Psycho II

General consensus says that Bloch wrote this book in anger or as revenge for Hollywood making a Psycho II film without his consent. But if that is true, what did he hope to gain? This novel in no way affects the movie Psycho II, but it has managed to erase from my mind what it ever was that I liked about his novel Psycho in the first place and made me sure to avoid anything else he has ever written. So all he did was wound himself.

Because this book is foul. But also tedious.

The basic premise is that a couple of decades after the events of Psycho, Norman Bates escapes his hospital by murdering a couple of nuns. His psychiatrist, Adam Claiborne, guilty over his failures to Norman and victims, is convinced that Norman will head for show more Hollywood to stop the movie that is currently being made of his earlier crimes and heads out there to stop him.

The book is written from multiple perspectives but all the voices sound incredibly similar. They are all mean-spirited, often inner monologuing hateful thoughts about other characters. They are all interested in wordplay and psychoanalysing everyone. And absolutely every character in the book is OBSESSED with how things aren't like they were in the good old days.

The hateful characters make this an unpleasant read, because I didn't want to be in any of their heads. Everyone is combative and argues with each other in every conversation, which is exhausting and baffling to read. The endless psychoanalysing became dull quickly. After the initial bloodbath, there is almost no plot progression until the finale. It's just pages and pages of Claiborne 'reading' people because he is a psychiatrist, and Jan (the actor who has been cast as Mary Crane) 'reading' people because she is an actor. The themes that modern life is bad and violent, that Hollywood is garbage and that women are all... well, it is steeped in misogyny, are wearisome in their unpleasantness. Add in with all this nasty tedium multiple rape scenes and a random kitten murder, and I can't find anything of worth in this story.

It's a slog. Both nasty and boring. Then the climax just cuts straight to the epilogue, and Jan, who is the second main character of the novel, gets no resolution, so it can't even satisfy the story it is telling. This is one of those books that I only kept reading because I wanted it to be over.

Now, to be fair to Bloch, this book has a TWIST and I already knew what it was. Not all the details, just the basic fact. So that probably aided how dull I found the story. If you don't know the twist, there is probably a level of tension throughout that is absent if you do know it. However, although I didn't know the details, it immediately became completely obvious what was going on and it is hard to imagine people reading this not picking up on it. However, it is not worth reading even if you have been preserved from that particular spoiler. Bloch might think Hollywood is a cesspool, but his novel is a piece of sewage itself. show less

I wanted to love this book. I consider myself a fan of Robert Bloch, one of the masters of the twist in the tale and almost definitely the master of the dark, sometimes sick pun ending. I know about the backstory to this novel; about how he wrote it primarily out of anger and the feeling of being maligned by a movie studio that decided to take his creation and expand it without his input. It comes across in this novel clearly enough, the vitriolic bitterness covered tissue-thinly at best. It just came across as a slog though, reading it became more a chore rather than a thing of enjoyment, and that made me sad. The characterisation is stereotypical at best, the ending is as predictable as it is abrupt. The mechanics of the story itself show more are almost spitefully obvious: "You want to take my intellectual property? Here - take THAT!" Bloch seems to almost be screaming at anyone prepared to listen. Like I said, Bloch is one of my favourite writers, I feel let down by this. It's a shame. show less

Norman Bates is still insane, but he's treated well enough as a librarian overseer in the the mental ward of a psychiatric hospital. Years of therapeutic work unravels when a nun confronts his enemies for him. After his great escape, his psychiatrist hunts him down, tracking him to the places he's most likely to hit next.

A very quick read - mainly due to Bloch's easily absorbed writing style - Psycho II mainly offers general slasher quibbles but does toss in a small surprise or two. It's not a creatively done story, but it's an effort to continue a book that made the author so famous and well regarded. It's playful though, and I do like how he incorporated the psychology of religion and the strangeness of nuns and their association show more with birds.

The characters are likeable enough. Being in Norman's head again shows him as resentful, pouty, but holding himself as superior. I liked the doctor. Bloch puts in random character viewpoints, some not needed, but it does give a more realistic dimension of the selfish traits people have, as well as how widely scoped violent tendencies are.

The story is saved a star and impression because of a twist in the end I didn't see coming. It makes sense to follow a clever ending like that considering the source material, but I still wasn't expecting it. Looking back, the clues are obvious, but it still makes a fun ending for this sort of simple story. show less

I was extremely excited to read what comes next after the first book. It was catchy when Norman escaped the asylum dressed as a nun. I loved that part. This book concentrates a lot on the characters that are involved into making a movie about Norman Bates and the events that happened at the famous Bates Motel. Frankly, I got bored of them, until I reached the end. I thought Robert Bloch would come up with something else besides that alter ego schizophrenia thing. Even if I kinda expected something like this to happen, I was still shocked. Bloch manages to blow my mind at the end. No matter how dull you may find the plot, the end surely is a plot twist that makes you like it some more.
"Norman Bates will never die."

Tout le monde connaît Psychose, même sans avoir lu le livre. Alfred I Hitchcock — qui en a fidèlement suivi la trame — l'a tellement bien « réalisé », au sens premier de « rendre réel », que le film, un chef-d'œuvre, a souvent fait oublier le roman, tout aussi génial. Tout le monde se souvient de Norman Bates, le schizophrène le plus inquiétant et peut-être aussi, grâce à Anthony Perkins, le plus séduisant de l'histoire du cinéma. Tout le monde revoit le motel où il vit — à sa façon ! — avec sa mère et qui apparaît comme le lieu géométrique de toutes les terreurs made in U.S.A. : très légèrement en retrait du monde moderne (l'autoroute), on rencontre très vite la décrépitude où sont tapis les show more monstres du passé ou... de l'inconscience. Robert Bloch a donné une suite à son roman le plus célèbre. C'est une pratique courante. Ce qui est moins courant, c'est qu'il l'a réussie. Tout simplement peut-être parce que Psychose 1 n'avait pas de véritable fin. Le corps physique de Norman Bates était, certes, enfermé dans un asile, mais son esprit dément continuait à voyager... Au début de Psychose 2, nous le voyons s'évader de cet asile, déguisé en bonne sœur (on imagine aisément ce qui est arrivé à cette dernière). Cela ne manque pas d'une certaine logique. Et, tout aussi logiquement, les crimes recommencent... show less