The House of Scorpions

The House of the Scorpion  is an interesting story about a young boy who finds out he is a clone and must struggle to learn what this means. Matteo Alacran, a clone harvested from the DNA of El Patron, the Master of Opium, is treated poorly by the Alacran family and servants, despite his education and his attempts to fit in. After escaping death by fleeing to the neighboring nation of Atzlan, Matt faces isolation for reasons he never would have thought of. Matt lives in a house in the middle of the poppy fields the woman who take cares of him, Celia. When children come to the window and try to play and interact with Matt, he cuts himself trying to jump out the window he broke to play with them. The children carry him to the Big House on the Alacran Estate to see the doctor, but when Mr. Alacran recognizes Matt as El Patron's clone, he puts Rosa in charge of Matt. Rosa imprisons Matt in a room filled with sawdust, treating him like an animal, but when Celia finds out what is going on, she contacts El Patron who rescues Matt and forbids anyone to treat Matt poorly. Matt is educated and raised in the Big House, but the Alacrans and their servants ignore him as much as possible. Maria Mendoza is Matt's only friend near his age. Tam Lin, his bodyguard, teaches him a bit about life outside of the poppy fields. El Patron loves Matt because Matt is a clone of El Patron. He is cloned Matt for a reason. El Patron is like over 100 years old. His organs stop working after a while. Since Matt is a healthy young boy, El Patron will use his organs to survive. Matt finally realized what was going on and the reason he was brought into this world. He decided to escape from the Big House. Tam Lin helped both Maria and Matt escape the Alacran Estate. They traveled to Mexico where Maria's family lived. They took good care of Matt while he was there. Treated him like family. After a few years, El Patron died from a bad illness. Matt came back to the Alacran Estate. And is now the Master of the Opium. He prepares to take full responsibility and get rid of all the violence, drugs, and all the illegal slavery El Patron had comitted.