Crosses is set at Babylon High School in Long Island, New York. Babylon High represents in many ways a stereotypical large suburban high school. Interestingly, in one journal, the review of Crosses was paired with a review of Teenage Wasteland: Suburbia's Dead End Kids, A great deal of the novel takes place at school—not in the classrooms, but rather in bathrooms where Katie and Nancy steal away to smoke, drink, and cut.

They also get high almost every day at school and at a Chinese restaurant near school. Other prominent settings in the book include the Sunrise Mall where the girls go to hang out (and steal clothing) and Nancy's house, where she is hounded by her parents and sleeps off her hangovers. At the end of book, Katie enrolls in another suburban high school.

Setting the book in a suburban high school provides the necessary...