Caitlin Yoo, The House Of The Scorpion

Caitlin Yoo

“The House of the Scorpion”

Nancy Farmer

Science fiction/fantasy

            The House of the Scorpion starts off with the young Matteo Alacran, and tells us about how he is treated throughout his childhood as the clone of a powerful drug lord by the name of El Patron. He faces many hardships, though the main one is the fact that he is not considered a human being because he is a clone. However, he spends his days at the Alacran estate until one fateful day he leaves the safety of his home and his adventure begins.

I quite liked this book; I found it to be an interesting read for me. At the beginning the author described with great detail how he dealt with difficult trials towards him, such as hate and discrimination through his childhood. Around the middle was where I felt that the book started to get more interesting. Making his escape was the beginning of the action in my opinion. Throughout the rest of the book Matt continued to face trials and difficulties, but he managed to hold through. New friendships were formed, young love once lost is found yet again, a wonderful story indeed. I found that the only challenge I had with this book was that I found it very hard to stop reading to take notes. The book manages to capture your attention so completely; you forget you have other things to do. I found that this book was able to be intriguing and exciting, while also having a plotline that makes sense. I liked that the author was able to mix in action with themes that are common to the young teenager, such as bullying and young loves. Overall I really did enjoy this book and would definitely read it once again.

I absolutely would recommend this book, especially if you are an avid reader of science fiction and futuristic type settings. It has a great mix of action and a proper well thought plotline. The plotline in this story is put together very well, and the themes used in it flow very liquidly with each other and is very well organized. This book is very well thought out and is great read. I would most definitely recommend this to anyone.