The House of the Scorpion

I read this book a while ago, but, it deserves to be written about. If you want a book that really makes you think about things...this is the book for you. A sci-fi "thriller" I guess it would be called, it really brings to the surface some very interesting ideas.

As the book starts you don't really know what is going on. You have to read it for a while, and all you really know is that you're reading about a boy who for some reason is kept away from everything. The only person he sees is his nanny. Then the day comes when he goes exploring and discovers another house, with children, and things really start to get interesting...and somewhat horrifying. A part of your brain can see how this could one day become reality, and the very idea that it could, at least for me, was rather...frightening.

Now, I will go into the spoiler portion of this review. If you don't want to spoil the book, DON'T read this part!
This book is about a time in society when human clones are allowed...but only for medical purposes. So, at the beginning of the book you read about scientists who are injecting infants with a solution that will basically turn them into a vegetable, or someone who has very severe special needs. They can't function without someone to take care of them. One infant isn't, because his "owner" likes his to be left alone.

It takes a while to realize that they are referring to clones. That this clone is being raised as a normal little boy and isn't told anything about himself. He doesn't know anything about families are relationships, or anything. At first as he is going through his childhood he is treated like a little boy, because that is how his nanny/caretaker cares for him. She treats him as if he is her child.

One day some kids are playing in the fields surrounding his home and he tries to play with them. His nanny gets in trouble and he is taken to the "big house." His next caretaker treats him like an animal and keeps him in a room with sawdust on the floor.

The story progresses to where he learns who he is cloned from, but he still doesn't realize that he himself is a clone. In a strange bizarre way, it's as if his owner is doing his own experiment to see how each clone of himself differs.

It is about this time that you learn and realize that the clones are made so that as a person gets older they have the perfect organ donor. The view is that the clones aren't really "people" so, what does it matter if they have to give you their perfectly normal liver because you fried yours with alcohal? To make them seem even less of a person, they damage their brain when they are infants, so they have no "knowledge" of what will be done to them, eventually.

Then the story takes a different twist then the one you think it will...thankfully, and things begin to change for the "clone." I can't in good conscience tell you how the book ends, so you will just have to read it to find out!

While the scenes that play out in this book are in some instances, truly bizarre, it brings your level of thinking to a whole new level. It really makes you wonder...what would I think or believe, especially where human cloning is concerned.

While my nephews did read this book, and they are both middle school age, I certainly wouldn't recommend it until they reach maybe 11th 12th grade? It has some pretty deep concepts, and disturbing imagery, that even as an adult, took me some time to fully ingest.

I would recommend that you read it with your child, even if they are in high school, so that you can discuss the concepts that are written about. All in all a very intriguing book, if somewhat disturbing one, and very well written. I give it 5 pens.