ReviewsNarrator Katie Koster's charming performance sweeps listeners into this well-paced story...Koster's impressive emotional range captures Samantha's complex personality. She flawlessly portrays the girl's cheekiness as a cover for embarrassment and insecurity and perfectly captures her other emotions as she learns more about her famous cousins, her father's youth, and her own heart. Using an expressive, relaxed style, Koster connects listeners to the fun of Samantha's adventures. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award., An enjoyable academic romp that successfully combines romance and intrigue, one that benefits from never taking itself too seriously., A mystery, a love story, and a very dark comedy...about the traces that literature and our ancestors leave in us, and it is about memory as a token of love., 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...Lowell crafts a first novel that is as enthralling as it is heartbreaking., Part mystery, part picaresque, Catherine Lowell's The Madwoman Upstairs is a smartly conceived first novel., You'll find yourself laughing out loud even as she lures you deeper and deeper into this delicious mystery., Quirky characters and unpredictable plot twists make The Madwoman Upstairs a charming and memorable read., The story line takes readers on a crazy ride of clues and reveals interesting facts about the Brontë family in the process. Lowell has hit it out of the ballpark with this novel., [A] father's legacy sets the scene for gothic intrigue...in Catherine Lowell's irresistibly clever Oxford debut ., Smart, clever, and properly Gothic...Deftly, Lowell combines a rollicking treasure hunt with a wickedly dark story.
Dewey Edition23
Edition DescriptionUnabridged edition
SynopsisIn this smart and enthralling debut in the spirit of The Weird Sisters and Special Topics in Calamity Physics, the only remaining descendant of the Bronte family embarks on a modern-day literary scavenger hunt to find the family's long-rumored secret estate, using clues left behind by her eccentric father.Samantha Whipple is used to stirring up speculation wherever she goes. As the last remaining descendant of the Bronte family, she's rumored to have inherited a vital, mysterious portion of the Brontes' literary estate-diaries, paintings, letters, and early novel drafts-a hidden treasure that has not been shown outside of the family.But Samantha has never seen this rumored estate, and as far as she knows, it doesn't exist. She has no interest in acknowledging what the rest of the world has come to find so irresistible-namely, the sudden and untimely death of her eccentric father or the cryptic estate he has bequeathed to her.But everything changes when Samantha enrolls at Oxford University and bits and pieces of her past start mysteriously arriving at her doorstep, beginning with an old novel annotated in her father's handwriting. As more and more bizarre clues arrive, Samantha soon realizes that her father has left her an elaborate scavenger hunt using the world's greatest literature. With the aid of a handsome and elusive Oxford professor, Samantha must plunge into a vast literary mystery and an untold family legacy, one that can only be solved by decoding the clues hidden within the Brontes' own writing.A fast-paced adventure from start to finish, this vibrant and original novel is a moving exploration of what it means when the greatest truth is, in fact, fiction., In Catherine Lowell's smart and original debut novel, the only remaining descendant of the Bronte family embarks on a modern-day literary scavenger hunt to find the family's long-rumored secret estate, using only the clues her eccentric father left behind and the Brontes' own novels.Samantha Whipple is used to stirring up speculation wherever she goes. Since her father's untimely death, she is the presumed heir to a long-rumored trove of diaries, paintings, letters, and early novel drafts passed down from the Bronte family--a hidden fortune never revealed to anyone outside the family but endlessly speculated on by Bronte scholars and fanatics. Samantha, however, has never seen this alleged estate, and for all she knows, it's just as fictional as Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights. Yet everything changes when Samantha enrolls at Oxford University and long-lost objects from the past begin rematerializing in her life. Her father's distinctive copy of Jane Eyre, which should have perished in the fire that claimed his life, mysteriously appears on Samantha's bed. Annotated in her father's handwriting, the book is the first of many clues in an elaborate scavenger hunt derived from the world's greatest literature. With the help of a handsome but inscrutable professor, Samantha must plunge into a vast literary mystery and an untold family legacy, one that can only be solved by decoding the clues hidden within the Brontes' own writing.For readers who devoured The Weird Sisters and Special Topics in Calamity Physics, The Madwoman Upstairs is a suspenseful, exhilarating debut by an exciting new talent who offers a moving exploration of what it means when the greatest truth is, in fact, fiction., In Catherine Lowell's smart and original debut novel, the only remaining descendant of the Brontë family embarks on a modern-day literary scavenger hunt to find the family's long-rumored secret estate, using only the clues her eccentric father left behind and the Brontës' own novels. Samantha Whipple is used to stirring up speculation wherever she goes. Since her father's untimely death, she is the presumed heir to a long-rumored trove of diaries, paintings, letters, and early novel drafts passed down from the Brontë family--a hidden fortune never revealed to anyone outside the family but endlessly speculated on by Brontë scholars and fanatics. Samantha, however, has never seen this alleged estate, and for all she knows, it's just as fictional as Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights. Yet everything changes when Samantha enrolls at Oxford University and long-lost objects from the past begin rematerializing in her life. Her father's distinctive copy of Jane Eyre , which should have perished in the fire that claimed his life, mysteriously appears on Samantha's bed. Annotated in her father's handwriting, the book is the first of many clues in an elaborate scavenger hunt derived from the world's greatest literature. With the help of a handsome but inscrutable professor, Samantha must plunge into a vast literary mystery and an untold family legacy, one that can only be solved by decoding the clues hidden within the Brontës' own writing. For readers who devoured The Weird Sisters and Special Topics in Calamity Physics , The Madwoman Upstairs is a suspenseful, exhilarating debut by an exciting new talent who offers a moving exploration of what it means when the greatest truth is, in fact, fiction.