Book Blog #25, The House of the Scorpion

The House of the Scorpion                                 Science fiction                                   by Nancy Farmer

Matteo Alacran, or Matt,  grew up isolated away from the main house on the farm, only knowing his "mother" Celia. They lived in the middle of a massive opium plantation, and they lived completely isolated from the rest of humanity. He was alone and content until one day three children show up at his locked window, and he was desperate for human contact. The 7 year old then proceeds to smash through the window with a massive pot, and jump out the 6 foot high window, like any normal 7 year old would. He gets carried to the Alacran estate, because he can't walk because of the glass shards in his feet. He gets taken care of until he gets avidly thrown out due to the fact that he is an "eejit", who are considered disgusting and not human.

He gets put in a small pen until he is 10, and is kept in a chicken coop (literally). He is mistreated and lives in his own small world. The only joy in his life is brief visits from Maria, one of the young children who rescued him. Tom is also a boy who rescued him, but Matt quickly learned to despise his vile tricks and loathe the boy. Tom bullied Matt, and Matt had to learn to fight back.

Matt lives a horrible life until one day, when Celia finds him and takes him to her new apartment to raise him. When he comes out, he learns a glorious truth, that may have the potential to save his life. Many new people enter into his life, and he starts to be happy. One day, however, he finds out the dark side of the Alacrans, and escape is his only option. How will he pull it off?

I personally enjoyed this book quite a lot, as its plot pulls you in because it changes frequently and rapidly. The book did get gross and gave me the chills at times, and these sections did seem unnecessary. The amounts of text devoted to certain sections also seemed off. There would be several chapters devoted to a section that didn't do anything for the story, when there were sections where interesting and useful things happened that would have barely any information on them. Some of the positives were that the author kept making a lot of twists and the plot was always unexpected. another positive was that the book was very unique and I had never read anything like it before. The downside to this was that there were some sections that were quite cliché, like pressing your hand on a symbol and having it open a secret vault that only your handprint can access. Overall, this was a really good book.

Warning!!!!! There are a lot of made up curse words that were used frequently! So, WARNING! fake curse words!

I would recommend this to anyone who wants a book that is filled with unexpected twists and turns that will always keep them on edge. This is also a good book because it is intense, but there isn't severe language or any bad content. I would specifically recommend this to Willa, because I think that she would like the science fiction elements of it, and she would enjoy how unexpected it is. I would also recommend this to Maia, because it is very different from the normal genres of books she reads, and I think she would like that it is very unique.

TBR list:
Sherlock Holmes, everything          by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Comet's Curse          by Dom Testa
A midsummer night's Dream          by William Shakespeare (your welcome Gabe)
The Great Gatsby          by F. Scott Fitzgerald