The House of the Scorpion - Nancy Farmer

In all honesty, I picked up this one because of the abundance of shiny stickers on the front cover. I did the same thing as a little kid and thought that I just had an impeccable taste in books; it took me a little while before I realized that I was just reading all the books that had been granted awards. Still, I am a sucker for shiny stickers. This probably isn't the best way to go about picking the next book you're going to read but in all honesty, it can't hurt.

The House of the Scorpion, by Nancy Farmer, is a post-apocalyptic YA novel about a clone named Matteo Alacran. And not just any clone but the clone of El Patron, the most powerful and influential drug lord who rules the empire of Opium, a country situated between Mexico (now Aztlan) and the United States. Matteo stands out in that he is the only clone whose mind is not destroyed when he was initially harvested.

I know, it seems as if the post-apocalyptic genre is worn out and overdone but this book didn't win all these awards for no reason. So give it a shot, and read it because of the shiny stickers.