Paranoid Park by Blake Nelson | Teen Ink

Paranoid Park by Blake Nelson

April 29, 2008
By Anonymous

Have you ever wondered what you would do if you had killed anybody, a friend, parent, an enemy accidentally? Well Paranoid Park is a murder story written by Blake Nelson. It is about a teenage skater who kills a police guard out of confusion when trying to protect himself, and with no witnesses to tell what happen, no one is going to believe it was an accident. The book follows him through the book while trying to hide the fact that he killed a police guard.

The book follows a teenage skater who hears of a skate park called Paranoid Park (I wonder why they named the book Paranoid Park).
He goes there, but doesn't do anything. He goes there a second time and is asked to go with somebody to get some cigarettes. They have to jump a train to get go to the place to get the cigarettes; they get caught by a police gourd. The police guard swings a lead baton at him and in defense the teenager swings his skate board with so much force to his head that it kills, he lays there dead on the rail road tracks.

The book is very descriptive and brings the character to life with emotions and actions. The book does a good job showing what any body might do in a time might do in a horrible situation like that. This book has really long chapters that you might think of skipping, but you will see that you need to read every chapter to understand any other parts of the book. The book shows that no matter what crime or mistake you will need to forgive your self and move on, also that you should try your best to fix your mistake, if you don't you are going to live with your mistake for the rest of your life, people will find out and your punishment might not be as bad if you had told from the begging, but the skater says “I might never forgive my self”.

I like how the author describes the characters and the character's actions and emotions. For example when he describes how the teenager reacts to killing the police officer. The author creates a great image in your head that will bring you into the book more and more till you won't put it down. I have seen many books and movies about people killing other people out of rage, anger and or defense.

There is also a movie to the book which follows is a close comparison to the book. Many people have given Paranoid Park good reviews. New York Times gave it 4 stars out of 5. Blake Nelson has published many books like Girl, Rock Star Super Star, Exile, Gender Bender, and many other books he has written.

I only recommend the book to 13 year olds because this book contains many scenes and the strong language that that I don't think a child might understand or want to read.



My overall opinion of it that the book is great for young adults and is gives great description of every part but not too much that it bores you. I also think that some parts are confusing, but you will understand it after a few sentences.



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