A twist on Hitchcock’s iconic classic Psycho —where the leading lady doesn’t die, but instead turns the knife on Norm, kicking off a crime spree that turns the silver screen victim into a heroine for our times.

NORMAN WAS HER FIRST.

Marion is in deep. She’s stolen money from the Manhattan ad agency where she works in a desperate bid to help her sister escape an abusive marriage, but the bus breaks down before she can make it to Saratoga Springs. It’s late at night, and the only place with vacancies is an old set of cabins on the outskirts of town. She pays for a room in cash, and ends up chatting with Norm, the young innkeeper who’s handsome, charming and a touch hung-up on his elderly mother. Back in her room, she steps into the shower, scrubbing off the late-summer heat, when the curtain is pulled back…

Norm Billings is there with a knife. He raises his arm to strike, but before he does, Marion knees him in the balls, grabs the knife, and stabs the life out of him. Now, she’s covered in blood, and she’s a woman on the run—not just a thief, but a killer, too. Where will she go? How will she save both herself and her sister? And what mysteries will she uncover as she does?

In Psycho, Hitchcock shocked audiences when he killed off his protagonist. But what if the leading lady had fought back? Marion offers an alternate history of the most famous dead blonde to ever grace the silver screen. Only this time, the knife is in her hands—and she’s no victim.

I received an advance copy of this book courtesy of the publisher. All thoughts are my own.

Most of us know what happened to Marion Crane. She’s the woman who picked the wrong motel, met Norman Bates and his “mother,” and didn’t make it out of the shower. Psycho is a classic, and I went into this one feeling skeptical but hopeful. The synopsis caught my eye, and I figured it was worth a shot.

I’ll be honest. I was a little disappointed at first because this isn’t the literal flip the script I was expecting. I had this idea in my head that we’d be back in the 1960s, that Norma would somehow one-up Norman, and that we’d get a full reimagining of the original setting. Only part of that plays out here. The story is modern, and while the motel feels like a cousin of the Bates place, it isn’t actually the Bates Motel. So I had to recalibrate my expectations.

But once I let go of what I thought this book was going to be, I had so much damned fun with it.

This time around, Marion has creatively borrowed (stolen is such a harsh word) a stack of cash from her job at a New York ad agency. But,, she didn’t take it for herself. Her sister is stuck with an abusive husband, and Marion is trying to get her out of the situation before she can’t. The plan is to get to Saratoga Springs and help her out, but her bus dies before she can get there. It’s late, she’s exhausted, and the only place with a vacancy is a creepy little roadside spot. The guy running it goes by Norm. He’s friendly enough, but there’s something off about how much he talks about his mother. Marion checks in, heads back to her room, and gets in the shower. You can probably guess what happens next. Or you think you can. This time, Marion is the one who walks out of that bathroom alive, and she’s the one holding the knife.

So, yeah, now she’s a thief and a killer, and she has to figure out how to get herself out of this mess and still save her sister.

What worked for me was how clearly the author knows her source material. There are so many fun parallels to the original story, little nods and beats that Psycho fans will catch right away. But she doesn’t just rest on the reference. She builds on it. She ups the body count, layers in a real mystery, and makes the whole thing her own. By the halfway point I genuinely had no idea where the story was going, and I didn’t care because I was having so much fun.

Marion herself is a great anchor. She isn’t the silent victim from the movie, but she also isn’t a cold-blooded action heroine. She’s scared. She’s making it up as she goes. She’d already done one impulsive, life-changing thing before she even met Norm, and the rest of the book is her trying to stay one step ahead of every bad decision she’s already made. I rooted for her the whole way.

The pacing is where this one really shines. It’s an edge-of-your-seat kind of read, the type where you tell yourself you’ll stop at the end of this chapter and then suddenly it’s two in the morning. There’s always something waiting around the next corner, and the author keeps the tension cranked up without ever letting it feel exhausting. It helps that we hear from two POVs, and the back and forth adds layers of suspense and plenty of fun twists.

I did an immersive read, listening to the audio while reading the physical book, and the narration by Natalie Naudus and Tawny Platis was spot on. Both of them brought a lot of personality to their sections and kept me locked in.

This is the kind of book I’d grab if I were heading to the beach or the pool for a long afternoon. It’s fun, it moves quickly, and it gives you that giddy feeling of a thriller where anything could happen. If you love twisty thrillers, clever retellings, or a heroine who refuses to die in act one, add this to your summer TBR. You won’t regret it.