Klein's works tend to deal with highly controversial subjects, so much so that she has been labeled "outrageous."

In fact, she once said that she intended to deal with one taboo subject a year for the rest of her writing career. One of the main areas of controversy that she treats is sexual activity among young adults. Many of her young adult characters, like Elise, engage in sexual experimentation. The title character in Bizou, for example, is also just beginning to experience her sexuality, but she is younger than Elise.

Central to many of Klein's works are families in which the parents are or get divorced, one of them is dead or dies, or they were never married. In fact, such families seem to be fairly typical of her works. They are found in novels like Mom, the Wolf Man and Me, Bizou, Taking Sides, and...