The staircase in the woods was probably my favorite by Wending since the wanderers. This book is weird in all of the right ways and is wendings equivalent to kings IT (my favorite of all of Kings books). This takes a smaller known horror trope/urban legend about a staircase that appears in the woods and takes anyone who mounts its stairs to unknown locations to weird and twisted heights.

Without giving too much away-a group of childhood friends reunite as adults when one they are called together after one of them receives a terminal diagnosis. Coming together for the first time in years means that they must face their past and the reasons why they don’t see one another anymore after one of the group disappeared into a staircase in the woods as a kid. Believing him to be dead, everyone blamed the kids for his death and they could never reveal the truth about the staircase.

Once gathered together, they will face their fears and the truth about that night in the past which will determine their futures.

I really enjoyed this one! I always love the trope of childhood friends gathering as adults after a trauma to face it. This is a new take on haunted houses as the ghosts that fill the house are familiar and all serve a purpose to each character. Weding perfectly evokes an atmosphere of claustrophobia and fear and the pacing is perfect as it unravels over short fast paced chapters over dual timelines. I recommend this one to lovers of horror and thrillers, fantasy, king, koontz, straub, and great storytellers!

Ooooo this one was sooo good! It was so interesting and such a unique type of story, different from anything I've read before. It was fast paced, intense, exciting, gruesome, and sad all at the same time. There were so many different themes going on, such as friendships, childhood trauma, fighting your internal battles. Overall just a great read, and I highly recommend it! I only wish I got more from the ending. Hopefully there's a second book on the way! It would be a great one!

Thank you to Random House Worlds publishing for providing me an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for my review.

“Owen had for himself an unspoken rule, one so unspoken he hadn’t even put it into words for himself until now: Don’t go into the woods. You go into the woods? You might not come out of them.“ 🌲

So mad at myself for putting this book off as long as I did because it’s damn good.

A few years ago I read and loved The Book of Accidents. Why I haven’t yet read Black River Orchard is beyond me, so needless to stay, I was *ready* for more Wendig weirdness. Staircase 100% delivered on that front. 🤌

Hard to review without giving much away, but it has so many engaging elements:
• Haunted houses + ghosts galore
• Dual timelines and POVs
• Truly creepy vibes
• Claustrophobic, all-consuming horror, but also a poignant story about coming of age, childhood friends, and facing our fears.

THE STAIRCASE IN THE WOODS by Chuck Wendig

Discovering portals to other dimensions!? It could be a great adventure or it could be totally traumatic. In this case, it’s a staircase leading to a labyrinthine house filled with all sorts of horrific things.

While I was initially interested in the story set up, I felt the plot was disjointed, the pacing was slow, and the misfit friend dynamics were lacking. These are supposed to be fully grown adults reuniting to look for their long lost friend, but the dialogue read more like a YA novel.

The potential was there. I liked the mysterious and foreboding atmosphere of the house. I didn’t find the scenes too violent or upsetting (but that’s my desensitization). I do wish the plot had more “action” instead of mostly being character driven.

While this ultimately wasn’t for me, don’t let that deter you. If you love all the creepypasta things, you might enjoy this.


Rating: 3/5 ⭐️

Pub Date: 04.29.25

**ARC courtesy of Netgalley & DelReyBooks

OK- I consider myself a pretty sensible person. However, I also love the woods. They are my happy place, I can wander and hang with nature, and I feel at home. And if I saw this staircase in the middle of the woods ( I mean look at it- it's gorgeous!), I have to admit that my curiosity would get the better of me, and I would probably climb right up to check it out!

That would probably be a huge mistake! After reading this, I think it will be a while til I roam freely throughout the woods, and I will certainly avoid any and all staircases that I happen upon!!!

So, five high school friends go camping in the woods and find a staircase that leads nowhere. One of the friends walks right up, and never comes back. And then the staircase disappears! Twenty years later, the staircase reappears, and one of the friends call the others to come back. The friends left behind really have not stayed in touch- there was too much trauma and sadness (all this is revealed in past/present form). They hope to find out what happened to the "lost" boy. They soon find that sometimes what you wish for can become your worst nightmare.

This story is so creepy, with a lot of suspense. Each of the characters bring a lot of tension as they try to explore and figure out what is going on. The themes of friendship, loss, love, and dealing with the past and lost dreams runs throughout the story. The setting is imbued with darkness and not seeing the path clearly ahead- and I loved it. It is really hard to write a review because there are so many twists and reveals that I do not want to spoil this. In some ways, reminiscent of King's "It"- yet Wendig is a fantastic writer and it is distinctly different and stands on it's own as a fantastic, haunting tale. Phenomenal characters, fantastic storyline, haunting setting. I highly recommend this to anyone who likes heart and connections blended in with a creepy horror story!

Thank you so much to NetGalley, and Random House/Del Rey for the ARC. This is my voluntary and honest review.

THE STAIRCASE IN THE WOODS by Chuck Wendig
Published: April 29, 2025 by Del Rey Publishing
Page Count: 400



A horrific improvement of the urban legend of a solitary Staircase in the Woods leading to nowhere. Wendig weaves a a terrifying story of a pack of five youths with terrible family lives, bound together by a pact of unbreakable friendship … a Covenant that they will always be there for the others in times of need. There are five teenagers : Nick, Lauren (Lore), Hamish and Matty, all with their own foibles, bound by drugs, drinks and the difficult suffocation of living in a small town. The Covenant was formed on the basis of surviving the torment of bullies. As a group they went on a camping trip following the arduous course of the trail leading to the Highchair Rocks with the reward of glorious scenic vistas. Instead of scenic wonders they come upon the isolated staircase leading to nowhere. They initially ignore its presence, however later in a fit of defiance, Matty runs up the staircase and never returns . They agree upon a story to tell the authorities, and yet the events are never fully understood. Decades later, Nick summons the group that have become strangers, leading separate and not too successful lives. He maintains that he is dying from pancreatic cancer and would like to group to return for a bonding trip to the nearby woods. They reluctantly join Nick and upon their incursion into the woods, come upon another isolated stairway. Nick convinces them to climb the stairs with the possibility of finding Matty after all these years. They climb into a literal house of horrors with no exit. They find themselves trapped in an ever changing horrific situation with shifting rooms with evidence of torture, murder, and mayhem of unbelievable circumstances. Frequently they come upon the “ghosts” or memories of the victims .. and occasionally the rooms and their dire consequences are tailored to fit their own past horrors.
Wendig proves to be a masterful storyteller as he weaves together the multiple scenarios reflecting their past trauma and horrors with escalating tension and intrigue. He expertly explores the delicate nature of friendship, love, and trauma and their interrelationships , that cascades into an astounding denouement. Thanks to NetGalley and Del Rey books for providing an Uncorrected Proof in exchange for an honest review.

Twenty years ago they found a mysterious staircase in the woods. One went up and was never seen again. Now, they are gathering again to figure out what happened.

The Staircase in the Woods is a slow, creepy story about processing trauma. Feels a bit long at times. Good ending.

The Staircase in the Woods oozes with tension. The fear of what happened in the past, the way it twists us now and...of course what happens when we decide to climb a random staircase in the woods. The sense of danger that pervades the novel is palpable and only adds to the overall creepiness. 100% a horror book rec!

LOVE the idea, didn’t love the execution. This starts out so strong and creepy - the rooms feel wild at first and the initial revelations about where they are had me gripped. But once you kind of know what’s going on, I felt the story fall apart a little bit. The messaging felt a little heavy handed and the plot fell to the wayside. Bummer because I really love Chick Wendig’s books normally.

I will say there’s some killer imagery throughout and will give kudos for that!!

I received an eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

If I ever stumbled upon a staircase in the woods, you can bet I wouldn’t be climbing it, especially after reading Chuck Wendig’s latest dark thriller. Absolutely not. But I highly recommend reading about this group of friends who not only found such a staircase but actually decided to climb it—even after one of them went missing doing the exact same thing. Big red flag, right? Yet, I had no hesitation following them on their eerie, twisted journey up those steps and into the unknown.

This story was gripping from start to finish, with a dark, sinister atmosphere that kept me on edge the entire time. The characters weren’t just flawed, they were broken, haunted by their pasts in a way that made me deeply invested in their struggles and their fate. It’s hard to pin this book down to one specific genre or trope, but what I can say is that it pulled me in completely. My emotions ran high, my pulse raced, and there were moments I wanted to slam the book shut and look away, yet I simply couldn’t.

Real Rating: 4.25* of five

As paranormal horror stories go, this is a very competent and well-strung-together example. As a character study of how the bonds of found family are tested, and how they can fail, it's a top-flight effort.

I'm pretty sure most of us have experienced the intense young-adult friend group phenomenon. For lots of people it's their big moment of bonding, forming a found family that either supplants entirely or enhances greatly their family of origin. In this telling of that family story you're treated to the bonus intensity of a tragedy befalling the scooby-group in such an incredible way that no one not there could possibly be able to credit the details. All the remainders are saddled forever after with quiet, or not so quiet, blame for the disappearance.

At the midpoint of their lives, after this judgment has weighed on them in ways they have just turned into ordinary background—as survivors of trauma often do in order to live "normal" lives—the trauma demands revisiting, as traumas so very, very often do. They are drawn together by a death foretold, a cancer diagnosis for one of them, though this will give way to their adolescent trauma's reappearance: here's a...the?...staircase, now what? Will you climb it? Will you all climb it, all together, in small groups, singly?

And here's where I go sibylline. The staircase is where we kick off our paranormal experience of reading, and that's a place I don't have the skills to navigate without spoilering SOMEone, who will then whine at me and elicit my accustomed "oh grow up" response, and then mods will get involved and yet another woman will have her knife ever-ready to stab at me.

But I digress.

The experience of paranormality isn't ever convincingly real to me. It's always just that one frame too slow or too fast, or each in turn, for my mental movie not to pop a sprocket. Meanings can be expressed, however, that are not easily evoked by other more "realistic" (silly word to use about fiction, if we're at all honest) settings/vocabularies/characterizations. That is so powerfully the case in this story that I am happy to leave the spoiler veil in place. The scooby-group does its deeply, unbreakably bonded thing, ie splinter. The story does a cracking job of making these self-centered kids grown into flawed and bone-deep ordinary adults relatable, if never really (for me anyway) likable people. I will say that if you can read this story without saying at least once, "that's exactly what X would do," then you're most likely X.

Don't kid yourself, though, it's a horror novel. Not a splatterpunk-y one, and nowhere is violence slathered with prurient, pornographic adjectival drool. But violence and intense conflict there is in here. In that way it feels to me as cathartic as less horror-themed and non-paranormal stories can't be...when done as well as this, the great selling point for horror is its ability to slide right around those improbability filters we all carry. Not since The X Files, whose story-sprockets matched mine superbly, has one done it so successfully as the staircases of the title for me.

A rare over-4-star rating for a horror story was thus awarded. I have not read Black River Orchard, with which the present volume seems to be linked (I can only assume thematically, since the settings are different), but will now add it to my grotesquely enormous list of things to be read.

Apparently I believe I'll live past 100, based on TBR size.

This was my first book by Wendig. It took me awhile to get through it due to the constant back and forth and heavy trauma. I understand the horror/thriller of the book but this seemed to repetitive. What also made it a bit tough was the political part of it. Other than that the book does pick up and was an interesting read.

There is no question that Chuck Wendig’s new book, The Staircase in the Woods, will get compared to King’s iconic IT. After all both books feature a group of friends, originally united by bullying, who suffer trauma in their youth only to once again reunite as adults to face their fears. I doubt King was the first to come up with that formula, but IT was certainly the most successful to use it, though over the years many authors have gone to that well with varying degrees of success. Hey, it’s a great formula, why not use it? That being said, Wendig’s story is a completely different animal from IT, original in it own right. (As original as a story using a well worn story trope can be, anyway.) When they were teens, a group of five friends entered the woods, the next day when they exited there were only four of them. What happened? Well, they found a bizarre staircase in the middle of the woods. A staircase to nowhere. Matty went up those stairs and was never seen again. And like Matty the staircase had disappeared. Now twenty years later the friends reunite. Another staircase has been found and this time they are going up together to find the answer to what happened to their missing friend. Not going to like, it’s a wild premise, which I loved. And once they climb the stairs and…get to their new location (being vague to avoid spoiling anything) the story gets dark and creepy. Wendig did a fantastic job on the characters. These characters are complex, flawed, and feel quite real. There are some seriously heavy themes running throughout this story. I only mention this because this isn’t the type of thing I normally notice when reading. I read for pure escapism, to get lost a story. I don’t usually even think of things like theme until I’ve finished a book and have time to reflect, so for me to notice it while I’m reading is just unusual. Not saying it’s bad or that Wendig was heavy hand in anyway, it’s just so there in your face you can’t not notice it, lol. I’d say in a good way, though the themes are kind of on the dark and depressing side so I’m not sure ‘good’ is the correct way to describe it, so…how about powerful? You can’t help but see and feel the themes. I want to say more, but I need to be careful to avoid spoilers. I’ll just say if you’re a normal person, who has experienced ups and downs in your life, you’ll feel this story, you’ll sympathize with the characters, connect with the emotions the story evokes at times. And you’ll likely still think about/feel the story even after you’ve hit the end and set the book aside. I’d like to thank Random House Worlds | Del Rey, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an eARC of The Staircase in the Woods.

https://www.amazon.com/review/RRXUJ8KC8GM4W/ref=pe_123899240_1043597390_SRTC0204BT_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

This book was a creepy, thrilling ride! If you’re a fan of suspense, thriller & mystery, you’ll enjoy this!

What would you do if you lost a friend? Would you just go about living your life or would you spend the rest of your living moments thinking about them?

This novel was extremely layered in character development. It was multiple pov and a non-linear timeline. I really liked getting those deep looks into the characters mindsets as it showed vulnerability and made you relate more to them.

The world building and feelings (of dread, of curiosity, etc.) were also very clear. There was an even tone throughout the book revealing intricate details in the surroundings to the facial expressions.

This is only my second foray into Wendig’s work, but I’m so curious for more.

Thank you so much to the author, Chuck Wendig, Random House - Del Rey and NetGalley for this eARC of The Staircase in the Woods!

Let's see... how about whipping up a little The 7th Guest with a bit of 13 Ghosts, followed with a pinch of The Sixth Sense, and a topper of Dark Matter? Sounds like a yes, please!

I always fancy a well told horror story, and this one certainly quenched that thirst! I am such a fan of Chuck Wendig's writing. He has such a mastery for creating horrifying imagery that hangs around to haunt your thoughts.

Final thoughts? If you're looking for a long, tall glass of a creepy good time, this book is nightmarishly refreshing! Knock it back and enjoy. Yum!

In 1998, a group of friends go camping in the back woods of Bucks County, PA and one of them doesn’t come back out. Out of nowhere is a strange staircase all by itself, and Matty decides to climb the stairs that seemingly lead to nowhere. In doing so, he vanishes into thin air, and the staircase disappears.

Fast forward to present day. Now the friends are adults, and the staircase reappears. The group decides it’s time to face their fears and try and find their long lost friend. Each one climbs the stairs and find themselves transported into a place only found in nightmares.

While lost in a layered fever dream, each character is windmilled into a checkered part of their past, having to fight off the demons that having been living with them so long. How will they escape?
——

There were parts of this story that I found cool and original, but for the most part I felt like it was a mashup of various other tales already told, very heavy on the IT vibes. The characters fell flat for me, they just felt so stereotypical and uninteresting, and like I said, too similar to those characters we have come to know and love called the Losers. Even the ending felt cut short and had me bored.

There were some pretty gruesome and creepy parts splattered about that I did enjoy, but a bunch of the flashback type sections were so messy and confusing, I thought it possibly compared to being high on mushrooms 😵‍💫. I did find myself so intrigued as to what the staircase was all about, that I found myself rapidly flipping through the first half of this book to see what was going to happen. So it wasn’t all bad.

A haunting blend of mystery and supernatural suspense, The Staircase in the Woods follows five friends bound by an old oath and a shared trauma. When a bizarre staircase appears in the forest and one of them vanishes…it changes their lives forever. Twenty years later, the staircase returns, and so does the past. Atmospheric and emotionally tense, this novel explores friendship, loss, and the eerie unknown. An original and creepy taste that you will think of long after you finished reading!!!

“On Friday, June 5th, 1998, five teenagers went into the woods surrounding Highchair Rocks in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Only four of them came out.” – Chuck Wendig, The Staircase in the Woods

So begins Wendig’s latest novel. That summer night, Owen, Hamish, Nick, Matty, and Lauren went camping. The Covenant, as they called themselves, was bound by solemn promises to protect each other from bullies, to collaborate on homework so none of them fell behind, and so on. That night in the woods, high atop the cliffs, they find something impossible. A staircase, spiraling upward with no remnants of other structure around, no indications of how it had gotten there, or why. When no obvious answers could be found, most of the group decided to leave it be and go back to their campsite. Something about the staircase continues to eat at Matty, though, and so he invokes the Covenant (despite being told that’s not how it works) to get everyone else to go back with him and see what awaits them at the top.

Reluctantly, the other four teens trail along only to watch in shock and horror as, at the final stair, Matty vanishes. There’s no sign of him again.

The days and weeks after are chaos as the four survivors struggle to process what happened and to come up with a cohesive lie to tell to the police about what happened to their missing friend. They face relentless questioning about where they last saw him, who they talked to, and where he could have gone. The only problem is, none of them really know where Matty went, and the staircase is gone too, eliminating the possibility of anyone following after him.

Now, decades have passed, and the four surviving members of The Covenant have done their best to move on with their lives until an email arrives from Nick. He’s dying. Cancer. He wants to get the old gang together one last time before he’s gone, so he offers to fly all of them out to see him. He even invokes The Covenant to ensure that, despite all of the myriad issues they’ve developed as they’ve aged, they’ll come. And so they do.

Upon arrival, they quickly realize that Nick wasn’t being entirely honest with them. Instead of a nice get-together, he leads them off into the woods where, against all sense, they find the staircase again. It’s not the same place, but they know, somehow, that it’s the same staircase. He urges them to climb with him. A chance, he says, to do the right thing. To go find Matty.

To bring him back.

And, in the name of The Covenant, they follow.

The Staircase in the Woods is a brilliant, dark piece of horror from Wendig in the vein of Stephen King’s It (friends coming back together again as adults to face the evil they couldn’t defeat in their youth). The members of The Covenant have fallen away from each other, and they’re going to confront more than just the mysteries that lie at the top of the staircase if they’re going to have any chance of making it out of the woods again. I love Wendig’s horror (see my recent review of Black River Orchard) and I’m certain that most of you will too.

The Staircase in the Woods is out today from Del Rey books. My utmost thanks to them and to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for a fair review.

This review originally appeared here: https://swordsoftheancients.com/2025/04/29/the-staircase-in-the-woods-a-review/

I haven't read any of Wendig's books before, though I've of course heard of his work. I thought this was a really engrossing, really dark story that takes some familiar territory and reworks it in an interesting and creepy way. Reminiscent of It for sure, with these characters coming back to investigate and maybe make amends for something horrible that happened when they were younger. But I thought Wendig did a great job of looking at these relationships in a bit of a different way and things get quite strange as they uncover the mystery and grapple with the consequences (don't want to spoil anything here). Wendig has a good rhythm going through most of the narrative, and it makes for a compelling read, wanting to get to the next thing. It's probably a pitfall of this style of storytelling that there are some moments where things lag a bit in the rehashing. But overall, it's a good read and I liked it quite a lot.