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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/9591
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I'm writing a young-adult story, that is quite clearly set in my home town, because this is where I grew up as a young adult and it is easier to write about. Everyone speaks English, but speaks French when they're talking to a person of authority. The bus schedule sucks. The town is mostly white. These will all be used in an appropriately interesting manner without distracting from the main plot.

What I'm curious is if this will detract from the general approachability of my story to young-adults or if this can be done appropriately.

I'm aware this is related to [this question](https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/6456/deciding-the-setting-real-or-invented), but neither the asker, nor do any of the answers address young-adult fiction in particular.

My evidence for and against this is as follows.

The majority of John Green books take in place in specific real places, with real land-marks that affect the story. He does this well, but I'm not sure what distinguishes his use of place from other stories I've read.

As a counter example, I remember reading as a youth Kit's Wilderness and being bored to tears by all the details about the mining community. This further backs up what I've heard that when writing young adult stories, it's somewhat important to leave wiggle room for the reader to project themselves at least partly into the role of a character.

To summarize, is there a rule of thumb for deciding the level of detail in regards to place in a young adult story?

Original score: 5