HYDRA BY MATT WESOLOWSKI

Hydra is the second standalone in the Six Stories series by Matt Wesolowski. This is such a unique series as each book depicts a podcast that discusses an old cold case murder. I loved it! 

Rating: ★★★★★
​Release Date: December 24, 2017
Genre: Crime. Podcasts. Suspense. 
Series: Six Stories series #2 (can stand alone). 
Pages: 251 pages
Format: eBook. Purchased. 

​A family massacre
A deluded murderess
Five witnesses
Six stories
Which one is true?

One cold November night in 2014, in a small town in the north west of England, 21-year-old Arla Macleod bludgeoned her mother, father and younger sister to death with a hammer, in an unprovoked attack known as the Macleod Massacre.

Now incarcerated at a medium-security mental-health institution, Arla will speak to no one but Scott King, an investigative journalist, whose Six Stories podcasts have become an internet sensation.

King finds himself immersed in an increasingly complex case, interviewing five witnesses and Arla herself, as he questions 

​whether Arla's responsibility for the massacre was a diminished as her legal team made out.

As he unpicks the stories, he finds himself thrust into a world of deadly forbidden ‘games', online trolls, and the mysterious black-eyed kids, whose presence seems to extend far beyond the delusions of a murderess...

Dark, chilling and gripping, Hydra is both a classic murder mystery and an up-to-the-minute, startling thriller, that shines light in places you may never, ever want to see again.

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READ MY BOOK REVIEW

​My Rating: 5 Stars
Tropes: Murder Mystery | Suspense | Horror

Hydra is the second book in the Six Stories series and can be read as a complete standalone. First and foremost, I want to say that this book BLEW ME AWAY! I don’t know if it was the authors intention or not but not only was I enthralled in the savagery of the story, but I was also completely creeped out. It takes a lot to scare me and I’ve read my share of horror books throughout my lifetime but this one set me on edge. I got the chills, goosebumps, and my heart RACED. It was fantastic! Now, I don’t think this book is meant to be a horror novel, it is after all, a
“podcast” type story about a murder. However, the underlying things discussed in the podcast (the urban legends, and black-eyed children, and things like that set me on edge). So, while it may not be a traditional horror novel, it packs the punch of one of the scariest I’ve ever read. Bravo!

Okay. So, this book (and its processor; Six Stories) is written as a podcast. I don’t list to audiobooks, but I would certainly make the exception for these books because I think they would make for great listens. I may even go back and listen to this one via audio because I am so intrigued with how it would play out in that format. This review though will focus on the reading material from the book.

Did I ever think a podcast styled novel would ACUTALLY be good in print format? Nope. Doesn’t seem like it would work but it totally does. Within this novel we have the narrator; Scott King, who dives back into crime scenes via his podcast, Six Stories. This one focuses on a girl named Arla who killed her mom, dad, and sister with a hammer. Arla was clearly the killer, there was never any doubt that she did it, but his podcast sets to look at WHY she did what she did. Is it paranormal? Psychological? Or was she just born bad. That’s what you’ll find out as you are reading. Each chapter focuses on a different narrative from someone close to the story/perpetrator. You get an inside look at the psychological mechanisms of her through these people and come to your own conclusions as to WHY she committed this heinous act. You’ll also discover some very creepy things that will make you feel uneasy as I did. So, beware of that! This book is CHILLING. It’s insanely well written, completely interesting, and downright PERFECT in every way. I hope the author writes many more books like this because I will be reading every single one!

​​★★★★★

CHECK OUT ALL THE BOOKS IN THE SERIES