This was a wonderful movie. I love how much Vada has matured. She's 13 now, and not obsessed with death like in the first one. She's also not the tomboy she was. She's more into boys and makeup and things like that. During her spring break, Vada goes to California to stay with her uncle and do research on her mom. Nick, her uncle's girlfriend's son, is her reluctant tour guide. It's obvious they like each other from the start, but they try to hide it. Vada makes some startling discoveries about her mother, and for awhile it seems she's not the person Vada thought she was. In the end she "sees" her mother and goes home reassured-not before her first real romance, though.
This was an excellent movie, but in my opinion, not as good as the first one. Maybe it was just the absence of Macaulay Culkin, whose character I fell in love with after watching the first movie.