Past Tense as Older Jessica

I had some fun in two of the earlier chapters for her future self in On Black Wings, and you see this shift in the beginning of the book. Whenever she is in her future self body, the verb tense switches to past tense. A clue? Her future self is in the past? I wanted it this way from the very start, whenever she switches to her future self body as a PoV, the tense switches to the past tense, and we are writing again.

There's one exception, the hospital scene in the end. Again, I do this on purpose, at this point her past and present forms are together again, and she realizes who she is. Her younger self's PoV takes over, she knows what it happening, and the tense is the default present tense.

This isn't a mistake, I wanted things this way.

I wanted to throw readers just a little bit, and I wanted that off-balance feeling to hit you when she shifted bodies between her younger self and her older one. It's like her future self is a past memory coming out of the recesses of her mind. She remembers these things, right? They are real, aren't they? Well, we don't know, and her perceptions are totally screwed up when the action starts.

It's also why the verb tense shifts so suddenly when her seventeen year old self walks down the stairs and enters the scene. Right there, mid chapter, bam, instant tense shift, and we are in present-tense while we watch the horror unfold. Did I need to do this? Probably not, but I wanted to so I stuck to it. It also gives me a clear PoV tone of voice when speaking as either of her so the reader can pick up on that later when she starts jumping between younger self and older self. A chapter starts in past-tense? Uh-oh, she just shifted to her older self.

I know this is going to get pointed out in a review as a possible oversight, but whatever, artistic choice and something I really wanted to do that hospital scene later as a striking contrast. Why is she now in present tense? Shouldn't we be in past, what's going on? Another throwing the reader for a loop, and a possible hint at her mental stability and how she sees her older self.

Could that hospital scene finally mean she's pieced herself together? The reader must decide.