Matt stared at Maria. "This is your plan to rescue me?""Well, it might work," she said. "Tam Lin says the scorpion recognizes the fingerprints and DNA of El Patron. And you're his clone."
Matt suddenly felt light-headed. She was right. He was El Patron's clone. His fingerprints would be the same, his DNA identical. "If your wrong," he told Maria, "we'll die."
"We'll die together, dearest." -Farmer pg. 222
This would be the perfect phrase, along with many other teasers, to describe Farmer's book "The House of the Scorpion." With action and suspense, we as the readers follow in pursuit of Matt's scrupulous quest. His determination and fierce competition to free himself from the clutches of El Patron and be known as human is what one might say an uphill climb. From the punishment he received as a child to a double-cross from man he believed to have fellowship with, Matt has few people that he can depend on.
As I would describe this book referring to the plot, I would state it to be much different than most books. The beginning started off in a calm and slow tempo, with Matt and Celia living a normal happy life, and then immediately shot into the "strange" category as soon as he jumped out a window. At this point, I as a reader was temporarily confused, but very compelled to read more on the turn of events. Being surprised once more when Rosa brutally abused Matt to the part when he was accepted by the "old man" in the mansion, I knew from then and on it would become much more interesting. Continuing on with this mindset, I thoroughly enjoyed Matt's middle age, old age, and age 14. Such intensive activity blended in with spectacular writing made this book stand out from most novel study books. Farmer was certainly able to trick me when Matt and Maria got caught by Steven and Emilia just before they could escape in the hovercraft. These two characters, Steven and Emilia, I found were part of Farmer's weak link in this book. Even though they each had small parts of speech and emotion, I felt they were undeveloped and rather ignored. If Farmer could have elaborated on the two in further depths, like she did with Matt, Maria, Celia, Tam Lin and even Rosa, maybe we could have seen what Matt meant when he said, ""Steven," whispered Matt. In all this time he'd thought Steven and Emilia were-if not his friends-not his enemies, either. He'd admired Steven. In many ways they were alike."- Farmer pg. 226
Although the plot was able to pick itself back up in chapters 23 to 25, I would have to say the last section, "La Vida Nueva " proved to be out of place and awkward to me. From what I as a reader had just experienced before, the section was an oddly way to prepare for the ending. My mindset from before, "become much more interesting" didn't seem to carry on in full swing. In fact, it went right back to the "strange" category. Despite the difference of mood and voice in these chapters, I was still able to pick out the futuristic lands beyond Matt's old life, including the genuine friendships he shares with Chacho, Fidelito, and Ton-Ton. Ending off with a true and reasonable ending, "The House of the Scorpion" was a memorable yet unsusual read to experience. This particular read is highly recommended to any audience 13 and up in the mood for a suspenseful science fiction.
Paige, I applaud you excellent attention to word choice in this review! Well done! The text that you chose to begin the review was also well selected and served it's purpose well. This review is not crafted like the others we have done this year, but still offered your views on the novel. That being said, I felt that you really only considered plot development (with a little characterization), with little attention to the other choices Farmer made (theme, setting, etc.). Remember that your critique should reflect the depth to which we explored the novel.
ReplyDeleteEngaging review, and well done overall!