History YMMV / HouseOfTheScorpion

** Steven Alacrán. He's introduced with a good PetTheDog moment in rushing Matt to have someone help him after he steps on broken glass, and later gets a KickTheDog moment in [[spoiler:Turning over Matt to be captured for El Patron to Harvest]] but he doesn't really get anything significant to do in between when his CharacterDevelopment from UsedToBeASweetKid and possible interactions with Matt could have been shown.

* MoralEventHorizon: The Alacrán family crosses it when [[spoiler: they attempt to dispose of Matt after El Patrón's death.]]
** If the Keepers hadn't already crossed it by [[spoiler:throwing Matt and Chacho into the bone pit]], they certainly did when they [[spoiler:tried to remove Chacho from life support after explicitly being told that would kill him]].

** Steven Alcran. He's introduced with a good PetTheDog moment in rushing Matt to have someone help him after he steps on broken glass, and later gets a KickTheDog moment in [[spoiler:Turning over Matt to be captured for El Patron to Harvest]] but he doesn't really get anything significant to do in between when his CharacterDevelopment from UsedToBeASweetKid and possible interactions with Matt could have been shown.

* [[{{WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids}} What Do You Mean, It's For Preteens?]] Despite being marketed as a book for a pre-teen audience, the book is very dark and touches on several controversial ethics issues.

* FauxSymbolism: Why is Tam Lin named "Literature/TamLin"? Probably because it's Scottish.
** Justified however, as it's implied to be an assumed identity. El Patrón probably came up with it.
* MoralEventHorizon: The Alacrán family crosses it when [[spoiler: they attempt to dispose of Matt after El Patrón's death.]]

* StrangledByTheRedString: Matt and Maria: Maria is the only girl around Matt's age in the entire book.

* HarsherInHindsight: The concept of Opium, a Latin American country ran by drug cartels, is becoming more and more possible with the Mexican Drug War at time of writing.

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: Child labor is immoral. [[FantasticAesop Killing one's clones to prolong one's existence is immoral. Turning people into computerized zombies is immoral.]]

** If the Keepers hadn't already crossed it by [[throwing Matt and Chacho into the bone pit]], they certainly did when they [[tried to remove Chacho from life support after explicitly being told that would kill him]].

* CompleteMonster: "[[EvilOldFolks El Patrón]]", born Matteo Alacrán, is a drug lord ruling over the country of Opium. Reducing anyone caught crossing the border illegally--as well as his own staff--into mindless "[[FateWorseThanDeath eejits]]" to serve in his operations, El Patrón's [[BadBoss harsh work environments]] lead to the deaths of hundreds of thousands. Harvesting organs from his own clones to extend his life, El Patrón allows them to be raised believing they are his beloved children before cruelly killing them. [[ItsAllAboutMe Believing everything to be his]], El Patrón even makes plans to wipe out all life in Opium with his passing to die with him.

* CompleteMonster: "El Patrón", born Matteo Alacrán, is a drug lord ruling over the country of Opium. Reducing anyone caught crossing the border illegally--as well as his own staff--into mindless "[[FateWorseThanDeath eejits]]" to serve in his operations, El Patrón's [[BadBoss harsh work environments]] lead to the deaths of hundreds of thousands. Harvesting organs from his own clones to extend his life, El Patrón allows them to be raised believing they are his beloved children before cruelly killing them. [[ItsAllAboutMe Believing everything to be his]], El Patrón even makes plans to wipe out all life in Opium with his passing to die with him.

* CompleteMonster: "El Patrón", born Matteo Alacrán, is a drug lord ruling over the country of Opium. Reducing anyone caught crossing the border illegally--as well as his own staff--into mindless "eejits" to serve in his operations, El Patrón's harsh work environments lead to the deaths of hundreds of thousands. Harvesting organs from his own clones to extend his life, El Patrón allows them to be raised believing they are his beloved children before cruelly killing them. Believing [[ItsAllAboutMe everything to be his]], El Patrón even makes plans to wipe out all life in Opium with his passing to die with him.

* CompleteMonster: "El Patrón", born Matteo Alacrán, is a drug lord ruling over the country of Opium. Reducing anyone caught crossing the border illegally--as well as his own staff--into mindless "eejits" to serve in his operations, El Patrón's harsh work environments lead to the deaths of hundreds of thousands. Harvesting organs from his own clones to extend his life, El Patrón allows them to be raised believing they are his beloved children before cruelly killing them. Believing everything to be in his possession, El Patrón even makes plans to wipe out all life in Opium with his passing to die with him.

* CompleteMonster: El Patrón, the original Matteo Alacrán, is the most powerful and evil drug lord of them all. El Patrón rules over the country of Opium and punishes anyone who tries to illegally cross his borders by capturing them and implanting computer chips in their brains, turning them into [[FateWorseThanDeath eejits]]. These eejits are essentially human robots, programmed to do certain tasks all while their thoughts and emotions are repressed by the computer chip. Even El Patrón's security team and certain staff members have been implanted with chips, turning them into high-functioning eejits bound to El Patrón's will. The most common usage of "dumb" eejits is for manual labor in the fields used to create his drugs. Due to the harsh conditions and poor care, they tend to have a low life expectancy, leading to hundreds of thousands of bodies being buried beneath the poppies. El Patrón, like many drug lords, [[ImmortalityImmorality keeps himself alive]] to nearly one hundred and fifty-years old by [[HumanResources harvesting organs from clones]]. Unlike most drug lords, however, El Patrón doesn't destroy his clones brains, instead he raises them like they were his own children, [[ParentalBetrayal only to harvest and kill them without hesitation when the time comes]]. [[ItsAllAboutMe El Patrón cares for no one but himself]] and sees everyone around him as his possessions, such as the dead siblings he only valued because they were his. In the end, after his death, he still manages to murder everyone close to him by poisoning the wine they drank at his funeral. He also put his country into lockdown with deadly force fields only to be dismissed by his DNA, leaving them to starve as a "fitting tribute" to take with him into the afterlife, just like the kings of old.

* CompleteMonster: El Patrón, the original Matteo Alacrán, is the most powerful and evil drug lord of them all. El Patrón rules over the country of Opium and punishes anyone who tries to illegally cross his borders by capturing them and implanting computer chips in their brains, turning them into eejits. These eejits are essentially human robots, programmed to do certain tasks all while their thoughts and emotions are repressed by the computer chip. Even El Patrón's security team and certain staff members have been implanted with chips, turning them into high-functioning eejits bound to El Patrón's will. The most common usage of "dumb" eejits is for manual labor in the fields used to create his drugs. Due to the harsh conditions and poor care, they tend to have a low life expectancy, leading to hundreds of thousands of bodies being buried beneath the poppies. El Patrón, like many drug lords, [[ImmortalityImmorality keeps himself alive]] to nearly one hundred and fifty-years old by [[HumanResources harvesting organs from clones]]. Unlike most drug lords, however, El Patrón doesn't destroy his clones brains, instead he raises them like they were his own children, [[ParentalBetrayal only to harvest and kill them without hesitation when the time comes]]. [[ItsAllAboutMe El Patrón cares for no one but himself]] and sees everyone around him as his possessions, such as the dead siblings he only valued because they were his. In the end, after his death, he still manages to murder everyone close to him by poisoning the wine they drank at his funeral. He also put his country into lockdown with deadly force fields only to be dismissed by his DNA, leaving them to starve as a "fitting tribute" to take with him into the afterlife, just like the kings of old.