Angst to the A N G S T squared 
 Between the Spark and the Burn continues to have that marvelous descriptive writing style that I came to know and love with the first book Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea. There is just something about the way this author writes that sucks me in. I have to say that I think if some other author would have written this I likely wouldn't have enjoyed it as much as I did because the style would have been different and would have changed the way that I handled all the teenage angst that was thrown at me. Because yes folks there is teenage melodramatic angst and a whole lot of it. Not to mention the dreaded love triangle rears it's viperous head in such a way in this book that I couldn't help but want to smack the stupid off of Violet's face. But who who who does this triangle take place with? It will be oh so obvious to you within the first few chapters of the book no worries. But suffice to say even though I am not fond of triangles - this one didn't really bug me at all. No, I'm surprised it didn't, it was Violet that bugged me in some of her behavior. But that's only natural for us to groan over things that characters do sometimes - not in a "I hate your character" kind of a way - but in a "I want to shake some sense into you" way. I can totally get being somewhat torn, or not even knowing if you have any feelings of that inclination whatsoever but ergh sometimes the girl just peeved me to no end even while at the same time I really liked her. Am I making sense? Maybe not. Violet is a great character and one that I think would make an amazing friend. 
 So let's recap Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea - this paragraph only has summary spoilers for book 1 
 (view spoiler)[Violet and Luke live by the sea, frolicking in an old decrepit beautiful house devoid of parents. Yes, I really did start to hum that. So these twins essentially lived alone because they have absentee artist parents and no freaking money! So Violet rents the guest house to the alluring River who happens to sweep her off her feet with his glow, charm and delicious cooking. Glow - what by golly is that? Pretty much it's mind controlling powers. Must crazy antics ensue, there is death, there are children hunting the devil in a graveyard and there are two additional boys that appear, both being brothers of River that come in search of him. One is oh so good with a dash of bad boy (Neely) and the other well he's evil, just downright evil. Must nastiness occurs and all brothers fly the coop and that's where book 1 ends with Neely off in search of River who says he's going to try to stop using his gift with Violet left waiting for all of them. And aforementioned absentee parents finally return. (hide spoiler)] - don't worry no spoilers at all for Between the Spark and the Burn - I'll keep it vague as I can *evil laughter* 
 A trippity trippy road trip like something out of Supernatural 
 You know those brothers on TV that drive around the country hunting down strange stories they hear about? This book has a whole lot of that. Violet gets so antsy waiting around her home Citizen Kane that she decides she must go looking for River. Her, Neely, Luke and Sunshine pack it up and head out on the road hitting rather a few strange occurrences along the way. The companions making up the road trip changes along the course of the book. New characters are introduced and others disappear into the background of the story. Violet of course always being the key character that everything revolves around. I think she learns a lot about herself on this particular trip as well as we learn quite a bit about Freddie her deceased grandmother because Violet happens to find Freddie's diary right before the trip starts. We get to read quite a few entries from Freddie's diary and the puzzle pieces of how Freddie's past and that of River's grandfather all tie together. I really adored seeing the diary entries as well as the addition of new characters, though I think the way Violet seems to collect people is a tad odd and not completely believable but then on the other hand I could totally believe it because some people do just that, collect people to themselves. 
 Which way do you want to go? Yes, Which way? 
 I absolutely loved the characters, the writing style and all of the atmosphere that I got from this book. But I was left feeling somewhat dissatisfied by the ending. This is the conclusion to the duology but it felt like it has a very open ended ending similar to the first. Have some things resolved? Yes, of course, but other things not so much. This might be one of those lessons to a reader that there isn't ever truly an ending to someone's story and maybe that's what the author was trying to get at here. I can however go with that but I'm just saying usually I want more closure when I finish a set of books. The key things though are definitely answered and for the most part I'm satisfied but there is this sheen of discontent that I'm left with and I'm not exactly sure where it comes from. Overall I adored this book and hope to read more from Tucholke in the future.