Venice Beach

Ballard often spends her free time and sleeps in a tent on Venice Beach, a strip of the L.A. shoreline known for its hippie culture and street artists and performers. Ballard chooses Venice because, while increasingly gentrifying, it is less crowded and expensive than nearby Santa Monica. While Ballard befriends the lifeguards and local homeless people, it is far from a stable, comfortable place to live. However, it reminds Ballard of the beaches she once lived on throughout her childhood, so she persists in her unconventional lifestyle.

The Upside-Down House

When patrol cops find Ramona Ramone, she is only able to tell them she was attacked at the “upside-down house” before she quickly slips into a coma (18). This mysterious, somewhat creepy description baffles Ballard until she cases Thomas Trent’s home in the Hollywood Hills. There she discovers his house is recessed into a steep hill...