The events in Way Past Cool take place in an impoverished section of Oakland, a region of abandoned businesses and decaying homes where plumbing rarely works properly. The homes of the characters tend to be apartments that have been made out of buildings intended for other uses. For instance, Lyon lives across the hall from his mother because their home was originally an office building, and Lyon and his mother sleep in what were separate offices.

The only businesses that seem to survive in the depressed neighborhood of the Friends, the name of the gang to which the teens belong, are small groceries, a fastfood outlet with bullet-proof glass separating the workers from the customers, liquor stores, and brothels. The area also has churches, places that are no refuge from the rage and flying bullets that are a part of daily life. The novel opens with a sensational...