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Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Review: The House of the Scorpion

The House of the Scorpion is a very interesting teen science fiction novel. Set in a dystopian, near future, it is the story of Matteo Alacrán. To most people, Matt is not a boy, but a beast. He's just a clone, not a human. But he's the clone of El Patrón, lord of Opium -- the country lying between the U.S. and what was once Mexico.

As I said, this is a very interesting book. The writing is crisp and straight-forward, as you'd imagine for a YA book, but the subject matter is not - cloning, genetics, nature vs. nurture - there's a lot going on in this book, and most of the characters' motivation is murky.

For about 75% of the way through this book, I kept thinking that this may be the best YA book I've read this year. Then the story went off in a new, different direction, that just fell a little flat in comparison to what came before. It was still good, just not excellent.

Still, I highly recommend The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer. If you haven't read it, check it out. I think you'll be impressed.

Buy The House of the Scorpion on Amazon.

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