The House of the Scorpion
The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer
Matteo Alacran #1
Description via The StoryGraph:
This modern classic takes on an iron-fisted drug lord, clones bred for their organs, and what it means to be human. Winner of the National Book Award as well as Newbery and Printz Honors.
Matteo Alacr n was not born; he was harvested. His DNA came from El Patr n, lord of a country called Opium--a strip of poppy fields lying between the United States and what was once called Mexico. Matt's first cell split and divided inside a petri dish. Then he was placed in the womb of a cow, where he continued the miraculous journey from embryo to fetus to baby. He is a boy now, but most consider him a monster--except for El Patr n. El Patr n 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, including El Patr n's power-hungry family, and he is surrounded by a dangerous army of bodyguards. Escape is the only chance Matt has to survive. But escape from the Alacr n Estate is no guarantee of freedom, because Matt is marked by his difference in ways he doesn't even suspect.
Read from November 4th through 14th of 2025
“Tam Lin says rabbits give up when they're caught by coyotes," Matt said after he'd calmed enough to trust his voice. "He says they consent to die because they're animals and can't understand hope. Hit humans are different. They fight against death no matter how bad things seem, and sometimes, even when everything's against them, they win."
