Pearson's novel is set in the San Francisco Bay Area at the country home of the McBean family and on the sunny California beaches close to the city. Beanie and Buddy McBean and their parents appear to live an idyllic life there, and California seems so sharply in contrast to the boring Midwestern town in Illinois where Maddie lives.

Maddie visits the McBeans during the summer, and everything about their world enthralls her. Pearson uses the California setting to highlight the idealized notion Maddie has of the McBeans, and Maddie imagines the beach, the sprawling home, and the adventurous life the McBeans seem to lead as part of scenes from her Seventeen magazines.

Until Maddie learns better, California seems just like paradise. But paradise, it appears, is fraught with danger. Pearson sets several scenes of the novel in treacherous water. In Maddie's memories, the water swirled within a...