Sapphire Hunting by J SenGupta

Synopsis: Shadow figures are stalking the population of an English University town. A Physics student can sense the emotions of others. His two best friends notice he is coming home injured and distracted. He is looking for something. What he has already found is magic that connects this world to a sister-planet, and people who can help him.

Review: Sapphire Hunting is a YA book, and let it be known I have nothing against YA books, in fact I like quite a few of them. But I also feel like sometimes they fall a little bit into a trap, where the author feels they have to tone down the book for the younger audience. And while I understand the motivation behind it I often find it to be annoying. I think Sapphire Hunting fell into this category. 

That being said there were good things about the book. The plot was interesting, and I did find myself at some points throughout the book wondering what was going to happen next, and even sometimes wanting to read a little bit faster so I could know faster. About midway through the book the author really finds their stride and the ideas and elements of the book are put forth very well. I could easily see how this plot would work for YA. 

However, I found in a lot of the story I got confused. The beginning and parts of the end really slowed down in pace, and often times felt someone disjointed. What I mean by that is there would be random paragraphs that I didn't feel fit in with the preceding or following paragraphs. When this happened it would really mess with the flow of the book, and I would end up going back several times to see if I had missed something or skipped a page, and when I found I hadn't I was just plain confused. It happened more than once in the book and by the end of the book I was kind of tired of being confused. 

One thing I think the author was trying to do with some of the phrasing was to use really vivid imagery, which is always a good thing in a book. I love when I read a sentence and it's powerful enough to make me come up with a picture in my head. However, I almost think the author was trying to hard here, by using several really vivid descriptive words when only one or two was needed; the result was awkward phrasing. 

Overall, I would say this book is okay. As someone who primarily reads books geared towards adults, I don't think I would recommend it for adult readers. YA readers might enjoy this book though, largely because YA readers are more willing to focus primarily on the plot and Sapphire Hunting has a plot I think would appeal to YA readers.