Redemption Song | Levi & Eren

Author's Note

      Hello and welcome to the Author's Note!

Congratulations for making it this far because I struggled to write this book for a multitude of reasons, one of which being some topics were difficult to write.

As you can tell, this short chapter is about me discussing the book and answering any questions you might have. Please, drop them down below.

For my previous book, Gangsta's Paradise || Eremika AU, I chose a song as the title. I took it a step further this time by making the chapter titles songs that related to the chapter's contents.

The reason behind this is simple, I just love music, especially old music. It made sense to use old songs rather than new ones due to Levi's age.

The book's title, Redemption Song, is a Bob Marley song where Bob Marley thanked his fans for their support and also reassured them that he would be okay in his next life. For anyone unaware, Bob Marley passed away from cancer shortly after his last album was released.

Instead of Levi passing away and going to the afterlife, it was about him thanking everyone around him for making him a better person as he moves into a new chapter of his life.

The last book also contained topics about the police. This is because I adore police stories/movies/tv shows. In fact, Chicago PD, a brilliant show, was a huge inspiration for the police elements of this book. Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch book series also helped with these elements.

After Life, the Netflix series, was one of the reasons I decided to write this book to begin with because the topics explored in that show spoke to me. So I chose to combine all these fictions into one.

Mental health series done right are a blessing, however, mental health series done poorly are terrible and give the audience a misunderstanding of how mental illnesses work.

One trope I truly despise is the idea that severely depressed and suicidal people can 'get over it' by merely falling in love. This is simply untrue since getting into a relationship just makes people ignore said problems to focus on their partner. If the relationship falls apart, that person is in an even worse place. Believe me, I know.

There are many ways to deal with mental illness and trauma including medication and therapy. Getting into a relationship thinking it'll help is wrong.

For a while, it might make you feel better but eventually, those topics will come to light and your partner will find out. If you're not ready to deal with your problems, you can't expect others who didn't ask for these issues to deal with them either.

Unlike the last book, this one focuses more on the Levi trio, aka Levi, Hanji and Erwin. Eren was thrown in there due to his youth.

Eren's young age was a constant reminder to Levi about his own youth which is why he decided to take care of Eren the way he and Furlan took care of Isabel and each other. Eren and Petra were the two who reminded him of who he used to be.

I did leave certain elements of this book open-ended and this was purposefully done. It gives you guys the opportunity to infer your own endings. The likelihood of me returning to this book is very low since I believe my writing days are starting to come to an end.

As of right now, I can't see myself writing another 30ish chapter book. If you want Levi and Petra together, go ahead and imagine it. Levi and Eren? Slightly weird given the book's content but that's your choice. Levi and Erwin? Even stranger but if that's what you want...

Deleted plots/ideas:

. Kenny was in the army but got kicked out. Levi accidentally followed in his footsteps.