The Scorpion Rules Quotes

This book was brilliant. There were moments that made me laugh, moments that made me tremble in my chair, moments that made me cry, moments that melted my heart, and moments that made me want to rip my hair out at the roots. This book has it all, and it delivers it through a cold but much needed message.
The Scorpion Rules is not a typical dystopia. It takes The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner, and Divergent and basically gives them the middle finger while laughing manically – actually, Talis would be laughing maniacally because he is just that strange. This book starts off with a very informational prologue, basically, it is explaining what the hell went down a couple hundred years in the past from when this book takes place. Long story short, humans were killing humans, Talis – an extremely advanced AI system – was tasked with finding a solution, and his solution was to blow up cities to get people’s attention. It worked, he became like some evil, computer overlord thing, and it all basically goes downhill while

also solving a lot of problems from there. Talis’ answer to world peace is this: the Children of the Peace. Basically, if you want to rule, you must have a child – and that child is taken away from you. It usually happens when they turn five or six years old so you have time to bond with them before they are taken away. Because, the grand scheme of it all is that if you start a war – your child, your hostage, will die. Brutal, but effective.
Greta Gustafsen Stuart, Duchess of Halifax and Crown Princess of the Pan Polar Confederacy, spends her days, then years, as a hostage at Precepture Four in Saskatchewan.

She was amazing. I don’t know what I liked the most about her, her willingness to do what needed to be done, her dignity, her bravery, her ability to think things through and come up with a logical solution. She was a beautifully crafted character, so different from the norms of a young adult dystopian protagonist yet still having that same spark that I love. She was responsible, she knew her duty and she wasn’t afraid to do it – no matter the cost. she has a really interesting character arc in this novel, and some of the emotional situations (e.g. flashback scenes with her mother, her relationship with Elián) immediately caught my attention and sympathy. I found her narrative to be quite compelling, and Greta a wonderful example of how a steadfast, clever, logical mind could be a

weapon.