Before Reading: 
 LOOK AT THE COVERS. OH MY GOODNESS. SO PRETTY. 
 This is the UK cover. Super gorgeous. Yukiko is ready to slice people open. Awesome. Also, the waterfall is lovely. I am in love with this cover. 
 And this is the US. And while I loved the UK, I completely adore the US. For the first book I preferred the UK, but... This captures the book SO WELL. Also, Buruu is such a big part of the story that I feel like he needs to be on the cover and he wasn't on the cover of the UK. So... I think this is my favorite. And the colors are so vibrant! 
 After Reading: 
 The covers are a lot cooler than the books. 
 I have a lot to say about these books. I'll begin with things the least troublesome (so more personal preference) and ending with things that are disturbing and, dare I say it, even seem wrong to me. (To me, I say to me. I understand others may differ of opinion, and that's great. Remember, this is all my opinion.) 
 Firstly, you expect a lot to happen. From the reviews I'd read, I was expecting a wild sequel that had loads of important action. In the end, there was a lot of boredom. Yukiko doesn't actually do much at all, except go on a trip to control her powers, which ends in a surprising, but kind of disappointing revelation. Bad stuff happens, but it's not exactly exciting. 
 As for the action, there was a leetle bit of action before the finale with the Kage, but most of it felt so unnecessary. It was action with no purpose, and that kind of action doesn't feel nearly as intense as it could. 
 True, the climax finally brought some action, but then it was just tainted with gore and utter destruction. The type of 'action' that Kristoff finally settled for in the end contained things like implied rape, gouging out of eyes, and brutal torture for practically no reason. I'm sorry, but for me, that's just... I love a good fight. I'm all for realistically showing pain in life. But this didn't feel like that. This was Kristoff throwing in tragedies because he could, and that's not something I really enjoy or respect. 
 But seriously, before the end, practically nothing happens. So much description. 
 Secondly, the characters fell pretty flat. Besides Kin, Hana, and Ayane, I felt the none of the characters were particularly memorable. The Kage are pretty much indistinguishable from one another. They're all mad. Just plain angry at everything and really, really stupid. Except Daichi. I was literally screaming in my head at them, because it was so obvious where the book was going to go, and they were so oblivious. 
 Like I said, Yukiko did practically nothing, and didn't really grow at all as a character. 
 Thirdly: Now, I'm not learned enough to truly have an opinion on this. I don't know enough about Japanese culture, or Jay Kristoff himself. I'm ignorant, and I'll freely admit it. Being white, I don't really know what it feels like to be minority, so I have nothing to go on from my own experience. That being said, in the first book there were even things that got me on my guard. Things like blatantly misusing honorifics and the Japanese language. And the fact that he himself freely admitted that most of his research was Wikepedia, which is really, really not cool. Now, to be fair, the misuse of hai and the honorifics was somewhat fixed this time around. I have no clue how well his research was done because, as I said, I'm not an expert on Japanese mythology. However, I'd encourage people to look into the whole topic themselves. There are a lot of good reviews dealing with this topic for the first book, though there is a distinct lack of them for the second- probably because those clever people decided to not read the second book. Duh. 
 Fourthly: This is something I can have an opinion about. The blatant sexualization of women. It drove me nuts. For an author whose books are apparently supposed to have strong female characters. Over half of the time, those characters are being described for their looks. Cyna lists it all in her review in a perfect way that I never could. Find it. Here 
 And that's all I have to say right now, because I'm really, really angry.