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Matt Alacrán wasn't born. He was harvested.
His DNA came from El Patrón, the drug-lord ruler of the country of Opium. Most people hate and fear clones like Matt—except for El Patrón. El Patrón loves Matt as he loves himself, because Matt is himself.
As Matt struggles to understand his existence, he is threatened by a sinister cast of characters, and realizes escape is his only chance to survive. But escape from the Alacrán Estate is no guarantee of freedom.
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Creators
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Series
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Publisher
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Awards
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Release date
October 21, 2008 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780743572477
- File size: 308910 KB
- Duration: 10:43:33
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Languages
- English
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Levels
- ATOS Level: 5.1
- Lexile® Measure: 660
- Interest Level: 9-12(UG)
- Text Difficulty: 3
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Reviews
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Nancy Farmer's all-too-believable dystopia is the setting for the story of Matteo Alacran, born a clone of the evil El Patron, ruler of Opium. As Matt grows, so does his understanding of his purpose (to provide renewal body parts for El Patron) and the things he needs to do to stay alive in a society based on the abuse of brain-damaged slaves who tend the opium fields. As the suspense builds, narrator Raœl Esparza has convincing command of several languages and many accents for the adults, and he perfectly captures the arrogant intonations of entitled teenagers who, like most of the story's characters, consider Matt to be lower than an animal. Even amid Matt's most horrifying predicaments Esparza delivers brief moments of ironic or childlike wit in this thought-provoking story. R.H.H. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine -
May 17, 2004
In our Best Books citation, PW
wrote, "In this eerily realistic depiction of society 100 years hence, the wealthy class harvests the organs of clones to prolong their lives. Farmer explores vital and soul-searching questions about what it means to be human." Ages 11-up. -
This world is an arid wasteland on either side of the Mexican/U.S. border. But 50 years from now it is a separate country: the land of Opium, a vast drug- producing territory ruled by the 140-year-old El Patron and worked exclusively by human clones. Only Matt, kept alive because he is himself a clone of El Patron, can restore its humanity. Robert Ramirez's narration echoes Matt's awakening to the evil around him and deepens the suspense of his attempted escape. As he hurtles through the land of Opium, Ramirez leaps from character to character, each one stranger and strangely dearer than the last. Ramirez's voice is subtly attuned to the humanity in all of them, even the clones. Winner of the National Book Award, The House of the Scorpion is a great mix of sci-fi, adventure, and powerful human values. P.E.F. Winner of the National Book Award, 2002 (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine
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Starred review from July 1, 2002
Farmer's (A Girl Named Disaster; The Ear, the Eye and the Arm) novel may be futuristic, but it hits close to home, raising questions of what it means to be human, what is the value of life, and what are the responsibilities of a society. Readers will be hooked from the first page, in which a scientist brings to life one of 36 tiny cells, frozen more than 100 years ago. The result is the protagonist at the novel's center, Matt—a clone of El Patrón, a powerful drug lord, born Matteo Alacrán to a poor family in a small village in Mexico. El Patrón is ruler of Opium, a country that lies between the United States and Aztlán, formerly Mexico; its vast poppy fields are tended by eejits, human beings who attempted to flee Aztlán, programmed by a computer chip implanted in their brains. With smooth pacing that steadily gathers momentum, Farmer traces Matt's growing awareness of what being a clone of one of the most powerful and feared men on earth entails. Through the kindness of the only two adults who treat Matt like a human—Celia, the cook and Matt's guardian in early childhood, and Tam Lin, El Patrón's bodyguard—Matt experiences firsthand the evils at work in Opium, and the corruptive power of greed ("When he was young, he made a choice, like a tree does when it decides to grow one way or the other... most of his branches are twisted," Tam Lin tells Matt). The author strikes a masterful balance between Matt's idealism and his intelligence. The novel's close may be rushed, and Tam Lin's fate may be confusing to readers, but Farmer grippingly demonstrates that there are no easy answers. The questions she raises will haunt readers long after the final page. Ages 11-14.
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