Psycho by Robert Bloch

"Norman Bates loves his Mother. The trouble is she's been dead for the past twenty years, or so people think. Norman knows better though. Ever since leaving the hospital, he has lived with Mother in the old house up on the hill above the Bates Motel. One night a beautiful woman checks into the motel and Norman spies on her while she is undressing. Mother is watching him, though. She is there to protect Norman from his filthy thoughts. She is there to protect him with her butcher knife..." (back of the book)

Surprisingly enough I've actually never seen the movie Psycho. I am however knowledgeable about Gein and I have watched 4 seasons of Bates Motel (currently waiting for the last season to come on Canadian Netflix) so I definietly wasn't going into this book blind.

 

For those who don't know, Ed Gein was the inspiration for Norman Bates (Psycho & Bates Motel), as well as some other fictional serial killers you might recognized like Jame Gumb (The Silence of the Lambs) and Leatherface (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre). Since Gein is the inspiration for 3 hugely known infamous fictional characters, it is quite easy to imagine the horrors he committed during his active killing years. If you are looking for something pretty disturbing reads I recommend checking out the details about his crimes.  
 

The book Psycho was a very quite and enjoyable read. It did take me longer to get through then I wanted but that was more due to my work schedule. Picking up this book was like getting into a world I was already comfortable and familiar with. Like I said I watch Bates Motel, so I am already aware on the Motel and Norman's relationship with his mother, Norma. I could picture the setting so perfectly in my head from the Motel with the old highway to the house on top of the hill. Reading Norman as a middle age man was a new experience but it didn't seem that different as Norman's maturity level isn't normal for his age.  

Mary Crane was definitely a character and I really liked the development that Sam and Lila brought into her story. Unlike Mary, Sam and Lila were at the right place at the right time and just couldn't shake their nagging feelings.  

Norma is a character I wish we had gotten a little more of in the book. The moments we get of her and Norman together are so dominating and manipulative. She comes off as such a cruel woman and it's hard to understand why Norman has put up with it for all these years, and even harder to understand why he would go such lengths to protect her... 

Overall I really enjoyed this book and was happy to finally experience such a well loved and popular book. Also, I plan on watching the original movie Psycho (1960) within the next few weeks. I also cannot wait to start finding out where Norman Bates goes from here, starting with the book that was actually not written by Robert Bloch as stated down below in the series section. It took Bloch 23 years to write Psycho II, with that kind of anticipation I cannot wait to see what kind horrors Mr. Bates has in store.
 

Psycho Series:

Book 1: Psycho

Book 1.5: Psycho: Sanitarium (by Chet Williamson)

Book 2: Psycho II

Book 3: Psycho House

 

My Rating: 4.5/5 Stars