Where It All Goes Down
Reno, Nevada
Ellen Hopkins lives in Nevada, so it's no surprise she'd set a novel there. After all, write what you know, right? In Kendra's first chapter, she and her mom drive from Reno to Elko, which is across the state (Reno's on the west, across the border from Northern California, and Elko's on the East, close to Utah). Andre goes to Las Vegas for his audition, which is a seven-hour drive south. The three cities form kind of a lopsided, upside-down triangle, if you're into spatial relations.
Mount Rose, where the characters go skiing (and where Cara meets Dani) is about a forty-five minute drive southwest, on Lake Tahoe. Should you want to schedule a Perfect tour of Nevada, you might want to stop at Galena High School, which really exists, and they really are called the Grizzlies. (Andre's school, Zephyr Academy, isn't real.)
Oh, and the Ultimate Rush Thrill Park at the Grand Sierra Resort, where Andre and Jenna go on one of their first dates, also exists, but it's now known as Grand Adventure Land. Enjoy the bungee jumping…
That this book is set in the world in which we live is important. This isn't fantasy, and these problems aren't made up: Teens really do struggle with much of what our four narrators navigate, and by keeping the setting real, their problems come across as real, too.