Quarter 1 SSR Assignment

   For the first quarter I read "The House of The Scorpion" written by Nancy Farmer. This fictional story has a total of 415 pages. The last 10 pages are about the author and some accomplishments. The reason I have chosen this book is because I have read other books written by Nancy Farmer and my sister recommended this book for me, so I said "why not".
   This story has a major twist towards the middle, so I will mainly explain the introduction. The story is about a young boy named Matteo Alacran or Matt for short. He is currently 14 in the story and he has a sad background where his parents treat him like crap. They still do and the only person that really cares for him is his best friend Maria. Later on he over hears his parents conversation about taking him to some secret hideout. They kept referring to him as "it" instead of saying his name or even "he" or "him". He finds out that he was never born or produced, he was actually cloned. His purpose is to grow to a certain age until the man who cloned him would take his organs to stay alive for more years. This really surprises him and when his so called "parents" find out, they throw him away in the basement locked up like a prisoner. Maria finds out that he is no longer showing up, so she ends up rescuing him and takes him to her house. She does not know he is not an actual human being, so he keeps that as a secret. He stays at her house until her parents call the police and they take him to the lord of the country. The lord known as El Patron ends up taking care of him and treats him as one of his own. Still Matt fears that his former parents will come back and take him. Then after a while something really unexpected happens that really opened my eyes, so I will not say anymore because I cannot give any spoilers. Let's just say Nancy Farmer knows how to write a twist.
   I really liked the twist in the story it makes me draw more attention towards it and it was considered a real page-turner. I was also able to imagine the background of the story because it gives a lot of detail. However, I didn't like the main character Matt. He is like scared by every little thing in the world. He doesn't fight back or say anything to when he is being insulted or bullied. At the age of 14 he should show some courage. I did like the whole story though, It had really great twists with some drama that showed lots of emotion towards it. I recommend this book if you like action and unexpected twists in the main plot.