Complete Monster: "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 his, El Patrón even makes plans to wipe out all life in Opium with his passing to die with him.
Faux Symbolism: Why is Tam Lin named "Tam Lin"? It's implied to be an assumed identity, so El Patrón probably came up with it.
The Alacrán family crosses it when they attempt to dispose of Matt after El Patrón's death.
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 being warned that would kill him.
Steven Alacrán. He's introduced with a good Pet the Dog moment in rushing Matt to have someone help him after he steps on broken glass, and later gets a Kick the Dog moment in 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 Character Development from Used to Be a Sweet Kid and possible interactions with Matt could have been shown.
El Viejo, the White Sheep of the Alcran's gets some interesting development but not once does he have a conversation with Matt.
Flaco of the Lost Boys, who is willing to rebel against the representatives of the local corrupt authorities, but seems to hold out a belief they aren't all bad and so he stays behind and becomes a What Happened to the Mouse? character.
What Do You Mean, It's for Kids? Despite being marketed as a book for a pre-teen audience, the book is very dark and touches on several controversial ethics issues.
What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: The central thematic elements in the story are a subtle critique of current American immigration politics, stem cell research, and narcotic policies.
