Jess Lourey introduces The Quarry Girls with a note on growing up in 1970s Minnesota when serial killers like John Wayne Gacy, the Son of Sam, and Ted Bundy began targeting their victims and garnered wide-swept media attention across the United States. Lourey’s hometown of St. Cloud had three active serial killers during her adolescence, two of whom were caught and one of whom remains unnamed to this day. The narrative is situated, then, during a time when serial killers were on the rise not only in Minnesota but across the United States. Aspects of this crisis and changing social norms are mentioned throughout the novel. Hitchhiking—for example—was common practice among young people, including women that Lourey mentions when Maureen turns up missing. Serial killer Edmund Kemper, otherwise known as the Co-Ed Killer, started his eventual killing spree by picking up female hitchhikers before letting them go. Eventually, Kemper killed the women whom he offered rides to.

The narrative examines the misogyny in American culture and how this sexism contributes to the abuse of young women, both fictionally and in the real world. In her note, Lourey cites that “70% of serial killer victims are female” (i).