned ways on the estate which is designed to replicate the Mexico of El Patron’s youth over 100 years ago. El Patron has made his fortune capturing Mexicans attempting to cross the border into the United States and using them to grow opium. To ensure that they don’t escape, implants in their brains make them completely devoid of free will to the extent that they will not eat or drink without being told to do so. The threat of being turned in to one of these “eejits” is sufficient to allow El Patron to control others. The reader’s interest is sustained by discovering along with Matt and from his point of view, the workings Opium, his purpose in life, and his ultimate fate. With the help of Celia and Tam Lin, he escapes to Aztlan where he is no longer treated as subhuman, but is captured and forced to labor with other orphans under the control of guards called “keepers” who relentlessly practice behavioral control methods to keep the young workers at the plankton factory in line. This is a coming of age story with a difference.

House of the Scorpion is a chilling story because Farmer portrays a world that just may be possible. Cloning is already a reality. There are people in today’s world just as invisible to the larger society as the orphans. Child slavery exists. Environmental degradation is occurring. Matt’s escape from his future as a clone gives that reader hope that good will prevail in this world as well.
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Jul 18, 2008 Amy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: kids-books, teen, future-society, newbery-silver

Nancy Farmer has a unique talent for creating action-packed novels set in some pretty wild places. In this case, the future is ruled by a Mexican druglord who clones himself in order to harvest organs when he needs them. The book follows the life of a clone.

Science meets social issues in Nancy Farmer's books. People who try to flee the Mexican border into the U.S. are captured in a new country ruled by the druglord, where they are imbedded with a computer chip in the brain to make them complace...more

5 likes · like · see review

Oct 08, 2012 Lisbeth Avery {Assorted Insanity} rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: five-stars, favourite, library, fantastic-characters, awesome-main-character, better-than-i-thought-it-would-be, ehh-cover, half-star, high-expectations, i-love-you, its-angst-time, lived-up-to-the-hype, own-hardcover, reviewed

The House of the Scorpion was just wow. Wow. If this is the norm of the books I’m going to read 2012, than I’m in luck (and just wow will be part of my vocab). It is a brilliant work of art. I had not ever read a Nancy Farmer book (though twice now I rented The Sea of Trolls – but never got to it). I was very happy with this book, begging everyone I know to read it. They didn’t – yet.

The “main villain” (I don’t really call any of them the main villain because without even one childhood it would...more

6 likes · like · see review

Jul 12, 2011 Lady Eilonwy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, dystopia, favorites, strong-female-leads

I have no words to describe how breathtakingly beautiful I found The House of Scorpion.

Like many of my Goodreads friends, I have struggled with the current trend of YA dystopia romances. Whereas some of the aforementioned YA novels fail to extrapolate current world issues like the dystopic greats, Farmer speculates on issues of immigration, drug policy, and bioethics, and even touches on terrorism, modern-day slavery, human and labor rights, crime families and Catholicism in a real and frighten...more

21 likes · like · see review

Mar 28, 2009 Phoebe added it

Shelves: kiddie-lit, sciffy

In The House of the Scorpion, Nancy Farmer slowly weaves the tale of Matt, a clone of the drug lord Matteo Alacron. Alternately pampered and tortured throughout his childhood (he slightly unbelievably goes from being kept in a pen of chicken litter to being given private piano lessons and tutoring in a few years' time), Matt grows up with a strong moral compass thanks only to his caretakers. Farmer does a good job of developing this bildungsroman--by the novel's end, Matt is a fairly complex cha...more

4 likes · like · see review

Oct 06, 2008 Jack rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: teen

A really hit and miss book, with some terrific ideas and terrible plotting.

The main character, Matt, is a clone of the world's biggest drug kingpin, the 140+ year-old El Patron. Matt lives in El Patron's sprawling estate and is hated by most of the residents there, aside from his care-taker Celia and El Patron himself, who is raising Matt for his own sinister reasons. Soon, these reasons are revealed and Matt's only hope is to escape.

This felt like it should have been at least twice as long. The...more

29 likes · like · see review

Jan 20, 2009 Zoë rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: everyone

Recommended to Zoë by: my brother

The house of the Scorpion is a book about a clone named Matteo Alacran. He was cloned from El Patron and harvested from a cow. His mother like figure is a woman named Celia. When Matteo, "Matt" lives with Celia he doesn't understand that he is different from everyone else. When he is brought from his little house in the poppy field to "The Big House," his life changes for the better and worse. He meets a girl he likes, named Maria, who also likes him, but he is treated like dirt from all of the...more

11 likes · like · see review

Sep 06, 2012 oliviasbooks rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to oliviasbooks by: Flannery

Shelves: young-adult-fiction, scifi-dystopian-apocalyptic, swapped-or-given-away, read-2012, male-point-of-view

Matteo Alacran had been harvested from a cow. He is one of the clones of El Patron, a wealthy and very old poppy farm owner, who had carved out a stripe of landscape between the USA and Mexico to found his small drug-based kingdom Opium, where his and his fellow opium lords' word is the law: The opium, which is grown by eejits, a cheap, human workforce rendered helpless, willfree and robotic by microchips inserted into their brains, makes them practically invincible.

Matt is a perfect - in every...more Matteo Alacran had been harvested from a cow. He is one of the clones of El Patron, a wealthy and very old poppy farm owner, who had carved out a stripe of landscape between the USA and Mexico to found his small drug-based kingdom Opium, where his and his fellow opium lords' word is the law: The opium, which is grown by eejits, a cheap, human workforce rendered helpless, willfree and robotic by microchips inserted into their brains, makes them practically invincible.

Matt is a perfect - in every sense - example of El Patron's power: The cloning laws dictate that every harvested clone has to receive an injection that mentally disables "it". Yet Matt has been lovingly raised in seclusion by the estate's cook Celia, receives private music and science lessons, after his existence has accidentally been revealed to the repulsed house servants and scheming El Patron's relatives, and is even allowed to entertain the powerful, ancient man he mirrors, who occasionally feeds him cookies and childhood stories.

But of course his painful experiences with hateful reactions have made Matt wary: Will everything stay this way forever? What is the purpose of Matt's excellent education and of Matt at all? What about Celia's haunted look and bodyguard Tam Lim's hints? And what about his friendship to Maria Mendoza? Will he still be allowed to see her when they have grown up?

The House of the Scorpion is more or less a young adult cross between Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro and Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey. All three books belong into the category of tales that were shocking - in the positive sense. But while the lack of resistance and the calm acceptance of their fates of the characters had been the factors responsible for the big, cold lump in my guts when I was reading Never Let Me Go, Nancy Farmer shocked me with her cloned hero's well-preserved ignorance, his youth, his innocence, his struggle to discover his identity and his possible worth or worthlessness in comparison to his naturally born peers or the cattle-like eejits, and his efforts to hold fast to those people who refuse to everlook the human being in him.

I recommend this book and I thank Flannery for her recommendation. The time I spent with this story has really been worthwhile.

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Oct 01, 2008 Esther rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Esther by: my kid

Recommended to me by my teenaged son, the book had a promising start and an interesting middle, but it all kind of fell apart towards the end and finished with a very unsatisfying ending. I liked the ideas presented about prejudice and predetermination vs. self-determination, and about the relative values of evil. The book is chock-full of evil-doers, some of whom are despicable, some of whom are loved, and one, the most interesting character of them all, Tam Lin, who is a compelling mixture of...more

16 likes · like · see review

Oct 14, 2011 Rebecca rated it 4 of 5 stars

A very well written and very dark story of a dystopian future where rich people make clones of themselves to serve as organ donors.

Matt is such a clone although, unlike the others, he's allowed to keep his intelligence. He grows up in the house of a 140+ year old drug lord surrounded by various psychopaths and zombies: humans exploited to serve as slave labor.

There's a lot going on in this book starting from when Matt is 6 years old till when he escapes as a young teenager and finds that the out...more

1 like · like · see review

Jul 27, 2011 Stacy rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review includes a small spoiler--but only for the first couple chapters.

I’ve always meant to read this since it’s an award winning YA dystopia novel. I wasn’t disappointed after finally getting to it. It reads well and gives food for thought. I really liked how the book portrayed the moral development of the main character, who is a clone. The book is an easy choice for junior high kids because there is no language or sex, but it’s edgy enough to keep a reluctant reader’s interest. However,...more

3 likes · like · see review

Apr 07, 2009 Kylee rated it 2 of 5 stars

DUMBEST BOOK EVER!

12 likes · like · see review

Apr 10, 2013 Vanessa Baroña rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: physically-owned, favorite-singles

Wow. It's just cool how my professor was only telling us about the large production of marijuana and opium poppy in Mexico which turns into different types of drugs that they export and I was reading about it next. The setting in the story was really truthful in this sense. I also liked the concept although it's kinda creepy because of the "eejits" or those unfortunate people who tried to cross the Mexican border to go to U.S. whom were captured and became a property of El Patron. They planted b...more

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Jun 12, 2009 Δx Δp ≥ ½ ħ htgkvkkviholmvobsvzighxofyyzmw rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: a-day-in-the-life, i-me-mine

Ya ampyun... kirain ni bakal seperti buku Farmer yang laen seperti "The Sea of Troll".. ternyata...
Duh gimana yah? Seperti paduan antara One Hundred Years of Solitude-nya Marquez dan buku2nya Gaiman dan dibumbui humor ala Haddon. Jelas seh gak sedahsyat yang Marquez (ini buku termasuk genre young adult)... cuman istilahnya apa yah... pesonanya itu lho... yang jelas buku ini bakal masuk daftar 100 novel terbaik versi saya
*garuk2 kepala mikir, buku mana yang bakal terdepak dari daftar 100 teratas*...more

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Feb 12, 2009 Jason Kurtz rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, speculative-fiction, science-fiction, middle-grade, top-picks-ya, top-picks-mg

Yeah, yeah, yeah. See the RACK of medals of the cover of this book? A friend told me she felt this novel changed the face of science-fiction. High praise indeed. I didn't buy the hype, and still have issues with the extremely slow start of this novel. It has been sitting on my desk for almost two years (no lie) and I finally read it.

After the first 80 pages of slow moving material, I finally became vested in the characters and thought the novel finally caught on. I think this novel probably doe...more

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Oct 07, 2008 Alex rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: every one

freaking addicting read it 4 times.

This is the story of a clone named Matteo Alacran, or matt. Matt is a clone of the drug lord el patron. El Patron is very concerned about the wellbeing of matt. In this book matt grows from a skin cell to the age 16. During this time period he slowly learns why el patron is so worried about matt's well being. el patron has had clones before matt, he uses them for orgam transplants so he can live long. el patron is 140.

This book takes place in the future. Americ...more

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Jul 12, 2007 Monica rated it 3 of 5 stars

I enjoyed the fact that Nancy Farmer brought up some very pertinent issues through this novel—cloning, drugs, and finding a sense of belonging. Through Matt’s experience as a clone in Opium, a place where he is looked down upon by almost everyone, the reader identifies with his struggles and is rooting for him to find acceptance the whole way through the novel.

The author’s setting of the book in a country based upon the drug industry allows a lot of room for discussion about the topic, as with t...more

3 likes · like · see review

Dec 29, 2008 Flannery rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: swords-and-lasers, young-adult-teen, favorites

This book is great because:
1. It is a young adult book about, I kid you not, every social policy and -ism you can think of--drugs, slavery, cloning, classism, socialism, EVERYTHING
2. I read all 400 or something pages in a day
3. The story is really unique and I wasn't really sure what was going to happen

Anyways, it is basically the story of the clone of the biggest drug lord in a country solely made up of drug farms.

A few people on the book's goodreads page mentioned that the writing was not ama...more

17 likes · like · see review

Jan 16, 2009 Amanda rated it 5 of 5 stars

I learned to love science fiction with this book. I fell in love with Matt, the protagonist! I could not put the book down, calling it a page turner would be an understatement!

1 like · like · see review

Nov 17, 2008 Sean rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: award-winners, ya-books, sci-fi

I'm slowly working my way through a stack of recommendation from one of the YA librarians where I work, and so far The House of the Schorpion is my favorite. The near-future world of depravity, deprivation and corruption Farmer has created is frighteningly real, and the characters are fully rounded and believable. Matt's slow coming-of-age is both languorous and tense, as he learns how to be who he is: first, a favored clone in the household of El Patrón and later, a full-fledged human being.

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Mar 14, 2013 Alexander rated it 4 of 5 stars

I asked my sister what book I should read for school. I wanted an adventurous entertainment book. She immediately told me to find “The House of the Scorpion”. This book is a triple award winning book including National Book Award, Newbery Honor Book, and the Honor’s Book award for excellence in young adult literature. These awards decorated the cover filling the left side of the cover.
Yes I do judge books by the cover, should I, not really but I do. The cover reveals more about the author, Nanc...more I asked my sister what book I should read for school. I wanted an adventurous entertainment book. She immediately told me to find “The House of the Scorpion”. This book is a triple award winning book including National Book Award, Newbery Honor Book, and the Honor’s Book award for excellence in young adult literature. These awards decorated the cover filling the left side of the cover.
Yes I do judge books by the cover, should I, not really but I do. The cover reveals more about the author, Nancy Farmer than the story on what type of story their trying to tell. House of the Scorpion’s cover was an eerie blood red scorpion creeping in the sand. The Author, Nancy Farmer was in her 60’s when she wrote the book. I was skeptical of choosing a book my sister suggested but the cover gave an ominous uneasiness that appealed to me. I would suggest this book to the ages from 11-20, girl or boy. The story does cover some dark scenes. The main character at the beginning was in captive and tortured. He was raised in secrecy from the outside world, when one day he had escaped to play with the kids outside.
What he didn’t know is that he was a clone, of a very dangerous man El Patron. El Patron was a crocked drug lord in a small country known as Opium dividing the Mexican/American border. Matt, the main character was believed to be missing. Now found he was never let out of sight. El Patron was intending to use matt’s organs to replace his, because matt’s a clone of him. And El Patron was a hundred and forty eight years old. To survive El Patron replaces his organs with his younger clones. Later on he was sent to America to get away from the chaotic drug lords. However he was caught crossing the border and now has to deal with captivity all over again now this time he has to conceal his true identity.
There is no book quite like this one. It’s been considered science fiction, speculative fiction and dystopian fiction. If I had to choose one I would be stuck, the story does not emphasize any real genre other than the fact that they are in the future. When I say there is no other book like it I mean there is no story line with the creativity and adventure like House of the Scorpion. There is a sense of disbelief; Nancy kind of goes far out on this story. If you’re someone young who likes stories of growing up in difficult positions. Am I am not talking about growing up with your parents divorced. If running from organ harvesters and trained killers from foreign countries to live another day sounds exciting to you. You will love this book.
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Jan 03, 2012 Christine rated it 5 of 5 stars

Is cloning something that will be available to us for a price in the future? Let’s look at what your money will buy you today.
$295.00 + $100.00 annual storage fee—You can bank your pet’s genes and have a genetic lab maintain them in case you should want them at a later date.
$1700.00 + $150.00 shipping + $125.00 annual storage fee—You can bank your new baby’s cord blood so that the stem cells can possibly be used in the future for your family’s health needs.
$32,000.00—This is the cost to clone...more

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Mar 14, 2009 Casandria rated it 4 of 5 stars

The House of the Scorpion was actually a terrifying book, but I could not put it down. It takes place in the future, in a time when the countries of Mexico and the United States have each given up part of their land to form a new country on the border called Opium. Their goal was to keep drugs and illegals out of both countries (the drugs would only be sold elsewhere). This country was ruled by a dictator called Matteo Alacran.

The story of this book follows another Matteo Alacran, who is the clo...more

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May 30, 2008 Kirstie rated it 4 of 5 stars

A very well done sci-fi book. I don't usually read this genre but a friend of mine recommended it to me and I usually agree with her opinions. This book has won the national book award, newbery honor, and ALA honors and I can see why.
This story is about clones, mexico, and drug lords but not really--it is mostly a coming-of-age story about a boy looking for friendship and acceptance in a world he doesn't understand. I enjoyed that it was such a unique concept and inspiring story of survival.

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May 15, 2013 Scott Slinker rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: eng-ya-class-sis-soper

Unlike some YA science fiction and fantasy this kept me guessing and was a genuine delight to read. The plot was unique and not rehashed or cheesy. I really enjoyed the villains. A lot of villains are overdone and almost comical in how bad they are; not in The House of the Scorpion. I really, really, found myself disliking two of the villains. I really loved the way the book was about finding your identity and realizing you were worth yourself if that makes any sense. The ending left something t...more

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Apr 28, 2013 Jamie Leslie added it

The House of the Scorpion is a science fiction novel by Nancy Farmer. It tells the story of a young boy named Matteo Alacran and how he is brought up in the house of a infamous drug lord who happens to have the same name as Matteo. Matteo soon finds out that he is a clone of the infamous drug lord, though he doesn’t know why.

I absolutely loved this book. It was a completely different take on the cliché science fiction books. Compared to the other ones, this one was a breath of fresh air. It di...more

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Apr 02, 2013 Ruth rated it 4 of 5 stars

This week I read The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer. It the story of Matteo Alacran, a boy who wasn’t born, but harvested as the clone of El Patron, the most powerful man in all of Opium, a country between the United States and what used to be Mexico. It is the drug capital of the world, filled with brain-dead zombies called eejits to do all the work. El Patron loves Matteo (better known as Matt), showers him with gifts, and demands that everyone else in the Alacran Estate respects him....more This week I read The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer. It the story of Matteo Alacran, a boy who wasn’t born, but harvested as the clone of El Patron, the most powerful man in all of Opium, a country between the United States and what used to be Mexico. It is the drug capital of the world, filled with brain-dead zombies called eejits to do all the work. El Patron loves Matteo (better known as Matt), showers him with gifts, and demands that everyone else in the Alacran Estate respects him. This is hard for the other residents, because they see Matt as an animal for being a clone. While Matt struggles to figure out his purpose as an individual, he also must deal with the rising complications in the Opium, and try to protect those few people around him that see him as a human rather than some kind of incompetent beast.
I really enjoyed this book. I don’t usually enjoy science fiction books, but the futuristic, dystopian elements made it one I couldn’t put it down. The book did a good job of paralleling Matt growing up with the problems he faced and the mysteries he discovered about his origin and the Alacran Estate. I think this provided a good example for readers that as you grow older, you will gain more responsibilities and a better understanding of the world around you. The book’s multicultural elements were more secondary to the plot of the story, which I found preferable to most multicultural books that focus solely on the cultural elements. The dystopian society of Opium represented a lot of what Mexico is like today, bringing up Mexican traditions like the Day of the Dead, and also involved Matt and Celia, his caretaker, speaking a mix of Spanish and English throughout the story.
I would recommend this book to many students, especially considering how popular dystopian novels have become recently. Although the internal struggles that Matt experiences dealing with the fact that he is a clone are much different than what young adults go through, the search for self-identity is something that everyone can relate to. Without making it obvious, Nancy Farmer created a book that any soul searching student could find comfort in. This would be a good book for students who are more into science fiction and might be hesitant to try the more popular dystopian novels that lack the science fiction element, such as The Hunger Games. The length of the story might be a bit much for younger middle school students, so I would be more likely to provide it to a student who is in late middle school or early high school. Also, the fact that the main character is 14 years old at the peak of the story might make it unappealing to students beyond that age. However, the book provides plenty of conflicts, mysteries, and self discoveries that it would be an exciting and beneficial read to anyone who picks it up.
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Mar 14, 2013 Morgan rated it 5 of 5 stars

When it came to picking a book under fantasy/science fiction I decided to go with "The House of Scorpion" because one of my friends had read it for a class last semester and recommended that I read it. At first, the amount of pages worried me, but I put it aside just because of how much my friend enjoyed the book. I am glad I set aside the page number because this book was amazing. I am so in love with this book and decided to read it again as well as recommend it to all of my friends. It grabbe...more

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Mar 14, 2013 Hope Breedlove rated it 4 of 5 stars

I can honestly say I wasn’t quite sure what to expect with this science fiction book. The name and description had me curious, but it was definitely not a book I would have chosen on my own. However, in the end I actually enjoyed this book simply because it is so different than anything I’ve ever read or would have picked out for myself. The thing that initially drew me in were the characters which were interestingly developed and interacted well with each other.
Something I really enjoyed abou...more

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Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
sequel coming out, reviews	11	51	15. April, 12:07 Uhr
What's The Name o...: near future mexico, poppy fields and a young boy as the main character [s]	5	32	07. April, 17:41 Uhr
What would you do as a clone?	11	55	17. März, 20:07 Uhr
Goodreads Librari...: House of the Scorpian 9780689852237	3	29	10. März, 18:31 Uhr
Teens @ Pewaukee ...: The House of the Scorpion: Book Club January 2013	7	17	30. Januar, 08:37 Uhr

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About Nancy Farmer

Nancy was born in 1941 in Phoenix and grew up in a hotel on the Arizona-Mexico border where she worked the switchboard at the age of nine. She also found time to hang out in the old state prison and the hobo jungle along the banks of the Colorado River. She attended Reed College in Portland, Oregon, earning her BA in 1963. Instead of taking a regular job, she joined the Peace Corps and was sent to...more

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Books by Nancy Farmer

The Land of the Silver Apples (Sea of Trolls, #2)

The Islands of the Blessed (Sea of Trolls, #3)

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Trivia About The House of the ...

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Quotes from The House of the Scorpion

“I always say the truth is best even when we find it unpleasant. Any rat in a sewer can lie. It's how rats are. It's what makes them rats. But a human doesn't run and hide in dark places, because he's something more. Lying is the most personal act of cowardice there is.” — 266 people liked it

“I love you," Matt said.
I love you, too," Maria replied. "I know that's a sin, and I'll probably go to hell for it."
If I have a soul, I'll go with you," promised Matt.” — 63 people liked it

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13376.The_House_of_the_Scorpion?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347695758l/13376.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13376.The_House_of_the_Scorpion?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer[/url]

The House of the Scorpion (Matteo Alacran #1)

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