Sequel to "Bar Nights", tells the origin of main protagonist Arlo Smith from his early childhood and high school years.
It's the last weekend of the summer for Arlo Smith. During a simple act of innocence, Arlo and his best friend James witness a crime against the human soul. While James seems cursed by it, Arlo on the other hand doesn't react nearly the same, and instead takes another breath, and lets the summer take its course. For Arlo Smith, High School starts off with a train wreck, and continues to escalate through the woes and tribulations of every typical, average teenager caught in the maelstrom of "growing up". Friends come and go, some stick close. Among the mentally-enslaved teachers, a few stick out to help him along his journey. And Beth Jensen, the high school guidance counselor, teaches him in ways both metaphorically and directly the meaning of love, attraction, and temptation. But while Arlo is seeing through his eyes the passing of each day, James has allowed that last day of summer to define him, and to plant a seed which begins to spread roots of rot. The day will come when brothers will have to confront themselves, and make the only decision that can be made. When "no going back" becomes more than just a whisper of adventure, the dice will be rolled, and no one will be able to escape the ensuing consequences. Book 2 in "The Mire Man Trilogy", "Paradise City", tells the origin of Arlo Smith, and illustrates the first steps on his journey toward becoming the seemingly soulless nothing he is in "Bar Nights". It is a story that narrates what it's like to grow up against the grit and torment of youth while under the vengeful weight of inevitability masquerading beneath the guise of well-intentioned promises... and the price of what true friendship can sometimes require.
Professional Reviews
I tell everyone who reads ..pick up a Dave Matthes book ... He never disappoints !!
We meet arlo this time as a young high school student ,going through your average teenage things and your not so average teenage things . The author gives you a look into the tough things he went through and possibly why he turned into the man he is in book 1 . As always , only told the way Dave Matthes can tell a story , amazing , descriptive , and pulling you right into the story like you are a part of it . I highly recommend this book and this author to anyone who can handle real life , good and bad . Five freaking fabulous stars for me !!!
The Hungry Monster Book Review
Paradise City by Dave Matthes is the second book in his Mire Man Trilogy. The story goes back twenty years to Arlo Smith’s teens, a time of many firsts for him. The story opens with Arlo and his best friend, James Landon, skulking through the woods in order to peep into a local stripper’s window, trying to see what any puberty-addled boy hopes to see. What they see and experience there is a first that changes them, their friendship and perhaps, their lives.
High school isn’t fun for everyone. Arlo and James’ freshman year pulls them apart, and while they remain friends, they meet new people, experience first love, infatuation, and learn the pleasure and pain of drinking and smoking weed. Arlo’s mother introduces him to a parade of boyfriends who drag him into a world of alcoholism, and abuse. Through it all, Arlo learns that he can write, his teachers think he’s good at it, but it isn’t enough to keep him from the lure of drinking and brawling.
If you’re going into this book expecting an uplifting coming-of-age story, you will be sadly disappointed. Paradise City is a dark, no-bull look into the brutal world that Arlo grew up in. His mother’s boyfriend uses him as a punching bag, his best buddy is a drug dealer, and he has nowhere to turn to except for the booze he steals from home or gets at parties every chance he gets.
Interludes from Arlo’s adult life are interspersed within the novel. He’s getting treatment at the Moriarty Institute, where he admitted himself for psychiatric care. This adds insight and ties Arlo’s past and present together. Whatever confession his doctor hopes to get out of him might be something from his past, or it could just be the ramblings of a man with mental illness.
The author really nails the emotions and reasoning of a teenaged boy. Arlo’s thoughts and decisions are spot-on for a teen. No one but his guidance counselor seems to care one way or another about his future. The counselor has good intentions and Arlo is infatuated with her; she speaks to him like he’s an adult, but she’s not that much older than he is. Their relationship skirts the line between propriety and danger more than once.
One of the problems I had with the book was placing it in a time period. I’m not sure if it’s inconsistency, or if it’s intentional. Music has a role in the story, and all of the songs and bands mentioned are from the late 1970’s. In one scene, there’s a reference to a flat-screen monitor for a computer playing music, but later, in the same office, the music is playing on a record player. The students at the school don’t mention cell phones or social media, yet Arlo has a cell phone. The pop culture references are from late twentieth century, yet the few mentions of technology feel like the twenty-first.
Though it’s second in a series, Paradise City holds up on its own. While you don’t need to have read the first book, if you start with this one, you’ll certainly want to go back to book one and catch up before the final installment of the trilogy.
An origin story that answers some questions creates a bounty of others...
In book two of The Mire Man Trilogy, Arlo is still a patient at Moriarty's Institute more than a year after committing himself. Ever the misanthrope, we learn that Arlo's time while institutionalized has been far from productive, much to the ire of his clinicians. Combative, occasionally violent, and still haunted by the absence of Constance, Arlo shares his origin story with Dr. Mansfield, answering some of the questions prompted by Bar Nights but leaving so many more a mystery. Matthes has created an origin story that meanders through Arlo's late adolescence, confronting issues ranging from abuse, abandonment, intoxication, and death in a style that's once again proven to be both relatable and engaging all at once. While Arlo is once again the protagonist, the reader can't help but want to know more about the entire cast of characters; Matthes' development of each personality that Arlo encounters serves to drive the plot forward while making the reader want to know more about their lives. From his friends and family to his guidance counselor (with whom his relationship is questionable at best), Arlo's interactions with others shed light upon the broken shell of a man we met in Bar Nights.
Shedding light on Arlo's history provides readers with an "Aha!" moment that allows them to better understand what has driven Arlo to the point of insouciance in all that he does while still forcing our hand in wanting him to come out on the other side reasonably unscathed. Matthes has managed to turn Arlo from an incorrigible alcoholic with little regard for anything other than his next glass of brown to a lost soul simply seeking to banish the demons of his past -- demons that would've driven lesser men to the grave decades before. Never one to let his readers rest on their laurels, Matthes ends Paradise City in such a way that will both infuriate and excite the reader, giving them no choice but to read the conclusion to this rollercoaster of a trilogy.
The bulk of the collection is eight short stories that are set in yesteryear. The compilation is filled out with four entertaining fantasy pieces and three poems.
