Review: Hydra (Six Stories #2)

4 stars. I’m addicted to these books. I mentioned in my review of Six Stories that this is my kind of horror and holy shit has that been confirmed. I can’t wait to sink my teeth into more of these incredibly fun, clever, creepy, twisty stories. Could honestly be adapted into podcast form IMO, or maybe found footage documentary style? I’d watch.

In Hydra, Scott King tackles not a whodunnit but a why/howdunnit, exploring the case of a young woman who murdered her whole family with a hammer in 2014. He interviews her, her old friends, ex-acquaintances, and people with whom she crossed paths at some point before the massacre. Slowly he untangles the many theories about the case to reveal some scary secrets and her possible motive for the crime… along with those still actively trying to hide the truth.

Oooooooh yeah. Did I mention the urban legends? We’ve got BEKs, the Elevator Game, Japanese ghost conjurings… it’s all the good stuff. More deeply, it deftly comments on things like gender, religious fanaticism, fame, fan culture, cancel culture, social media, tabloid media, the dark web, trolling and doxxing and oh yeah, Twitter and FB are called out by name.

As in the first book, the author also convincingly - horrifyingly - writes about the agony of coming of age, and the sad, sometimes fatal, reality of bullying and teenage dynamics. I just really admire the boldness of the writing about that sort of thing as it rings really… tragically, true.

Okay, so I figured it out before the 6th story. But I fucking loved it just the same. Don’t sleep on this series - it’s like a bowl of delicious popcorn that I can’t stop munching. On to the next and I couldn’t be more excited. OBSESSED!!!!

Hydra on: Amazon | Bookshop.org | Goodreads