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Time Travel? Check. Romance? Check. Complex, morally grey characters? Checkity check. Combine all of that with deep POV, supernatural powers, difficult decisions, humour, and lots of action and violence... and you have Of Time Storms and Tourniquets by Jyvur_Entropy.
I hesitated to review this story—not because it's not one of my favourites, because it is—but because it's so difficult for me to properly put into words exactly why I love it without just spewing platitudes all over the place. Anyone who knows me, IRL or online, knows that I'm obsessed with Jyvur's books, but this one is special. It's unlike anything I've experienced in literature, and dude, I've read a lot of fucking books in my life.
My favourite stories are gritty and unafraid. They touch on the tough stuff, the deep things that nobody wants to talk about, but are still there. They describe emotions in such a visceral way that I feel like the characters are a part of me. Time Storms does that. Not to mention the premise is creative as hell.
The general idea is that it's accepted worldwide that these giant storms show up and hurtle people through time. They pull people from different time periods, and then drop them all in 1255, each with their own special power. The medieval lords are quick to try to exploit this, even going so far as grinding up pieces of the stormers and consuming them to gain their powers.
The stormers coming from all kinds of time periods face their own demons, and deal with being in this old world in vastly different ways. It's interesting (not to mention historically authentic) to watch these characters from different walks of life interact and try to survive together. The stormers have a unique set of challenges to face being out of place and hunted. Of course, they also fight each other, because humans.
The plot arcs that unfold around the stormers and their fight with the locals (and each other) form intense story threads that weave in and out of each other, gripping me with each page. As the different characters experience the same events from different points of view, and the narrative jumps around, I was glued to each chapter.
Also, the characters are so diverse and touch on so many issues. Veronika is from 1932 Germany and harbours dark desires. Jake is from America in 1988, a real sadist who gets off on killing people. Vincent is from South Africa in 2020, just a normal dude that likes video games, but finds himself attracted—nay, obsessed—with Veronika despite the fact that she's not even that good of a person. The triangle with these three is tragic and full of intense emotions, but never feels shoehorned or plot-convenient, it just is.
The variable cast of characters give so many different personalities and flavours for readers to latch on to, relate to. Even the fucked up ones. None of us are perfect, and this kind of story reminds us of that fact. The fact that we can't help who we are attracted to or in love with, even when sometimes it's wrong or self destructive. Time Storms explores that a punch-in-the-gut way, of the very best kind. It's a story that has stuck with me, long after reading it (multiple times, haha).
