4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Psycho, October 28, 2010
Great story if you've seen the movie this is better and you get that missing insight of Norman Bates mind. The story is page turner Bloch is good writer and has plotted the story well no sentence is wasted or boring. After reading Darkly Dreaming Dexter I thought I would try and get into rambling mind of a different kind of killer. Bates is obsessed with his mother wants to be like her And wants her to be part of him. Only read below if you know the story.
In the end alot of detail is left out in the movie that touches on the state of mind of Bates. He was transvestite schizophrenic who in blind range of jealousy killed his mother and her lover so that he could have his mother to himself. In the end out of guilt tried to revive his mother from dead having conversation with her skeleton and pretending she was alive until in his split personality she literally became part of him. He would become semi drunk and have and split where she became the driver and killed until he gained control again, then he would assume he just passed out asleep when she was in control. He was reading into satanism and metaphysics which is probably where he got the idea that he could bring back his mother from the dead and decided to unearth her body from her grave.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
More Norman makes it worth a read, August 4, 2010
Psycho is my first experience with Robert Bloch (as I'm sure it is with most people). It's tough to review this one fairly because it is so tied to one of the most famous movies of all time. Getting Hitchcock's images out of my head while reading is a near impossible task, especially since the movie was such a faithful adaptation of the book. In fact the two were so close that the book almost felt like a novelization of the movie that overshadowed it.
But man the book is compulsively readable! I wish I didn't know what was coming, because the book is very well written. Bloch is a clever writer who managed to easily build tension and foreshadow just enough without ever going over the top. Knowing the twists that are coming muted the suspense, but I still looked forward to reading more of it.
I started the book in the morning on a work day and only read on breaks and at lunch, but was a hundred pages (or about half way) in by the end of the day. I read the rest the next morning in a marathon session.
Though everything from the famous movie is also in the book, Bloch goes into a lot more depth about Norman and his relationship with Mother. And knowing what I know, seeing how it was handled is very impressive.
I've already ordered another highly rated Bloch book:
The Kidnapper. It will be fun to see how he does when I don't know the story ahead of time.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Powerful, harrowing novel, August 13, 2008
I have been reading this book and have only a little more than 23 pages to the end. However, so far, I have been bowled over by the strong use of language and the way themes and concepts are introduced! This is one book that I think could (and possibly should) be assigned to read in junior high or high school. That's how moved I am by it. The human condition is one of the central threads of the tlae and you and I being human can certainly relate to that if I'm not mistaken.
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