Author: Nancy Farmer
Series: Matteo Alacran #2
Genre: YA, Dystopian, Magical Realism
First published September 3, 2013
Book description (from back cover): The new book continues the story of Matt, the boy who was cloned from evil drug lord El Patrón in The House of the Scorpion. Now 14 years old, Matt rules his own country, the Land of Opium, the only thriving place in a world ravaged by ecological disaster. Though he knows that the cure for ending the suffering is hidden in Opium, Matt faces obstacles and enemies at every turn when he tries to use his power to help.
Review:
I read and read The house of Scorpion several times when I was younger- middle school or maybe starting in 6th grade. It took me years to actually get my hands on the continuation of the series. And once I had it, I was unsure, what if I do not enjoy the continuation?
Finally, I picked up the book. And I was greatly surprised. Keep in mind this is a middle grade and that's the audience it targets. It starts off with Mat returning to the land of Opium. He manages to be approved to get into the lands, the whole country has been in lockdown and the only hope is that Matt is able to open the borders, after all he shared genetic composition as The Patron.
It's a lot of responsibility for a 14-year-old boy, but Esperanza does not seem to care about him, she is a very cold-hearted woman. They decide to place the responsibility of opening the border on a boy, but after all he's not important if he dies well, he was nothing but a clone. The adults play with his self-worth. Matt is informed that after being considered worse than an animal because he's a clone, overnight he's to be considered a human being. Why? After the original dies, the clone automatically becomes the human. This is the ultimate proof, clones are not in any way different than humans except for how they are treated.
One of the negative aspects or at least I felt ambivalent was how women are portrayed. I do not care for the portrayal of women, with most of them being entirely undeveloped and shunted into homemaker-y roles and the one powerful woman, María's mother, is depicted as entirely unfeeling. Like any woman in politics, Esperanza is judged more for her horrible parenting than her political stances, which, so far as I can tell, mostly involve trying to help the environment recover from what humans have done to it. As a reader I still disliked Esperanza, but at the same time we do not seem to explore her at all, and there were even more examples of bad parents but it feels like she's the most judged simply because of the belief women should have motherly instincts while men are ok to aspire for power and leave the family in last step of priority. It could be seen as commentary if you squint, maybe.
This whole story is thought-provoking, with social commentary such as discrimination, and climate change among others. The main focus Matt is trying to overcome initially is to humanize the eejits, give them back their normal life and get rid of the opium farms as he is against the drug lords and their power in general.
The plotline sounds amazing, but it is not overly explored, our main focus is Matt. So be warned this is character-focused with very little effort into the plot. Matt is a teen, who grew up with little education and has deep self-worth issues, so we'll give him a break. He has ambitious and humanitarian goals, but he can't focus on them. He is struggling with himself, he feels there are intrusive thoughts that give him ideas, and even in some cases, he acts as the Patron would. The struggle becomes evident and he feels still isolated from the people around him.
The friends and Maria become another distraction as he struggles with issues on some of them. Discovering he likes Maria as more than a friend possibly, knowing that she is far away and surrounded by people who are encouraging her constantly to give her hand in marriage to an old man. You know, there are so many social commentaries, child marriages, bad parents, selfishness, and even friendships tested in the worst possible way. There was a lot more drama than I expected. Again romance is not my jam sometimes, this is a great example. The angsty love and its struggles feel off and too forced. It gives me the creeps in some cases especially how the people react and the ideas they imply to Matt. The adults in Opium assume Matt will use Mirasol as a sex toy, she has been designed with no free will and only follows the most basic orders. There are so many things wrong in that idea that I found it revolting- it was never explored as the audience of the book but still its there is you are reading this as an older audience. Argh, I felt so wrong reading this.
The parts of the book I enjoyed were the political and psychological angles. Politically, Opium's a mess. El Patrón and his heirs died, leaving a power vacuum in one of the most powerful drug kingdoms. With El Patrón dead, Matt becomes the new Patrón and legally a human being, no longer a clone. Though legally accepted as humans and ruler, others are not necessarily eager to show deference to a fifteen-year-old clone. People around him are trying to control, sway or just manipulate the boy, he is after all so inexperienced that they assume it will not be too difficult. People around him will surely see him as nothing but a puppet if he lets them. The struggle is huge, on who he can trust for advice and also who is giving him self-serving advice, and who is actually worth listening to.
On top of that, Matt wants to make huge changes to Opium, namely stopping the production of opium and curing the eejits, microchipped workers. The whole economy of the country will have to be restructured to do this, not to mention the scientific work that will need to be done to remove the microchips from the workers. Plus, other countries will not be thrilled to hear that Matt doesn't wish to export opium anymore, most especially Africa, run by the super creepy Glass Eye Dabengwa, who's a lot like El Patrón was.
All that being said, this book has some truly thought-provoking ideas, and asks some difficult and relevant questions. That in itself makes this with reading.
What is the relationship of a clone to the original?
How much of a clone is their own--their body, their thoughts, their personality, their instincts?
When does a human being stop being a person, if ever?
How can a whole lot of people be willing to accept the fact that people who were once normal be less human after going through a clinical intervention? Everyone just accepts it and decides they have no cure so stop trying to "save" them.
Can slaves be considered freed and compensated simply by being free? What does it consider freedom? How can you expect people to react to having lost years, possibly decades, and worse wake up one day and know your family has moved on and forgotten you?
None of these things are easy to answer. Nancy Farmer explores them through Matt's complicated relationship with El Patrón (before and after his death), his attempted connection with Mirasol, and his new role as a drug lord. As I mentioned earlier, these things weren't discussed quite thoroughly the main focus is Matt, and we get tiny snippets of other characters like Cienfuegos, the Dr what's his name the one who is responsible for creating Mat and creating the eejits, the Mushroom man, the only scientist who knows about the outside word form the Dome.
I have mixed feelings about this. The premise and its ideas are fascinating, but the plot is slow. The narration is simplistic and choppy, and there are so many flat side characters. If The House of the Scorpion was your jam, I don't think The Lord of Opium will taint your opinion of the previous book, except maybe the romance arc.
My initial thought was I loved it for what it is. Perfection? No, but I really enjoy the overall series! I will reread them both back to back at some point later, my rating might change but that's part of the fun.
This book was used for the challenges:
Complete series.
Orilium: Elemental studies- Flower in the cover.
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