The sequel is notable in it's massive departure in tone from the first book.
- Lucky goes insane from the voices of lost toy soldiers buried in his school's foundation, and actually starts tearing down the school trying to get to them. He then gets committed. Meanwhile, Trash has been kidnapped and drugged for the purpose of experimentation...
- To elaborate; Trash been kidnapped by some shady government officials and drugged to the point of suffering mild hallucinations. It’s briefly mentioned that he’s also being exposed to electroshock therapy, as well as being paralyzed and completely unable to move.
- Even worse, is that Trash has no memory of the past few months, is in a near constant state of unease and trauma throughout the book. He frequently hallucinates and panics at the idea of Bowdler finding him again. It’s clear the poor guy is traumatized from what’s happened to him. While he slowly gets better with the help of his friends, it's still awful for a 15 year old to deal with.
- As if all of that wasn't enough to deal with, he also snapped all of Thurston’s ribs without thinking. We get a lovely description of how it sounds, too.
- As for Lucky, he hears the voices of lost toy soldiers stuck in the cement of his school, snaps, and starts destroying the floor in order to get to them, all while screaming and blocking out what his classmates and teachers are saying to him. The fact that his hands become bloody from constantly beating them into the concrete makes the whole thing even more horrific.
- he ends up institutionalized, and has to be under intensely heavy drugs just so he doesn’t hear any of the voices. Then, Bowdler kidnaps him and tries to use him to barter the other boys.
- Martin has such a horrible argument with his dad that it causes him to try running away, and the first thing he does is go with two complete strangers in their truck. Thankfully, since Martin can read souls, we know they're not dangerous people, but if Martin was a regular kid and those guys had actually been dangerous...
- At one point, in their hotel room, Martin, Flinch, Trash and Torchie are knocked unconscious with knock-out gas. The four of them then wake up in a creepy basement in a cage.
- The tracking-device removal scene is arguably the most viscerally brutal part of the book. Trash discovers that he has a tracking device in his arm, and begs Martin and Flinch to get it out at any cost. The boys use a metal tool to dig into his arm and remove it, and to stop him from bleeding too much, Torchie cauterizes the wound with his fire powers, all while Trash is screaming in pain. Keep in mind that the boys are all 15 years old.
- Bowdler is this in general. He’s some delusional man working for a shady organization that’s all too willing to drug and torture a psychic kid, and intends to do it to five other boys. He’s also willing to kill the people working with him if it benefits him in the long run. The worst part? When Martin reads his soul He discovers that Bowdler has done a number of horrific war crimes in his life, doesn’t even register that he’s done anything bad, and is proud of how low he’ll stoop.
