Whether to make somewhere fictional or not

[vivdunstan]

I'm newly reading Bluff by Francine Toon, which is set in St Rule, a thinly disguised version of St Andrews. I'm not sure why she bothered making it a fictional place. Not least when I read of the "Isle of Maeyar" ...

So far I'm finding the book frustratingly choppy, with incredibly short chapters, and constantly changing POVs and time periods. But hopefully it will settle down.