The Madwoman Upstairs

January 11, 2016
American Samantha Whipple’s hopes for an uneventful university career at Oxford are soon dashed when she realizes that everyone already knows her family story: she’s the last surviving twig of the Brontë family tree. What’s more, someone is frightening Samantha by surreptitiously planting her late father’s copies of Brontë novels in Samantha’s dorm room. Samantha had thought these were destroyed in the fire that killed her father several years earlier, but they may be cryptic clues to the mysterious Brontë estate Samantha stands to inherit. Samantha’s maddeningly demanding (and handsome) tutor, James Orville, is no help—he flat-out refuses to discuss the Brontës. Lowell’s debut novel offers some intriguing speculation about Brontë family dynamics, particularly with regard to the life and work of lesser-known sister Anne; the repeated discussions of authorial intent, however, will likely be glossed over by all but the most dedicated English majors. Even without its attraction for Brontë-philes, however, this is an enjoyable academic romp that successfully combines romance and intrigue, one that benefits from never taking itself too seriously.

January 1, 2016

Since enrolling at Oxford's Old College, Samantha Whipple, the last of the Brontes, has been the center of a storm of speculation. The rumor that her family is hoarding a treasure trove of Bronte artifacts has long plagued her. Samantha dismisses this "estate" she's never seen, until her late father's possessions, which all burned in the fire that took his life, inexplicably reappear. Reluctantly aided by her maddeningly handsome and difficult professor, Samantha sets out on the grandest of scavenger hunts, deciphering the Bronte sisters' writing to locate her mysterious inheritance. Samantha's journey through sorrow and even a little obsessive madness, coupled with the reality of the love story she gets wrapped up in, are stunningly representative of a young woman's path to happiness and peace. Professor James Orville is the perfect Bronte leading man, as complex and passionate as his student. A supporting cast of dark figures enhances the experience. VERDICT Lowell crafts a first novel that is as enthralling as it is heartbreaking. Bronte aficionados and fans of Sloane Crosley's The Clasp will love this title.--Kristen Droesch, Library Journal

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2016
Set in Oxford, with an exceptionally literary protagonist (the last remaining descendant of the Bronte family), The Madwoman Upstairs is a thriller tailor-made for English majors. Trained by her eccentric, Bronte-scholar father, who died tragically in a fire, Samantha Whipple, caustic, bright, and determined, begins college at Oxford, only to receive her father's will and find it requires her to go on a treasure hunt if she is to claim her inheritance. Mysteries abound when books from her father's library that should have been destroyed in the fire start appearing in her room, and she comes face-to-face with her father's nemesis, Sir John Booker. Approaching madness, Samantha looks to the Brontes for clues. Unfortunately, the novel's various plot strands, all promising tantalizing mysteries, fail to come together in a convincing manner. Still, the Bronte premise alone will draw readers, and Lowell shows real skill in crafting academic banter and portraying ivory-tower politics. A forbidden professor-student romance adds appeal as well. This isn't the strongest of debuts, but Lowell is an intelligent writer who bears watching.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)