Norman vs Norma vs Normal

Reading Challenge 2017: book that takes place in a hotel. Psycho, by Robert Bloch, was an interesting read, having seen the movie (which is a different version of the book) and all the cultural references to the shower scene.  Had I read this before seeing the movie, the ending would have been a twist when discovering the mother was not actually alive and Norman is schizophrenic.  Of course, if Mary Crane had not wanted to help Sam Loomis with his financial problems and stole the $40,000, she would still be alive.  For all the focus in movies about the shower scene, Mary hardly exists long enough in the book to be considered a major character.  

Norman Bates was fat and bespectacled in the book instead of the tall, thin Anthony Perkins in the movie.  At one point he is described as "an old geezer" even though he is not that old chronologically.  I wonder why the choice was made to change his physical characteristics in the movie, making him a sexier killer.  

Ed Gein was mentioned toward the end of the novel, insinuating that both were serial killers and similar, even though Norman only killed two people.  The psychology of a peeping tom and schizophrenic seeing his "mother" made for a nice addition to the thriller aspect of the novel, but it did not make him scary.  As was mentioned in the novel, he was a quiet, shy man in the area and was even embarrassed at points, which might be a response to his mother's dominance in his life and not wanting him to leave her, even though she had found a suitor before Norman poisoned them.

The ending is strange as it leaves the reader with the sense of being a cliffhanger, as Norma has fused with Norman and Normal to make one person who does not see himself as being anyone that "could hurt a fly", even though he decapitated Mary and killed Arbogast, the detective.

Reading this does not make me want to watch the movie, but it does help explain where the thriller originated.