Where It All Goes Down
Chinook, Washington
The setting shifts a number of times in the book, as a part of Jack and his mom's nomadic, shifting lifestyle. But the bulk of it takes place in the delightful little town of Chinook, which is full of sad houses and exists only so people can work in the nearby power company. It's a bit of a prison with "the gracious, well-tended look of an old military camp, and that was what people called it—the camp." (8.17) It reflects Jack's bleak prospects pretty well. No personality. No opportunity. No way to stand out or make a name for yourself or even go somewhere that's marginally less soul-sucking. You just get to sit there are take it… like a prisoner.
Even more telling is Dwight's house, which is kind of like a Chinook-within-Chinook:
It wasn't really a house, but half a barracks where German prisoners of war had been quartered. (8.7)
Pretty fitting place for Jack's teenage imprisonment: an actual former prison in a town that feels like a prison, far away from anything non-prison-like.
We're betting that a lot of kids growing up in small towns are down with Jack's vibes here.