#BlogTour-‘Needlemouse’ by Jane O’Connor

About the book…

Sylvia lives alone, dedicating herself to her job at the local university. On weekends, she helps out at a local hedgehog sanctuary because it gives her something to talk about on Mondays – and it makes people think she’s nicer than she is.

Only Sylvia has a secret: she’s been in love with her boss, Professor Lomax, for over a decade now, and she’s sure he’s just waiting for the right time to leave his wife. Meanwhile she stores every crumb of his affection and covertly makes trouble for anyone she feels gets in his way.

But when a bright new PhD candidate catches the Professor’s eye, Sylvia’s dreams of the fairy tale ending she has craved for so long, are soon in tatters, driving her to increasingly desperate measures and an uncertain future.

Sylvia might have been sleep walking through her life but things are about to change now she’s woken up…

My thanks to Tracy Fenton of Compulsive Readers and Ebury at Penguin Books for my ebook copy of ‘Needlemouse’, gifted as part of the accompanying blogtour.

‘Needlemouse’ is out on 27/06/19 in ebook, audiobook and paperback editions!

Sylvia volunteers at a hedgehog sanctuary to avoid questions about what she does on a weekend as well as forestalling any requests for charity support at work. She doesn’t really like them, she finds the man who runs it with his grown up daughters a bit sad and pathetic and when she says that she does this to make her seem nicer than she is, she is absolutely telling the truth.

MASSIVE kudos to Jane O’Connor for having her debut novel feature a first person protagonist who is not just prickly but damn unlikable. She judges, and finds wanting, every person she meets, including her own family, all that is , except the Prof.

Her boss, the love of her life who actually treats her appallingly. She does everything within her power to make his life easier-including trying to ruin the academic lives of people she sees as a threat-but as a 52 year old woman, she keeps close every single moment he has ever been ‘nice’ or ‘kind’ to her as if she is about to go into years of hibernation and these things will nourish her.

But he is not nice, he is dismissive, vain and selfish to her unrequited love. Her birthday meal is when he announces his unfaithful wife has left him. He passes off a secret santa gift to him as her birthday present. He unwittngly gives her hope every time he is nice to her then there is the occasion when he drunkenly kissed her, the lynchpin of her desire and hope that one day something more will happen.

And yet…as you peel away the layers, unprickle her if you will, you see an intelligent woman who is in denial, she lives this life of unrequited living in preference of reality. It’s almost as if life is hyperreal and she cannot cope with it, she buries herself in leaves made of rules, stolen looks, notes, even the Prof’s teabags. And when she does go along with what is expected of her (going on a date arranged by her sister)everything that happens on it reinforces why she stays prickly.

Syliva is a complex character, I found her hard and unwieldly, judgemental and unprofessional in her behaviour at work and wondered if she would ever redeem herself as a good person at the same time challenging my perceived notion of what constitutes a good person. Especially a woman, and this woman in particular who is the wrong side of 50, unmarried, no children i.e of no use to society whatsoever. Her choices in living this life are seen as invalid and selfish and that is when I clicked, on her date , and through thoughts such as these-

”It’s part of how I love him,demonstrates my commitment to him.If I ever feel hungry or start to crave sweet things or crisps I think of him and enjoy the deniual. I suppose that’s what is meant by ‘love is suffering’ and I am happy to suffer for him.”

Oh my heart,

She is prickly but then so are we as readers, we judge her self confessed behaviour as not normal, but then she is reflecting what society expects of women and the expectations it has of conforming to a set standard and if we do so, the love we receive will be worth the pain.

It’s a frankly wonderful debut , and I am so grateful to have met Sylvia and read about her journey to actualisation. And also learn so much about hedgehogs and what we can do, in our own little ways, to support them.

About the author…

Jane O’Connor is a former primary school teacher turned academic and writer. She was born and brought up in Surrey and lived in London until she moved to the West Midlands in her mid-thirties. Jane’s PhD was about child stars and she is now a Reader at Birmingham City University where she researches children’s experiences of celebrity, media and everyday life. Jane lives in Sutton Coldfield with her husband and two young sons in a house full of pirates, dinosaurs, superheroes and lots of books. She really likes all animals, especially hedgehogs. ‘Needlemouse‘ is her debut novel.

Link-Jane O Connor’s Blog

https://www.compulsivereaders.com/

Twitter @JaneOConnor100

@EburyPublishing

@PenguinUKBooks

@Tr4cyF3nt0n