Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Hydra cover art

Hydra

By: Matt Wesolowski
Narrated by: Tim Bruce, Jane Slavin, Kris Dyer, Jonathan Keeble, Joan Walker, Julius Howe, Rebecca Rainsford
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

Six Stories cover art
The Watchers cover art
The Creeper cover art
Family Business cover art
FantasticLand cover art
Thirteen Storeys cover art
The Dentist cover art
Hold on Until Your Fingers Break cover art
When Darkness Calls cover art
The Toll House cover art
Malevolent cover art
Violated: A shocking and harrowing survival story from the notorious Rotherham abuse scandal cover art
For the Missing cover art
I Thought I Knew You cover art
The Fort cover art
WEIRD. DARK. cover art

Summary

In November 2014 Arla Macleod bludgeoned her mother, father and sister to death with a hammer.

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.

©2017 Matt Wesolowski (P)2018 Audible, Ltd

What listeners say about Hydra

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    145
  • 4 Stars
    78
  • 3 Stars
    42
  • 2 Stars
    18
  • 1 Stars
    8
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    162
  • 4 Stars
    57
  • 3 Stars
    37
  • 2 Stars
    10
  • 1 Stars
    6
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    129
  • 4 Stars
    67
  • 3 Stars
    49
  • 2 Stars
    19
  • 1 Stars
    9

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Repetitive interruptions

Good story, scared me at times as I listen at bedtime 😱 but a shame about the podcast interruptions. Spoiled the listening as really annoying and unnecessary. Shame as a good story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

22 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Infuriating!

Wouldn't have left any stars but the app only let me give a minimum of 2 for each area. Couldn't make it through the first chapter, the way this is read, with a 'narrator' interrupting, is exceptionally irritating. Definitely does not make a good audio book. Awful.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

19 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

An absolutely brilliant writer. Stunned.

Would you listen to Hydra again? Why?

As soon as I had finished I went back to the beginning and replayed it over the next few days. It's so poetic, yet real, and thrilling and so shockingly sad. My heart broke.

What did you like best about this story?

Arla. Arla. Arla.

Have you listened to any of the narrators’s other performances? How does this one compare?

This is the most wonderful audio experience.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Oh yes.

Any additional comments?

I loved it so much.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

17 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Very disappointing

I couldn’t finish this. I’m a big fan of true crime podcasts and this felt incredibly staged and over acted to the extent that I just didn’t believe it. A shame. Not recommended.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

16 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderfully written and utterly heartbreaking. A must read!

Absolutely incredible. Gripping, fascinating to the end. One of those books you can’t put down and left me feeling emotionally drained and more than a little indignant. Beautifully crafted blending reality with fiction seamlessly. I think I might have just found my new favourite author...

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Poor

It does pain me to write a bad review when I see everyone else has rated this book so highly. It makes think that there is something I missed.

I appreciate its always good to find new ways to tell a story and make it more interesting to a wider audience, but why reinvent the wheel when you can just tell the story as it is?

This just felt like a TV documentary but without the pictures. It had nothing to hold it together, it was disjointed, the narrators sounded disinterested and after an hour I had to give up.

I will enjoy returning this book, but that is all.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Original, excellent and thought provoking

Original, excellent and thought provoking, this 6 part story kept me riveted. Compelling and emotional, a very affecting story. Well narrated.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Wow, superb performances

I’d previously bought ‘Six Stories’ by Matt and thought the podcast format worked perfectly. I then bought Hydra in paperback and read the first chapter, loved it, and decided to get the audible again.

Just bossed it over 24 hrs, couldn’t stop listening, driving, walking the dog, making a brew, I’ve had it on constantly and finished it quicker than any other. Loved it.

I really enjoyed Six Stories but did prefer this. The performances really made it, too, particularly Arla.

Will definitely be buying the next - Changeling- as soon as it’s out!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Gripping and scary

Clever and genuinely scary, I finished this quickly as I was keen to know what happened next. I liked the format of the radio show, although it involved a bit of repetition here and there to tie in with that format. The really scary thing of course is what can be achieved by those who use social media for negative purposes, and there is currently a view that this had a significant impact on Trumps success. Or is that just what we’d prefer to believe?

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

This is now one of my favourite books ever!

Wow this book is brilliant from start to finish. The story and the narration. This came up as a recommendation from Audible which I thought I'd give a go and so glad I did! I went on to buy the first Six Stories book by this author which is also brilliant, although this has the edge for me personally. I am now waiting in anticipation for Matt Wesolowski's third book (due out in November I believe)! Highly recommended if you like a good mystery with a distinctly creepy edge!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful