• The House of the Scorpion

  • By: Nancy Farmer
  • Narrated by: Raul Esparza
  • Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (2,096 ratings)

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The House of the Scorpion  By  cover art

The House of the Scorpion

By: Nancy Farmer
Narrated by: Raul Esparza
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Publisher's summary

National Book Award, Young People's Literature, 2002

Matt is a clone of El Patrón, a powerful drug lord of the land of Opium, which is located between the United States and Mexico. For six years, he has lived in a tiny cottage in the poppy fields with Celia, a kind and deeply religious servant woman who is charged with his care and safety. He knows little about his existence until he is discovered by a group of children playing in the fields and wonders why he isn't like them. Though Matt has been spared the fate of most clones, who have their intelligence destroyed at birth, the evil inhabitants of El Patrón's empire consider him a "beast" and an "eejit".

When El Patrón dies at the age of 146, 14-year-old Matt escapes Opium with the help of Celia and Tam Lin, his devoted bodyguard who wants to right his own wrongs. After a near misadventure in his escape, Matt makes his way back home and begins to rid the country of its evils.

©2004 Nancy Farmer (P)2008 Simon and Schuster

What listeners say about The House of the Scorpion

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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Children sci-fi book for adults as well

I like the story I listened long time ago with my daughter. It was a sci-fi then and still a sci-fi and hope it will stay sci-fi long time. Human farming should not be allowed anywhere even by the richest and powerful of us. Great discussion opener for the family.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Great ending!

Looking forward to The Lord of Opium!
Great performance and satisfying ending.
I highly recommend any book by Nancy Farmer.

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  • Overall
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    4 out of 5 stars

Enjoyed this one

This is YA fiction certainly but with a dark side. In terms of difficulty of language and comprehension (but NOT story) think early Harry Potter novels. The characters are complex and the world is wonderfully woven. I can imagine this awful world existing and that made me a bit sad. For someone that is some 40 years away from being a YA it was an easy listen but enjoyable nonetheless. I loved the narrator he did a fine job.

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  • L
  • 04-03-19

Well Read, Captivating Story

Fun voice actor. Thought provoking lessons on humanity and the value of life. A real page turner.

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Very engaging

The story has some emotionally difficult moments, but it is well written and very engaging. great chapters and plot.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

House of the Scorpion-Excellent Read!

My students loved listening to this audiobook as they followed along. Narrator does an excellent job or reading with prosody.

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7 people found this helpful

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loved it

loved it it was a great story. I'm speechless. I just cant get over how great it was! Wow.

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Childhood Favorite

Alright. I'm gonna say it.

LISTEN TO THIS BOOK!

Raul Esparza is the best choice for this novel. The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer is set at least one hundred years into the future in a country called Opium. A drug lord named Matteo Alacrán long ago made a proposition to the United States of America—make a strip of land dividing America and Mexico, and he’d make sure that illegal immigrants would not pass. Alacrán would grow drugs, sell drugs to foreign countries, and America wouldn’t touch him so long as he didn’t sell in America. But that was more than a hundred years prior, and Matteo Alacrán is now El Patrón, a very old and very wealthy tyrant. Our focus is now on the drug lord’s clone, Matt.

Matt is a clone, legally considered to be livestock. He does not understand why others treat him less than a dog, despite his high intelligence and his affinity for creating delicate music. Matt survives being tossed into chicken litter for six months, breaks free from his inability to speak after the horror of being thought of as an animal, and deals with the constant torrent of negativity with the house occupants. However, with the help of his friends, Celia, Tam Lin, and María, Matt is able to conquer his confusion and fear of the future, and break free from the dragon’s grasp of El Patrón.

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amazing .I loved it so much.I read 30min a day, b

h h h h h h h h h h h h h h hh h h h h h h h h h h h h h :) uhh gt ft ugh ft by re fuss

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Love it!

One of my favorite books from my youth! Absolutely loved this production just as much!

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