A very debauched novel - Ten Thousand Saints

Whoops, what I posted yesterday? Hold that thought! I surmised from the first chapter of Eleanor Henderson's novel "Ten Thousand Saints" that the narrative would focus on some slacker teens in Burlington, Vermont, in the 1980s, noting that this was a largely unexplored territory for literary fiction and that for a change the novel wouldn't be about preppies or privileged New York kids - and then I got to the second chapter, when the prep-school dropout arrives from New York with her bag of cocaine and her baggage of issues. Oh well, it's still a pretty powerful novel about some severely troubled teens from highly irresponsible families and how they make their way, or don't, through their difficult times. It's a very debauched novel, with more teenage sex, drug abuse, drinking, smoking, and ill behavior than anything I've read in a long time - since Less Than Zero, maybe - and I can't help but think that part of its appeal, or maybe I should say its critical success (because it's not exactly appealing) is the lurid thrill educated adult readers (those who read literary fiction) get from seeing a picture of youth that was never theirs, or their kids'. I suppose this picture is accurate, for some - though hardly typical and probably wildly exaggerated as well. The novel is compelling, and I'll say with it - but what it needs to lift it to the level of great would be some unfolding of the inner life of the characters, which so far I haven't seen. Are they fully rounded figures, or just a compilation of their conditions and their circumstances?