Marion is the kick-ass debut novel for author Leah Rowan, and it’s hugely addictive! My thanks go to St. Martin’s Press, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for the invitation to read and review. This book will be available to the public June 2, 2026.

The story is a retelling of the 1960s smash, Psycho. I am not generally a fan of retellings unless they’re brilliantly done, and as it happens, this one is. We have two points of view here; one is Marion, and the other is Hannah, a budding private detective searching for a missing girl that was last seen near the motel. However, Marion is the protagonist.

Her real name isn’t Marion, but she adopts it as an alias early on, and so it might as well be. When we meet her, she’s an overworked and underappreciated office worker, and she’s also a concerned sister. Her older sister Lauren is in an abusive marriage, and cannot afford to leave for at least a year. Marion is frantic, trying to protect Lauren. Their parents are gone, and her mother made her promise to become the big sister and look after Lauren. It is that good intention from which everything else arises.

When her bus breaks down before reaching her destination, and when all of the nicer lodgings fill up with other stranded passengers, our protagonist is guided to this motel—yes, that motel. And that’s where things get real. She adopts the name Marion because she doesn’t want her boss to know where she is, but as things become more intense, she has additional reasons for remaining anonymous.

Eventually, Marion and Hannah meet.

That’s all I’m going to tell you, because surprise is everything here, but I do want to give a shout out to the audio narrators, because they are how a very good book becomes a great one. Natalie Naudus and Tawny Platis do exceptional jobs. I did most of my reading this way, pulling weeds with ear buds in, and I stayed out in the sun way too long, because I knew that once I was in the house, I had to stop listening!

The whole thing winds up with a couple of surprising twists at the end that make it even better.

Highly recommended to anyone that likes a scary book with some dark, feminist moxie.