So I read Hydra and WOW, I think this is even better than Six Stories, which I already loved. It’s taking me a lot not to just binge the whole series because there’s something in them that is just perfect for my current reading mood.

Hydra follows the “case” of Arla Macleod, who murdered her entire family with a hammer. However, as Scott King interviews Arla and the people around her, we find that the murder may not be as straightforward as it seems. Yes, Arla is the killer but why did she kill? And who are these black-eyed children that she keeps talking about?

One reason why I enjoyed Six Stories was the hint of the supernatural in the interviews. In Hydra, this hint has become a huge part of the plot. Black-eyed children and games like “Elevator to Another World” are key features and it really made the narrator feel a lot more like a horror story (I’m thinking of the Left Right Game or The Black Tapes type of podcast). Wesolowski still keeps things grounded in the real world, though I felt that he left things much more open for interpretation this time.

While reading this, I wondered what it would be like if I didn’t have “tapes” from Arla alongside the podcast episodes. The tapes are relevant, but I did think they were there for the conclusion (and also atmosphere) and that without them, the ending would be even more open. An open ending might be more unsatisfying but it also fits in more with the “is it or isn’t it” aspect that Wesolowski plays with for the supernatural games and phenomenon. As a reader, I suppose you could choose to skip over Arla’s tapes/come back to them later for a different reading experience.

Overall, this was a spooky and mysterious read that hit both the book and podcast cravings. I need to continue on with other books on my TBR list, but I will definitely return to this series soon.

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