I felt vaguely disappointed by this one. Book one was fabulous. This one felt a bit like filler to tide readers over to book 3 (which isn't out for another year). 
 I missed the presence of the ghosts. They didn't play as much of a role in this book. When the idea of Bedlam was introduced, I thought "wow, this is it - crazy ghosts! - let's ride this rollercoaster!"... only this rollercoaster turned out to be a fairly uninspiring sidethought at best. 
 I missed the friends at school. These characters all played a much more important role in the first book. Here they're just kinda in the background. You're aware of the fact that they exist but fairly little attention is paid to them. A few names were thrown around but it's been a while since I read book 1 and at times I couldn't remember who was who anymore - the characters just weren't fleshed out enough to help jog my memory. Jerome is supposed to be her boyfriend and even he gets a pitiful amount of on-page time. It could never have been more obvious that he was just a means to an end for the author. I like that Rory's relationships don't have to be true love - physical attraction is enough and it's portrayed as such - but still, a boyfriend should receive more interest than was given to Jerome here. 
 I missed Boo. She's another character who plays a much reduced role. In the first book she stood out because the author made an effort to translate her character's urban speech style to the page. This didn't reappear in book two. 
 I even missed the interactions with Stephen. Rory's still interacting with him but I didn't get the same feel from them as I did in the first book. I felt that book two didn't really manage to recapture the spark. 
 A lot of the book focused on Rory's PTSD, which was interesting enough and something I could recognise from the times I've been left with something similar... however, it was not enough to carry the whole story on its own but it was still left with all that weight on its poor little shoulders. 
 There's a number of new ideas put in place at the end of the book that will carry everything over to book 3. Had book 3 already been available and I could have just jumped straight in, I might not have the feeling I have now. This was definitely filler and it was a let down after an awesome first book. Hopefully book 3 will return to the awesomeness that was present in book 1.