My daughter wrote this review after we read The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer for our mother-daughter book club.

When I first found out that we were going to read this book, every instinct told me not to. I had heard that it was a very scary book about cloning. Once we had read it though, I loved it. It is a story about a kid named Matt who is a clone of a famous drug dealer. At first, everybody thinks that he is just a filthy, old clone, so they lock him into a cell. When the drug dealer finds out about this, he immediately lets Matt out. Everybody still tries to avoid him. He grows up and eventually finds out that the man he’s cloned from is becoming too old and needs a new heart. Matt escapes only to find himself in a harsh, uncaring world. In the end, he learns that the only difference between a regular person and a clone, is that there is no difference. This story is about love, and a future that is harsh. – Catherine H., Portland, Oregon