Abby Mendelson

Paradise Boys Abby Mendelson

Paradise Boys is narrated by JoJo Arnold, a violent, angry 16-year-old boy who is spending a summer in a minimum-security institution for emotionally disturbed adolescents. In a racially mixed dormitory wing, he lives with nine other troubled teens who have a variety of problems. The Paradise Boys live in a place which takes its name from its location, Paradise Hill, on the city's North Side. Surrounded by hostile neighbors, who call the boys criminals and retards, and on set a hill above an urban jungle called the War Streets, the Paradise Boys grapple with the confusions of life. Playing softball, going canoeing, traveling to amusement parks, the boys also take drugs, fight, and cope with parents, guilt, and their own troubled pasts. Facing an endless struggle with each other-and within themselves-the Paradise Boys fight with the world until the novel's violent and shocking conclusion.