Ad lit.org: Reading Discussion Guide: The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer

Matt is a clone of El Patron, a powerful drug lord of the land of Opium, 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. Though Matt has been spared the fate of most clones, who have their intelligence destroyed at birth, the evil inhabitants of El Patron's empire consider him a "beast" and an "eejit." When El Patron 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.