House of the Scorpion

SPOILER WARNING: All plot elements given away.

House of the Scorpion is the story of Matteo Alacran. Matt is a clone created to provide organs for his principal, El Patron, a drug lord. El Patron rules a country called Opium in bald reference to its primary crop. Opium is a created state which was carved out of the borderlands of Mexico and the US in a deal that would end the importation of the drug into those two nations.

Matt grows up different from other clones who have their minds "clamped" at birth, he can still think. He is being educated and groomed to take over the leadership of Opium. Or so he thinks.

Amid the hatred and fear of clones, Matt makes a friend of the bodyguard charged with protecting El Patron's most valued possession. It is from this friend, Tam Lin, Matt learns the truth about his destiny, organ donation. At the same time, Tam Lin is setting things up to protect Matt from his fate. Matt is trained in rock climbing, map-reading, and other skills needed to survive in the barren land of opium.

So when El Patron's heart gives out, Matt is better equipped to flee the end intended for him. Finally he reaches the border of Aztlan (formerly Mexico) and is picked up by the keepers of a workhouse for orphans. It is a brutal place requiring the children to work for their freedom in an environment that is designedd to brainwash them into being the model citizen in a communistic society.

After a vicious attack by one of the guards, Matt and a few of the other boys manage an escape to the town of San Luis 20 mile to the north. There Matt is reunited with his other friend from his childhood in Opium. Maria and her mother take up Matt's cause and help him to return to Opium as the heir to El Patron.

The assumption of power leads me to feel that his lordship over the land will inevitably go awry. Change is not so easy to effect. His dreams for the future of the land seem so simplistic they would certainly fail. I think this is what disturbed me most about the conclusion of the book.