Her home life is difficult, as her father left home and remarried when she was little and will only occasionally send them money to cover the family's rent - something made more vital when Nora's mother begins to gain fewer hours at work.

Nora is loath to let her best friend Kathleen MacInerney know exactly how bad things have gotten at home.

Kathleen has a nice house and a loving family, including a firefighter father and a feminist mother.

However, it doesn't last and paranoia and fear creep in when fires and shootings start becoming commonplace.

[3] As she was only thirteen when Berkowitz was captured and arrested in 1977, Medina conducted extensive research and interviewed people who were teens or adults during that point in time.