Book #95: Psycho II by Robert Bloch

 

Psycho II

Robert Bloch

 Released: August 1st, 1982

My 38th book for 2025 was Robert Bloch's “Psycho II”.  

This book was written 23 years after the original novel and was a cause for Hollywood to blacklist Robert Bloch from future film projects as they felt this book was a sharp commentary on the environment of Hollywood, and the entertainment industry in general.  It has no connection to the film Psycho II, released a year later in 1983.

The book finds Norman Bates locked up in a state prison for criminally insane people.  There he has been work with Dr. Claiborne in an attempt to heal him from his psychotic delusions and ailments.  When two nuns come to visit him and attempt to connect with him, Bates kills one, steals and dons her clothes, and then escapes with the second, whom he brutally kills with a tire iron, and rapes post-mortem.  He collects a hitchhiker during his escape, and a fight ensues leaving a man dead.  The van and bodies of the two victims are burned as the killer escapes.  Later, Sam and Lila Loomis from the first novel have gotten married and run the hardware store together.  When Sam doesn't return home in time, Lila goes to the shop to investigate.  After discovering Sam dead in the store, she is also murdered.  The story transitions to Hollywood where a film of the original Psycho story is being made.  The story delivers a commentary on Hollywood in the early 1980's.  People being take advantage of and abused to further their careers.  More deaths begin to emerge, and the production is believed to be stalked by Norman Bates.  With a couple jabs at Hollywood culture, a twist ending emerges that changes the dynamic of the series and provides more insight as to how Bates' psychological state can be seen in Hollywood as well.

The book reminds me of Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning.  I can definitely see how this one influenced it in some ways.  

I also read some quotes that take about the decay of society in recent decades.  People will debate the truth of the matters, but they stand on their own merits.

I didn't care for this one as much as the first novel.  I'm not sure if it's because I read it from a mass-market paperback (I dislike mass-markets for several reasons).  The story started off very intriguing and suspenseful, but the Hollywood segments felt slower and had too much going on.  I lost track of some of the characters and had to reread some parts to fully understand what was going on.

Here is what I learned:

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• For Stella Loeb Bloch with life-long love.

• Norman Bates was placed into the State Hospital for the Criminally Insane following the events of the first novel.

"Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage." - Richard Lovelace

• Norman serves as the librarian.

• Dr. Claiborne is the Doctor of the facility.

• Norman thinks of nuns as “penguins”.

• Norman is staying in room 418.

• Norman is reading a biography on Moreno, the Romanian psychologist.

• Norman wonders if buns shave their pubic hair.

• Peccavi means “white lie”.

• Norman commits necrophilia.

• After the events of the first film, Sam Loomis married Mary Crane’s sister Lila.

• Sam has a heart murmur.

• Milt Engstrom is the new sheriff of Fairvale.

• A Hollywood producer wants to created a film based on the Bates story.

• Jan Harper lives in Los Angeles with her roommate Connie.

• Jan drives a brand new Toyota.

• Anita Kedzie is ambidextrous.

• Marty Driscoll is a successful Hollywood producer.

• Actor Paul Morgan is an almost institution.

"You know what retirement is today?  An old man with diseased lungs, catching poisoned fish in a polluted stream."

"But think about this.  Some politician gets up and reads a speech.  His opponent reads a rebuttal.  Then a TV commentator reads a report explaining what the two men read.  All of it - the speech, the rebuttal, the explanation - is the work of some anonymous writers in the back room.  And we call it 'news'".

"There was a hell of a lot let homicide fifty years ago, and what there was went on mainly among professional criminals.  Now it's Amateur Night - student terrorists, kids on the street, all competing for status by slaughter.  Because our films, our television, our books and plays tell the that violence is rewarding."

• Director Sam Vizzini looks eerily similar to Norman Bates.

• Bo Keller was the hitchhiker Norman picked up.

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Overall, I did not find this book to be the best.  The beginning was great, and really set up a strong horror novel, but the Hollywood segments (as honest as they have proven to be in recent decades) drug it down.  Stick to the first one.

Not recommended.

On to Book #96: Psycho House by Robert Bloch.