This was a 4 star listen for me except for the excessive drinking, it dragged it down to -three. The first half + of the story she was drinking, grabbing a drink, wanting a drink, being drunk, sick drunk... ARGUGH ! I understand she was messed up in the head/heart but it consumed the pages to the point I was getting a contact high. I would have liked to hear about it less and more about her time with Tristan or even more wallowing, anything.

Sadly what I got out the the first 5-65% was just "Forget this thinking I'm getting drunk" Boring !!

They had a ton of damage to repair, scar tissue to remove and trust to build. This all happened in the last 1/4 of the book which was fabulous. I loved the choices they made, they were intelligent, respectful and not buried in alcohol. The relationship, and the characters finally became more. The ending was not a shock but I was shocked at how they got there. The maturity level jumped.
Can you tell I'm not fond of the drink till drunk solution to life in my entertainment ? It doesn't work and it to glorified by authors/media/social circles far too many times. I have a personal issue with this common acceptance alcohol abuse. Two times I've been nearly killed by drunk drivers and 4 times so far I've lost friends to alcohol stupidity. Yeh I am riding my high horse, perhaps but this is my opinion.

"Mosquitoes (zombie) do not bite to keep malice but survive"

He woke up at the dead hour of the night, vaguely remembered if he came back heavily drunk with local gin yester-night, raised his eyes brow to look at the granpa fashion clock sat down majestically at the wall corner but it seems blurry and he bothered not to press on, the alcohol was still intoxicated him!

Before the daylight he was visited with some zombies that took the advantages of his calamity, he was massively sucked looking like someone suffer dehydration in the morning. So many accosted him if he was okay but his replied had not been faithful enough. He shifted the blame on the mosquitoes that he senses their bite all over his body and not his careless lifestyle.

After some weeks he began to suffer malaria parasite that he did not took notice of the symptoms earlier enough because he was everyday under the delusion of drunkenness. He was aided to the clinic because he was too frail; the doctor diagnosed him with anemia. He struggled with the illness for weeks and eventually dies. 

Hmnmm….I attribute every character in that short story to a mindlessly and careless lifestyle, character like heavily drunken represent our bad attitudes towards life, (when we engage in so much alcohol that take every part of our lives we are too relax and live a lackadaisical life, our check and balance reduces to zero), and the grandpa fashion clock and blurring look is how we view our time in life, (when we give in to lackadaisical lifestyles our time are not important to us and we tend not to bother about it), until life begin to hit us hard we shift blame to the circumstances and the people around us. The consequences (diagnosis of anemia) of such lifestyle result in suffering and abject poverty.   

I chorus my mind.

Olushola Johnson