Edward's Novel Review

            The house of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer is a semi-interesting novel, specifically because it can be much deeper than what it seems in the text. The book starts off with our protagonist Matt, he is a cloned human cloned after the great drug lord El Patron. The novel takes place in future times around the year 2100 in an area between Aztlan (Mexico) and the United States of America on the opium farms. We begin with Matt being engineered in a lab and then born from a cow, Matt then starts to grow up and we venture through his life starting in a small shack in the fields to the massive mansion of the Alacran estate. Throughout growing up Matt learns about the history of his surroundings and his environment, he also makes many friends and enemies along the way. Matt soon finds himself in desperate trouble when he finds out his real purpose in life, can Matt and his friends pull through to save themselves and Opium or will Matt be doomed to done his life to the great El Patron...

            Rating: 6.5/10

            The house of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer to me is an "okay" read, despite a relatively original plot idea the book simply did not have the interest that I have found in other novels. Specifically, Farmer has made the plot develop extremely slowly in this book. This cannot always be a bad thing like in novels such as Crime and Punishment however in The house of the Scorpion it was a major detracting factor. When I had put the book down after reading the designated chapters I really did not feel inclined to pick it back up and read some more past what I was supposed to. Also during the time that I was reading the book there was few times where I simply wanted it to conclude because I felt as a reader almost bored. For example during parts like Matt’s education nothing very eventful happens and farmer takes quite explaining a while and puts great detail into an aspect of the novel that she really did not have too. As I had mentioned in our group's fourth round table Farmer focuses too much on the smaller plot aspects of the book and then in my opinion really does not describe the larger ones as well. Despite her relatively solid description, the end that made me wonder if the book was complete coupled with an extremely slow plot made this novel simply an “Ok” read for me.

I would recommend this novel for anyone age of nine and up, despite its slow pace it still is a relatively good novel with good description and an original plot. I commend Farmer to make a sequel because the end simply was not there in this book and with a sequel my rating would significantly increase!