The House Of The Scorpions Book Review

Shaion Denny

The House Of the Scorpions Book review

The relevant becomes flawless strokes of the mind unleashing the unknown from its cages. Nancy Farmer won multiple awards for her book “The House Of The Scorpions”. Nancy Farmer is highly known for her science fiction books. This book is one of her most know books across the country.She makes us as readers see characters for more than just how they help the story but how they compare to us. Characters roam like lost puppies in a dark room shivering motionless until the lights come on.

The House Of The Scorpions is an empowering piece of art. It crosses unforeseen boundaries in the world of fiction. As a first time reader it would appear that The House Of The Scorpions is a book about a clone wanting to be a real boy. But once you go through the book for a second or third time you start to get a different idea for meaning and message behind the book. As an experienced reader you are able to see the different themes presented within the book. These newly presented themes are things like poverty, loneliness, religion, and the hardest one to see is trust. Trust is the hardest theme to find in The House Of The Scorpions because of how often betrayal is used in the book. Trust and betrayal go hand and hand but in this book.

Matteo Alacrán, or Matt for short, was a boy trying to escape what could only be known to him as a perfect word. He was raised by a women named Celia for most of his life. Celia worked for a man name Él Patron who you can say is Matt’s father in a way. Él Patron is a big time drug dealer who uses clones , Matt being one of them, for body parts so he can essentially live forever. Matt is special to Él Patron because Matt is the smartest clone he has had in years so he kept him alive. Matt eventually move into the big house with Él Patron and his family so Matt could continue learning. Matt had become too smart for Él Patron and it made él Patron feel dumb so he made plans to execute Matt and harvest his organs. Matt being smart ran away before that could happen. Matt goes on a nice adventure in America before returning to find out Él Patron poisoned everyone who worked for him and his family so they could all die with him because he believed that when something died as your property they would always be your property even in heaven or hell.

The book isn’t setup like your normal story. The House Of the Scorpions is setup as intel to this child’s mind and everyday adventures. Matteo Alacrán to the reader isn’t just a clone boy want to be real, or even a boy trying to find his purpose in life. To the person holding the book ,flipping from page to page fighting to see what words will be on the next page, Matteo is a man who's fear brings more than just knowledge but experience. Throughout the book many ideas are put into the readers mind. Like what is the absence of light in a realm that seems to be always shinning. The author does her best to not only challenge us with these questions but help us understand the answers we might get for them. The absence of light in a place thats always shinning is a metaphor for how people compress their fear. Matteo’s only fear in the land of Opium is the absence of knowledge. 

The house of the Scorpions exceeds all of my expectations. When I was first asked to red this book I hated everything about it because to me all I saw was a big book full of words that determined my final grades. But when asked to read it a second time I saw it from a new angle because I was not forced to read it. I saw new ideas, questions, and meanings to this book. I expected that when I read it the second time for it to be like the first time. Full of confusing chapters that mean one thing. I thought the meaning of the book was to be careful who you trust. I’ am glad to say now that I was wrong. The meaning of this book is not be careful who you trust but to keep an open mind and never judge a book by its cover. I enjoyed this book because it was surprising how many mental challenges were in it. I think this book should be read by anyone who likes drama, action, science, futuristic, and mystery novels. The House Of The Scorpion is without a doubt on the list for books everyone must read before leaving for college.

Title: The House Of The Scorpion

Author: Nancy Farmer

Publisher: Atheneum Books

Date Publication: January 2002

Number of Pages: 380

Genre: Science Fiction