"A group of friends investigates the mystery of a strange staircase in the woods in this mesmerizing horror novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Accidents.

Five high school friends are bonded by an oath to protect one another no matter what.

Then, on a camping trip in the middle of the forest, they find something extraordinary: a mysterious staircase to nowhere.

One friend walks up - and never comes back down. Then the staircase disappears.

Twenty years later, the staircase has reappeared. Now the group returns to find the lost boy - and what lies beyond the staircase in the woods...."

Did they have someone watching the woods for twenty years so they'd know when the stairs reappeared!?!

Good story that gets you interested quickly. Turns very dark in the second half of the book. The overwhelmingly miserable backstories of the characters became a bit too much. for my taste. Lots of trigger warnings if you are not a big horror reader - suicide, child abuse. With a little less of that it would have been five stars.

Thankyou to Netgalley, Chuck Wendig and Del Rey Publishing for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.

What an absolutely astonishing book, I literally couldn't put it down and when I had to I was left thinking about it.

This book hooks it's claws into you and doesn't let you go, with stunning dark writing, vivid imagery that will keep you awake and a character list you wish you knew in real life I can honestly say this was one of the easiest 5 stars I've given.

Do yourself a favour and pick up this book if it's the last thing you do, oh and read it in a dark house 🏠

I am the outlier once again. I loved The Book of Accidents, so I expected to love (or at least like) everything Wendig writes, but I’ve discovered this is not the case. I was lukewarm toward his last sci-fi horror, and I couldn’t even get through this one. I don’t get it. The Book of Accidents was scary and profound. Why can’t I find these qualities in his other stories?

Firstly, this did not pull me in. It felt like I was reading a very basic YA novel, even though the characters were adults.

I also find Wendig’s attempts at edginess feel synthetic. It’s an enormous turn off, and it completely pulls me out of the story.

I apologize to the publisher for not being able to finish the book and provide more elaborate feedback. I just cannot force myself with this one, although I greatly appreciate early access to the story.

I have no idea what just happened to me. I have easily read a least 100 books a year since I started reading chapter books in the first grade. Doing some quick math, I've read well over 3000 books in my literary journey. This book blew my mind. I somehow missed that this was horror and went in blind having never read horror and expecting some domestic suspense.. This story is shocking, chilling, mind bending, layered, complex, I could go on and on.

The story is about 5 teens from the 1990s who not only find a staircase in the woods and subsequently lose their friend but they also have a covenant with each other to always be there for each other when the time comes. Fast forward to adulthood and one of the remaining group summons the others to meet him citing the covenant.

What happens from there simply can't be described to any justice without reading the book. This book is going to haunt me and give me what I am anticipating to be the worst book hangover that I can remember. I read this in one sitting and became so invested in these complex and layered characters that I could not wait to learn their fate.

While I can't recommend this book enough, I can't say that I'd recommend this to the causal reader or someone who isn't prepared to go in and be destroyed in only the way that the best books can do. It is DARK, traumatic and should be full of trigger warnings, but that said if you are still willing to jump in, it will stick with. you for a long, long time.

This was a great book. It is pretty graphic but I loved it!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this arc in exchange for an honest review!

The Staircase in the Woods by Chuck Wendig was a spine chilling, dread inducing horror story and I loved every last word of it. Five high school friends walk into the woods and find a mysterious staircase to nowhere, but only four of them walk back out of the forest the next day. Their friend Matt has vanished breaking apart the friendship that once united them. Years later one of them summons the others with the news that he is terminally ill and despite the intervening years the friends reunite only to find that the staircase has reappeared. In order to find out what happened to Matt they agree to go up the stairs, some more reluctantly than others but what they find at the top is a literal house of horrors, room after room from their nightmares that seem to flow into one another but never lead back to the staircase.
Wow, this was the definition of a gripping read, I was absolutely hooked from beginning to end, not just because of the disturbing story but also because I grew to really care about the characters, a real testament to the author's skill as at the beginning of the book none of them were particularly sympathetic. Using flashbacks to their teenage years so that we see how they grew such close friendship bonds really helped with that but also made events towards the end of the book even more gut wrenching as we see them face their personal demons and the traumas they endured growing up. This is a dark book that deals with many difficult themes so it may be worth seeking out some trigger warnings if you feel you may need them. While feeling new and fresh this book also felt like some of the best horror I read as a teen, and I think that that is a sentiment that will be echoed by many readers.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

The eerie unknown of liminal spaces haunt this book. Prepare yourself for the tension.
THE STAIRCASE IN THE WOODS by Chuck Wendig. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Right away I felt at ease with the writing style because it just flows so easily. This is interesting because the story gets down right harsh. For me, it got creepy as all get out and I never got used to it, I always felt unsettled.
I squirmed, I got mad, I was elated, I kept checking my surroundings, I tried to make myself as small as possible, and I absolutely loved it.
Overall this following quote sums up how I felt reading the book and I just can’t thank Chuck Wendig enough for that.
“Owen woke up when a cockroach was trying to get into his ear. It got halfway in, its front legs scrambling against his eardrum.” (You better have squirmed while reading that, if not then you have never seen Star Trek: Wrath of Khan)

Also, I loved the shoutout to Ryan from Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord NH in the acknowledgments. She does a lot to help the horror genre.

I loved this book. There are so many reasons that The Staircase in the Woods by Chuck Wendig is a five star read for me, but I'll try not to go too over the top with this review and just hit the highlights for you.

The story of this book follows a group of five teenagers with a deep friendship. The five go camping in the woods together where they discover a mysterious stand alone staircase. When one of them decides to climb it, he disappears, along with the staircase, and the four return to their lives without him. More than twenty years later the estranged friends come together again when one of them finds another Staircase. Can they find their missing friend? If you want to find out you'll have to read the book but it's absolutely worth it.

I mention pacing in most of my reviews because to me that's something that's pivotal to a good novel. This book was immaculately paced. The timeline of the story isn't linear but there was never a moment where I found myself wanting to rush through a part of the book to get back to the other timeline because they were all equally as engaging and entertaining. I read a good portion of this book (about 70% of it) in one sitting. I never found myself looking at how far I was or how much I had left, I was just so deeply in the story that hours flew by without my notice.

Another thing that will keep me sucked into a book is a good character and this book has not one but five very compelling characters. You could tell from reading that the author put a lot of serious thought and consideration into these characters. Not only did they all have rich and intricate backstories but as the story progressed and you learned more about their histories and their trauma it made the progression of the characters from teenagers to adults understandable. You could connect the dots from who they were as teenagers to how they became who they were as adults in a way that made them feel so real.

The last point I want to touch on, because I'd be remiss not to, is the story itself. It's just a damn good story. One that I know I'll want to revisit in the future. This is definitely going to be a re-read for me at some point down the road.

All that to say this was a 5 star read for me and a book that I had a really hard time putting down.

Thank you to Chuck Wendig for writing this, to Del Rey and Penguin Random House Worlds for publishing it and providing me with an ARC, and to NetGalley for being the vehicle with which I received it.

Triggers:
•childhood sexual abuse
•self harm
•violence
•death
•murder
•gore
•drug use
•recovering from trauma

A HUGE thank you to #NetGalley and #DelRey for the chance to read this early in exchange for an honest review.

It’s been so long since I’ve read a good haunted house-style story that hasn’t been predictable or cheesy. This one was FANTASTIC and broke the mold!

I remember watching the “Thirteen Ghosts” movie, wayyy back in the day, and thinking how creepy and terrifying it was, but also how unique it felt. I had never seen anything like it and yet, it was also a little difficult to explain.

“The Staircase in the Woods” gave me all of these same feelings, but were much more vivid because I was immersed in the reading experience. This experience will live in my head for days to come.

Some highlights for me were the following:
- ghosts and ghouls
- haunted houses
- childhood friends coming back together as adults to go on a spooky journey
- messed up childhood trauma
- haunted history
- video game lore

I will definitely be recommending this one to other spooky book lovers!

This is quite the interesting tale. I believe that it was a bit graphic for my taste, but the idea and story were great.

In the late 1990s a group of teens came across a strange staircase while camping in local woods. One of the group went up the stairs but never came back down.  The rest of the group go their separate ways until almost a quarter of a century later when they reunite and try to find out what happened to their lost friend.  This is a very dark and twisted story about pain and trauma of all kinds but it is also a story about the strength of friendship.  A difficult book to read at times but one that really made me think and it will stay with me for a long time.

Title/Author: Chuck Wendig

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Del Rey

Format: I read the NetGalley arc

Other Books I Enjoyed by This Author: Miriam Black series, The Book of Accidents, Black River Orchard, etc

Affiliate Link: https://bookshop.org/a/7576/978059315...

Release Date: April 29th, 2025

General Genre: Horror

Sub-Genre/Themes: urban legend, camping trip, creepy woods, friendship, childhood friends into adulthood, relationships, small town, haunted house, trapped!, ghosts, self-harm, suicidal ideation, murder, death, violence, domestic violence, rape, sexual abuse, child abuse (pretty much everything-this is the darkest Wendig yet)

Writing Style: Those short, buzzy, binge-worthy chapters we have come to love

What You Need to Know: "A group of friends investigates the mystery of a strange staircase in the woods in this mesmerizing horror novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Accidents."

My Reading Experience: Wowsers, Chuck Wendig! He delivers a fresh and deeply unsettling twist on the haunted house genre in The Staircase in the Woods. Just when I thought nothing new could be done with this classic horror trope, Wendig proved me wrong.
The novel is pitch-black dark. And I do mean that. The horror level is at a ten with genuinely terrifying scenes unfolding with wicked and gruesome details. I strongly advise against reading this one at night unless you enjoy disturbing images in your mind before drifting into nightmare territory. The short, buzzy chapters make it impossible to put down. The tension is so high most of the time that when there is a bit of a lull, it drags a little. I felt like there were a few times where the story cycled through some repeated subject matter.
One of the book’s greatest strengths is its layered backstory, which adds depth. The relationships between the group of friends are complex, shaped by trauma that is slowly revealed through dialogue and flashbacks. In that way, it reminded me of The Ritual by Adam Nevill—another novel where personal history is mixed in with real-time supernatural drama.

Final Recommendation: If you’re looking for a horror novel that doesn’t just rely on jump scares but instead gets under your skin with psychological depth and seriously terrifying scenes, The Staircase in the Woods is a must-read. Wendig has crafted a story that lingers long after the final page. Pretty disturbing. Please note my CWs in the sub-genre section

Comps: The Ritual by Adam Nevill, IT by Stephen King, The Haunting of Velkwood by Gwendolyn Kiste

Dnf at chapter one. I didn’t look up content warnings before going into this one and realized there is a character with terminal cancer, which is something I’m triggered by. Totally my fault! It’s such a good premise, though and I liked the writing style from even just the one chapter I read.

⭐️⭐️.5

Five teenaged friends went camping, but only four friends came back. The friends found a mysterious staircase in the woods, and Matty climbed the stairs and disappeared. 20 years later, the remaining four are together again, and another staircase reveals itself. This time, all four friends climb the stairs, hoping to find Matty.

Sound spooky? I thought so, too, but this is definitely a case where I liked the idea of the book so much more than the actual execution, unfortunately. It seemed extremely slow, and there were some consistent video game references that went absolutely nowhere. I think I would have liked it better had those been fleshed out in the end. The last 1/3 of the book seemed to be written and paced better, but the ending seemed to be for an entirely different story... with an ambiguous ending. Meh. I'm not sure if I missed something, or this one just wasn't for me.

Thanks to Netgalley, Random House Worlds Del Rey, and Chuck Wendig for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of The Staircase in the Wood

This book is fast-paced, immensely readable, fantastical, scary at times, and contains Wendig's ability to balance fun, frights, and heavy subject matter in equal measure. I should've loved it. Except there's a been-there, done-there quality to most of it that I had trouble shaking. Of course, there's the notion of a creepypasta-esque staircase in the woods, but that's not it. It's the title, after all.
No, it's (mild spoilers ahead) that at a certain point in the book, I found myself recognizing every piece of horror-adjacent references/homages/tributes/etc. and wondering where Wendig had gone. This seems like it came from IT, the book, this came from IT the movie, this is the Reddit backrooms, this is The Shining, this is House of Leaves, this is As Above, So Below, this is that, the other thing, and the first again. Eventually, it stopped being a novel with real characters and started being a horror reference guide that left homage in the dust and stopped being fun.
This is one reader's experience. I'm sure this book will find its fans and wind up on a lot of year's best lists. I've enjoyed the Book of Accidents and the Wayward duology because despite containing love of the genre, they were Wendig stories. This one didn't shine that flashlight as brightly.

Billed as Breakfast Club meets The Matrix, Staircase in the Woods follows five troubled teens as they find an abandoned staircase in the woods and follows a dual timeline 20 years later.

I'm a sucker for a good dual timeline, and while this was my first read of Wendig's, it won't be the last. The tension was palpable, it was eerie, dark, but still had phenomenally written friendships, love, and grief.

I was very grateful to receive an ARC of The Staircase in the Woods through Netgalley.
This is a story of 4 childhood friends coming back together after 25-30 years apart following the end of high school and the disappearance of one of their closest friends.
Set in a post-COVID USA, The Staircase in the Woods is a paranormal horror novel that finds the 4 protagonists revisiting the site of their friends disappearance in 1998 with the goal of trying to understand what happened to him. In order to uncover the truth, they are forced to look fear dead in the eyes and confront their own demons.

I really enjoyed the integration of video games into this story and found the characters to be quite realistic. Their traumas and decisions that they had made over the period of time from high school until now were believable.
There is a lot of fast-changing scenery in this book which I found sometimes to be challenging to follow and sometimes I found the language to take me out of the reading experience a little bit (i.e. the description of an 'older model iPhone' - I would prefer if a particular model was described here).

I loved how the the characters came together with compassion and empathy over the course of the story and the metaphor of being lost, having to find yourself, and the importance of having support from loved ones.
I also really enjoyed the open ending as the book in a way came around full-circle again.

There were aspects of this book that I truly enjoyed—the overall concept, the portrayal of anxiety and depression, and some of the writing was exceptional. The first half of the book was fantastic, and I couldn’t put it down. However, the second half seemed to lose its direction, leaving me feeling confused at times. I also wasn’t a fan of the ending; it felt rushed and didn’t provide the closure I was hoping for.

This one was a little too out there for me… I couldn’t follow that story very well but I am still very new to horror so maybe it’s a me thing….