In creating a relationship between a young, out-of-work actress who dabbles in prostitution, and an impressionable fourteen-year-old boy, Wersba introduces a great number of social issues. The novel deals forthrightly with the deepest teen issues: feeling unwanted by parents, being the brunt of peer cruelty, running away, loneliness, love, and suicide. Chandler is underage and drinking, and she encourages young Harvey to do the same. She borrows money from him, conceals the fact that she is selling her body to men, and in fact never seems to tell the truth about anything she is doing. She can talk truthfully about her feelings, but never about what is actually happening in her life. In this way, she lives in somewhat of a fantasy land, and in this way she relates best to Harvey, who also spends most of his time hiding from life by dreaming of a...