I never read the first one, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I liked reading about Finnish immigrants and the Pacific Northwest. The writing style of no quotes and random capitalization was annoying at first, but I eventually got past it and was pretty well immersed in the story. I liked May Amelia, but not many of the other characters. I never got a handle on how old she was - from reviews of the first title, I guess around 13, but she seemed older or younger depending on the scene. Pretty depressing and you knew things would go wrong from her translation, but this didn't pull back on consequences at all. This May Amelia is probably going to end up being one screwed up woman. I wonder if the real May Amelia, the author's great-aunt, was.