Close to the Edge is set in a fictional wealthy suburb in Southern California called "Upper Hillcrest" filled with "half-acre lots and white two-story colonials." The sun is always shining; it never rains (except on the day that Cindy takes her own life). Jenny's life takes place against the backdrop of country clubs, her high school, endless parties ("there'd be so many parties!") and the beach. It is Southern California as a dream place, a "Beach Boys" song come to life. It is, readers might imagine, as wonderful as it seems on the teen television shows set in the same locale. The book, however, begins in the beauty of Aspen, another "fantasy" land where people go to have fun and to live life to the fullest. This is the setting where Jenny thinks about killing herself.

These fantasy landscapes are contrasted sharply against the three other settings that...