Booklist Review
Set in Oxford, with an exceptionally literary protagonist (the last remaining descendant of the Brontë family), The Madwoman Upstairs is a thriller tailor-made for English majors. Trained by her eccentric, Brontë-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 Brontës for clues. Unfortunately, the novel's various plot strands, all promising tantalizing mysteries, fail to come together in a convincing manner. Still, the Brontë 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.--Grant, Sarah Copyright 2016 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
Samantha Whipple, the American heroine who narrates this piquant paean to the Bronte sisters, is the last living descendant of the family, through her father's line. Arriving in Oxford to study English literature, she's also prompted to track down a rumored inheritance: a collection of novels, diaries, paintings and other "Bronte treasure" that may have been left to her by her father, Tristan Whipple, an esteemed scholar who "spent his entire life trying to deconstruct" the writings of his famous forebears. His annotated copies of "Jane Eyre," "Wuthering Heights" and "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" may hold the clues to finding the treasure. Mysteriously, some of these books begin turning up at the door of Samantha's Oxford lodgings, sending her on a hunt filled with Gothic twists and leading her - and the reader - down pathways strewn with Bronte arcana. If Samantha can unearth a formerly unknown diary by Anne Bronte called, quite significantly, "The Warnings of Experience," she may gain a precious historical artifact. But eventually she comes to the realization that "Anne Bronte's life doesn't give meaning to this diary; the Bronte novels give meaning to this diary. The fiction is more real than the reality." And it's this aha moment that may propel her into the arms of her very own Rochester.
Library Journal Review
Since enrolling at Oxford's Old College, -Samantha Whipple, the last of the Brontës, has been the center of a storm of speculation. The rumor that her family is hoarding a treasure trove of Brontë 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 Brontë 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 Brontë 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. Brontë aficionados and fans of Sloane Crosley's The Clasp will love this title.-Kristen Droesch, Library Journal © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.