Well, this series is clearly one of those that believes in providing answers in book two that do not, in the end, make anything make more sense.
Still a surprisingly enjoyable and atmospheric book; it builds on the previous one and is not quite as successful, but at least seems to be going somewhere. The weirdness was a better weird...for lack of any other description. And while this is pretty far outside my usual comfort zone, I'm glad I decided to pick it up.
I feel like a need a break before the third book, except I have less than a week until it's due back to the library, so possibly not.