You really only have to ask me one question to sell me on this book: what if Marion survived the shower scene in Psycho? Leah Rowan takes one of the most iconic deaths in horror, hands the knife back to the woman who was supposed to die, and lets everything spiral completely out of control from there. Marion is bloody, clever, increasingly ridiculous, and SO much fun.

Marion has stolen a large amount of money from the Manhattan ad agency where she works, hoping to use it to help her sister escape an abusive marriage. When her bus breaks down, she ends up spending the night at an isolated motel run by a charming but slightly strange man named Norm Billings.

You know where this is going.

Except when Norm pulls back the shower curtain with a knife, Marion fights back.

Now Norm is dead, Marion is covered in blood, she still has stolen money, and she still hasn't actually made it to her sister.

I loved how Rowan used Psycho as the starting point without simply retelling the same story. The shower scene is basically the moment that launches Marion into an entirely different narrative. There are plenty of little connections for people familiar with the original, but after that first major reversal, the book becomes its own increasingly chaotic crime story.

And Marion is MESSY.

She starts with a very understandable motivation. She wants to help her sister. But one horrible situation leads to another, and watching her continually figure out how the hell she's going to get herself out of whatever new disaster she's created was probably my favorite part. At some point, you stop asking whether she's making good decisions and just start wondering how many more problems one woman can possibly acquire.

I also really liked the feminine-rage angle without feeling like Marion was being turned into some flawless girlboss version of the original character. She's scared. She's desperate. She fucks up. Sometimes she makes things significantly worse for herself. But she's also no longer the disposable woman whose death exists to move someone else's story forward.

This time, she gets to have the story.

The sister relationship also gives everything more emotional weight than I expected. Marion isn't originally running because she wants some glamorous new life. She's trying to save someone she loves, and that motivation remains underneath all the blood and increasingly questionable choices.

My biggest issue was that the story occasionally became a little too convoluted. There are a lot of moving pieces, coincidences, twists, and increasingly wild situations. Eventually I stopped trying to decide how believable all of it was and just went along for the ride.

And honestly? That's probably the best way to read this.