The House of the Scorpion

So who has seen The Hunger Games? I saw the midnight premiere on Thursday and I actually loved it! I thought they did such an amazing job. For those of you who were worried about the PG-13 rating making it not bloody enough, I promise the scene at the cornucopia is plenty gruesome. It probably could have had more, but it was pretty realistic. And the actors were perfect. I loved all of them, and even though I am totally team Peeta, I wanted to see more Gale because the actor was fantastic. Well, my main point is that it was great.
Now, confession: I actually love Nancy Farmer. I have read quite a few of her books and I almost always adore them. So I figured I should talk about one of my favorites, The House of the Scorpion. This is a book about a boy named Matt. But things are not as they seem with Matt, because he is a clone. He is a clone of El Patron, the ruler of a strip of land in Mexico covered in poppies called Opium. For El Patron, Matt is the key to eternal life. He loves Matt like he loves himself, because Matt is himself, down to every last strand of DNA. But things threaten Matt. El Patron's power-hungry family and servants along with many other sinister characters of Opium. To most people, Matt is a monster. Something horrifying grown in a cow for nine months and then cut out, something with no soul and no chance of life beyond the one he already lives.
I adored this book. It pulled me in with Nancy Farmer's fantastic story-telling and for a while I didn't even register that it was a kind of dystopian fiction. Maybe dystopian is the wrong word... it takes place in a world of the future where clones exist. Anyway, the characters were frightening and sinister and they pulled me into the story instantly. I loved following Matt and I sympathized with him, which can be hard to get me to do. He felt like such a real character. I strongly recommend this book, and I will tell you now, it will pull you into an entirely new world you never would have thought existed.

Rating: 5/5