Tam not an angel. But after reading your book, Embrace, I have begun to think that maybe I am. In this reality, angels are golden, luminous, and the epitome of perfection. In your reality, angels are the bringers of death, destruction, and the downfall of mankind. In that sense, maybe I am an angel. Wherever | go, things just fall apart. I’ve had issues with stress and friendship, and on top of all of that, I’m a hopeless romantic. I know things will never be like in the fairytales, but I’m a born dreamer. When I read your book, I could feel everything happening.
I felt the sickening crunch of bones when Violet kicked someone, Lincoln’s blood pounding with anger when Violet was with Phoenix, and the complete heartbreak that overcame Phoenix when he sacrificed himself for the girl he loved but could never have. I became the book. I was so deep under the glassy surface of fantasy and terror that I didn’t notice I was crying until the pages started to blur and I couldn’t read the lyrical words on the page. When I first started reading Embrace, I began relating to Violet, living out my life, trying to be normal and having fun whilst doing so. Then came the angels.
They flipped her world upside down, shaking everything inside, ruining her chance at a normal life. She was put in a situation where she had to make a decision, and no matter what she chose, she would pay a price. She chose sacrifice, throwing away her hopes and dreams to save another person’s life. It seems like the easy choice, and when asked, most people would say that they would do the same. But would they really? In this world, we thrive off of facades and broken mirrors, reflecting what we want others to see, and of course because these mirrors are broken, they never reflect quite right.
There are always the few gaps where someone can see through the thin mist of charisma and find the real person hiding in the shadows. The real person saying that if a situation came down to what Violet experienced, they would be cowering in fear, begging for this hellish dream to end. Then I asked myself the same question. Could I sacrifice myself for another person? I found myself wandering around in the deepest corners of my mind, trying to find an answer. After many weeks of searching I came to a conclusion. I don’t know.
The only way to truly find out what you would do, is to experience it for yourself. That is how this wonderfully messed up world of ours works. After I had delved deeper into the books I realized that Violet is monumentally different than me. I’m not this self-sacrificing, kind, beautiful, ornately framed picture of perfection that she is. If I was put in her situation, I don’t think I could have. I would be hiding a corner, my head in my hands, trying to comprehend what’s going on, too panic-stricken to do anything. I realized that I wasn’t her, and probably never would be.
Then I looked to the angels. I found fragments of myself in them; I looked into their eyes and saw my face staring back at me. I am an angel, if only a different version, a transfer from one reality to the next. That was when I discovered that everyone is an angel. We all have this fabric of lies weaving around us that we want people to believe, and on the inside is an angel begging to be let out. Some people release them into the world, and others have hidden themselves away in a web of deception so thick that they themselves start to believe them, quelling the angel inside them.
Fake it ’til you make it, that’s how it works. After I saw the angels, I started looking for their polar opposites, and saw Lincoln. He is a savior in every sense of the word, he dragged Violet out of the hopeless pit her world was becoming, and in doing so played a part in protecting the world from the utter destruction and falling to ruin. Lincoln is the version of angel this world believes in, and if any normal person met him in real life, they would think he was a guardian angel. This reality has angels and saviors, always fighting and never relenting.
I can only hope that the saviors triumph. Embrace has opened my eyes to the horrors of the world, and Taccept them with open arms. Nothing can be perfect, but as a dreamer, I can hope that someday something will. I will always be looking for the angels and the saviors, and maybe on my journey to find them, I will become one myself. The angels surround us in a thick blanket of comforting deceit, and the saviors are the ones who have broken through to the light, they are the ones to lead us to a new era where the angels are no more, banished to heaven. I want to be a savior.
