Emily's Page

Okay, so here goes the final post. 



     The House of the Scorpion, written by Nancy Farmer, is about a young clone named Matt. Throughout the story, Matt must learn the truth about the people and world around him. He is a clone of a powerful drug lord. Only a small group of people love and respect Matt. He is hated by the majority of the country's population, and is treated like an animal sometimes. The story is actually pretty interesting though. The book started out slow, but got better around the fourth chapter. The story has really cool characters and is really creative. However, the one part of the book was the ending. So, I begin my official review.


     The House of the Scorpion, by Nancy Farmer, is really good because of the characters. All of the main ones are well developed and have contrasting and interesting personalities. For example, Matt, the protagonist, has several different sides to him throughout the story. He seems sweet and innocent at the beginning, when he is just a little boy. But later in the book, the reader meets another Matt, one who is cold-hearted and cruel. Matt forces a young girl to kiss him, humiliating her in front of her family and many important people. Matt acted as if he was a king, and forced others to do his bidding. Matt then became very unlikeable in my opinion. However, he saved face after he later expressed his guilt and remorse over that event. Another character that is well-rounded is Tam Lin, Matt's bodyguard. At the beginning, Tam Lin seemed very serious and moody. But as the book progressed, he slowly became kind and almost like a father to Matt. The characters in this book are all great.


     The second part of the book that I really liked was the creativity the author used while writing. Farmer invented a word, "eejit," which means a person with a computer chip in their brain. The entire book is set in the future, and the author created a lot of new things and ideas. She changed the name of Mexico into a new country, and used a lot of futuristic technology such as hovercrafts, and a wall with a secret passage that can only be seen with red light. All the people and places are invented, including the country most of the story takes place in - Opium. She also was innovative in using old ideas (such as orphanages) and turning them into something new (places where children are put to work). The author used a  lot of imagination in the story.


     The biggest thing that I didn't like about the book was the ending. It seemed very rushed and lost the creative aspect that I had previously noticed. The book has 38 chapters. For the first 36 or so, it was really well-written. Maybe it was a little slow, but I still liked it. Then came the ending of the story, which was extremely fast-paced and tried to cover everything in the space of about 20 pages. It seemed like the author got bored and thought, "Let's get this over with." There was little detail, and not as much dialogue. It felt like it lost all the good stuff in the end. Also, the way the story turned out was bad. All of a sudden, in about three paragraphs, everything fell into place and it was all okay. There was one surprise at then end, but the rest was like a fairy tale that's been told too many times. It was boring, actually. And then add the fact that there was no closure. The book ended with Matt thinking about what would happen in the future. I was very disappointed in the ending.


     So all in all, the book had some good parts, like the characters, and its inventive places and things. But I feel like the ending kind of balanced out the rest, which took away the book's "good" status. So, my final verdict is this: I still recommend that you read it, but don't expect to be wowed when you finish.


The End.

Pictures That Represent the Story:

El Patron has more money and wealth than could "fit in the Grand Canyon."

The ugly wastelands can overshadow the beautiful poppy fields.

The Chupacabra is an imaginary monster that haunts the night.

Matt spent the first few years of his life living in a small house with Celia, his caretaker.

Matt now lives with the rest of the family in huge, lush, Alacran estate.

Furball, Maria's little dog, is mysteriously killed, which results in a lot of trouble for Matt.

As a clone, Matt was genetically engineered and was born from a cow.




Setting:
The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer is set in the future, in a country called Opium. Opium is a small strip of land between The United States and what used to be Mexico, now called Aztlan.

Opium is very hot and humid, but there are lots of Farms and poppy fields. Matt, the main character found a little oasis in the hills filled with green grass, trees, flowers, plants and animals. He goes there to read and learn about the country, often with his bodyguard.

Opium was created by a powerful drug lord, El Patron. There were a lot of problems with drugs between the U.S., so the deal became that Opium could not sell drugs to anyone in the U.S. or Aztlan, but they could ship to Europe, Asia, and Africa. As part of the deal, Opium catches Illegals that try to run to the U.S. by going through the Farms in Opium.