I love a good Chuck Wendig book and this one was really good. The premise itself is chillingly simple: strange, often impossible staircases appear in the wilderness, leading to... nowhere. Or, perhaps, somewhere far worse. Loved the story.

Wow. Chuck wendig can’t do any wrong. This story will stick with me. I don’t want to say anything more about it because it feel going in blind is so much better. When you think you know what’s going on, you don’t. So good.

This was my first Chuck Wendig book, but will definitely not be my last. This gripped me very early on and I simply could not put it down. The Staircase in the Woods hit me in a very psychological way, while still including light body horror to turn your stomach. Throughout the novel I couldn't stop thinking about what a great film this would make. My only point of contention is that I found the characters a little hard to connect with and root for during their escapades. The ending was a little convoluted and flat for how great the climax was, but overall this was a fantastic book.

Excellent book by Wendig. I am more impressed with each book of his I read. The set up of relationships is so very real. The undulating house is truly horrific.
My only complaint is the ending felt rushed. Being no stranger to writing a doorstop, I feel he could have expanded just a little.
The afterword is inspiring.

Head spinning fun! This book was disorienting and claustrophobic, and I was pleased by the genuine scary moments and interesting gore. I was so invested in this group of friends and found myself wanting more and more of their stories and tragic history. Through the house and multiple POVs Chuck Wendig slowly peels back the layers of the story in a nonlinear yet clear way that makes you wonder "What's next?" Please get your hands on this ASAP!

I thought I had read horror before this book. I was wrong. This is a book I had to read around people with the lights on. Four friends are called together 20 years after the loss of a 5th friend one night. During a fateful camping trip when they were teens, they found a lone staircase in the middle of the woods. One of them climbs the staircase and disappears, never to return. Now, as adults, the group finds itself back in the woods facing the same scenario. Their deepest fears come to life. Each must face their regrets and traumas from their own pasts. This book is about facing those fears, making tough choices, finding out who they are and want to be, and solidifying what friendship means to them. There is a great haunted house, surprises around every corner, and a helpless feeling that pulls you in and has you really feeling for these characters. The book gets super dark in places, so please read content warnings. Overall, I enjoyed this and would recommend it to lovers of the genre.

What would you do if you found a strange staircase to nowhere in the middle of the woods? It’s been 20 years since Matty climbed the stairs and was never seen or heard from again. His friends Lore, Hamish, Owen, and Nick have drifted apart over the years. When Nick invokes The Covenant, the protection pact they swore to, the others find themselves in a different set of woods in the shadow of a different staircase. This is their only chance to find Matty and offer the protection they should have all those years ago.

This was such a creepy book. I’m not going to lie, it did take me awhile to get invested in the story. Once the friends climb that second staircase it’s immediately clear they’ve walked into a house full of nightmares. Every room they enter is different and stirs up horrors and memories they would like to otherwise forget. The imagery is truly brutal at times and yet Wendig manages to keep his writing beautiful while still writing about such atrocious things. The story is told from different POVs and I think that worked really well here. As the friends are split up as they navigate the rooms, we learn about their pasts and the real world horrors they’ve experienced in their lives. It really helped me feel connected to them all, especially Owen and Lore. The ending was not what I was expecting. This is my first book by this author and I look forward to reading more from him in the future.

Thank you to Del Rey and NetGalley for a review copy.

What would you do, if you're walking through the woods and you come upon a staircase? Just a random staircase. No house, no floor, no walls, nothing else. Just a staircase. Do you walk up? Do you ease around it, inspect it, gaze up its length, and wonder? Where did it come from? How did it get here? Do you wonder...

Where
does
it go?

Five high school friends. Bound by an oath, The Covenant, to be there for each other, no matter what. They've grown up together, gone through everything together, and they are solid. One night on a camping trip in the middle of the forest, they find a mysterious staircase that seems to go nowhere. One of the friends walks up those mysterious stairs, begs, cajoles, and finally dares the others to join him, but eventually finishes the climb on his own. At the top, he disappears. And soon, so does the staircase, leaving nothing behind but dark forest and deeply scared friends.

Twenty years later, one of the friends finds another staircase. He brings the group back together. Will they go find the lost friend? What will they find, up the top of those stairs?

I can't remember the last time a book's ending gave me literal chills. On my body. I'm not totally sure if one ever has but The Staircase in the Woods did. Holy cow. I've been having a rough reading year. It's been hard to concentrate, while at times it feels like the world is trying to burn down around me. The Staircase in the Woods grabbed me like no other book has so far this year. Maybe even longer than that. I couldn't put it down! I came to care about each character, no matter how deeply flawed they were. And that ending. OMG the ending. I love a great ambiguous ending and this may be my most favorite one ever. 5/5

Thank you to @netgalley and @delreybooks for the digital copy of this novel.

I picked this book up because the premise really grabbed me—I'm a big fan of thrillers and suspense, and I was hoping for something gripping and mysterious (but not too heavy on the horror). Unfortunately, this one just wasn’t for me.

To be fair, I can totally see why other readers might enjoy it. The backstories of the characters are pretty layered, and the dynamics between the group of friends are full of tension and emotional weight. There's a lot of trauma unpacked through dialogue and flashbacks, which gives the story some depth. But I had a hard time connecting with the characters or their world. The sex and the drugs (I absolutely hate the use of drugs in books) - none of it really resonated with me. I also tend to zone out when books start leaning into politics or conspiracy theories, and this had touches of that too, which didn’t help.

That said, if you’re into horror, this book absolutely delivers. The scary scenes are intense—gruesome, vivid, and genuinely terrifying. The story keeps the tension high almost the entire time, and the author does a great job building atmosphere and dread. So even though it wasn’t quite my taste, I think horror fans who don’t mind some extra layers (and who are cool with some darker themes) might find a lot to like here.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Worlds for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

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...

I enjoyed Wendig's The Book of Accidents so I was excited to pick up his latest novel, The Staircase in the Woods: the premise sounds right up my alley, as I love stories where one character is lost or missing and the others need to find out what happened to them. Unfortunately I struggled a bit with this one: the biggest problem for me is that I really didn't like any of the characters, and they didn't seem to like each other either. How am I supposed to believe that they are friends and care for one another? It seems they never LIKED each other, even when they were teenagers.
They are not badly written, don't get me wrong, everyone has a certain trauma they are facing and that was interesting, but I was not able to connect with any of them, I just found them annoying.

What I liked:
- the horror elements, very well written
- the concept of staircases and houses in the woods
- it's a fast read even though it's not a short book
- Matty aka the lost boy

What I did not like:
- the four main characters
- some parts are repetitive
- covid being mentioned
- any kind of representation seems for show and not natural imho

That being said, the book is not bad, but not great either. Recommended if you're fascinated by staircases and haunted houses, and loved Stephen King's IT and Ronald Malfi's Black Mouth.

* I'd like to thank Chuck Wendig, Random House Worlds and NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest review.
#TheStaircaseintheWoods #NetGalley

Five high school friends, bonded by the Covenant to protect each other no matter what, go on a camping trip in the woods. While in the woods, they find a mysterious stairs that seems to go nowhere. One of the friends walks up the staircase but doesn't come back and then the staircase disappears. Twenty years later, the staircase appears again and the remaining four friends, grown distant with time and circumstances, come back together to see what is past the staircase and to find the lost friend.

The premise sounds very interesting but I struggled with the execution. My biggest struggle was not connecting with any of the characters and not believing that these five were really even friends in the first place. In the high school descriptions, they seemed to be a group of kids that were loosely held together because they didn't fit anywhere else. I had a hard time believing that these kids would do anything for the other ones.

The characters themselves were fairly well written, showing various levels of trauma from the disappearance of their friend and rough childhoods. However, I had a difficult time connecting with them as they were all unlikable.

The story moves fairly quickly although there are flashbacks that interrupt the flow from time to time. There is an overwhelming amount of horrific scenes that play out so there are trigger warnings galore for this book. If you like disturbing horror scenes, there are plenty here. While I didn't really care much for the characters, I was interested in the mystery of the staircase and the missing child so it kept my interest.

This was weirdly political?? The political conversations felt out of place and not warranted. The whole vibe was weird.

Juvenile writing; felt like YA trying to venture out. The whole thing got very repetitive. Unsure if it’s supposed to be a thriller - it wasn’t thrilling. It tried too hard on the gore aspect of it. Anytime there was a swear it felt like a kid discovering bad words for the first time. I was annoyed by how often the word “crescent” was used to describe the guy biting his damn nails.

Story wise it was giving IT. Something happened as minors now it’s ages later and we gotta get the band back together to relive it. Discoveries about each other’s pasts are made. The history of the staircase/house was odd. I don’t know it just didn’t really make much sense I guess. The ending was super anticlimactic and the 6 month time jump left it open ended. It just felt incomplete.

Thank you NetGalley and Del Rey for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I have never read from Chuck Wendig before, but it certainly won’t be my last. This was an easy 5 star read for me. The story focuses on a group of friends who dealt with a shared tragedy during the late 90s. Flash forward twenty years later, and we now see our group revisiting the trauma that they thought that they had left behind.

This story focuses on grief, loss and finding friendship in the most unlikely of times. The horror elements in this were extremely well written. Everything was described in such detail that some of the parts had my skin crawling. I was quite satisfied with the ending and it had me thinking about it well after I had finished it.

This is a tale about five friends who made a pact, The Covenant, to always be there for one another. How that promise was broken because of a mysterious staircase that showed up in the middle of the woods, took one of them, and vanished. And how twenty years later the remaining four meet up again to go looking for their missing friend and rediscover that staircase.

The suspense and plot of this story had remnants of Stephen King's It. The characters each are given their own backstories, and we get to see what made them the way they are, their personal demons, and their struggles.

I really enjoyed this dark fantasy thriller, the mystery of the staircase, and where it leads to. Chuck did a great job with the world building and the visualizations it invoked.

This author is very hit or miss for me. I love some of his stuff and some of it does not work for me at all. This was one that should have been great, that could have been great, but I kept getting annoyed by random rants from the characters that didn't fit into the story. I mean I agree with the rants, but...they shouldn't just be shoved into the book to put them in the book. They need to make sense within the story...so I kept putting the book down cause they made it not great. It is unfortunate since the author can write some good, creepy scenes. I kept setting it down and coming back to it and this last time I just found all of the characters a bit annoying and finally gave up and called it. I wish some of it would have been taken out or incorporated better cause it could have been a great read.

Overall the story was good and kept me engaged. There were a few parts that seemed rushed or missed information.
The characters were interesting and the storyline itself was different.
The idea of the storyline was interesting just needed more explanation and definitely an actual ending.
The ending leaves you hanging a bit without a really conclusion. So maybe a 2nd book. Not sure.

I was interested in the premise but a little worried that it would go over my head at the same time. The first half, I really enjoyed. After that, my interest did wane a bit because I wasn’t sure what direction the book was taking or how complex everything would become.

I really liked Lore and Owen. I could relate to Owen’s anxiety and fears.

Overall, I liked the book and would read more from the author. Thank you to NetGalley, Chuck Wendig, and Random House Worlds for the opportunity to read it! I have written this review voluntarily and honestly.

Only three books have ever unnerved me. A Staircase in the Woods by Chuck Wendig might be the fourth. This was a fun trip into a labyrinth of horror, but what I found most impressive was the heart and human core in this novel.

This story revolves around five friends: Owen, Lore, Hamish, Nick, and Matty. On a camping trip when they’re young, a staircase mysteriously appears in the woods. Matty, in an uncharacteristic moment of anger, climbs the staircase, enters the doorway at the top, and disappears. The staircase disappears after and Matty never reappears. 20+ years later, Nick finds another staircase in the woods and lures the remaining friends to it. Still riddled with guilt and feeling like they’ve never really moved past the events of that night, the four remaining friends climb the staircase and cross the threshold at the top to find their lost friend. What ensues is a slow descent into and unraveling of external and personal horrors.

There were so many moments of classic horror: spooky scenes, abandoned rooms, threatening entities. But what hit me most were the very real horrors that these people faced: dealing with their issues and past, and the reality of the complicated nature of their relationships with each other and with themselves. The novel flashes back to when they’re growing up together, and so we get a really good sense of who these five people are, their friendship, and how they’ve passed through life.

This novel paints a very real picture of how complicated people and friendships are juxtaposed to the classic horror elements. Together, they combine into what I love most about horror: not only the exploration of spooky circumstances but very real human-based horror.

There were multiple truly haunting scenes in this (both of the horror variety and revelations of the past). Some continue to stick with me. And that ending? So good, even if I want a sequel to get more!

Also, I’ll say this: I don’t usually love books that feature a friend group. I feel like they usually devolve into something too toxic or are too idealistic to be real. But I loved reading about these five friends, their relationships, how they navigate the current horrors together, and how they explore their individual and shared pasts. Would I want to be friends with any of them? No. But I really enjoyed reading about them.

If you want an unsettling horror story that has truly spooky and creepy scenes that seamlessly explores what it is to be human and the complicated nature of friendship (and our relationship to the past), this is for you. I for one was so excited to read a book that truly had me spooked and on edge while exploring these deeper subjects.

This definitely has some trigger warnings, but nothing felt gratuitous or sensational. This includes:
- blood
- self harm
- abuse (mental, sexual)
- pedophilia
- medical/hospital scene
- addiction

This gave me similar vibes as:
- The Spite House by Johnny Compton
- The Body by Stephen King
- We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer

Thank you NetGalley and Del Ray for the e-ARC! All opinions are mine.

Lore, Hamish , Nick and Owen are never the same after their friend Matty goes up a mysterious staircase in the woods and disappears. Years later when Nick calls the friends back together they reluctantly agree to meet. But the mysterious staircase continues to haunt them… can they find Matty or will they become lost?
Atmospheric, suspenseful and vaguely gruesome- great addition to the horror genre. Thanks Netgalley for the ARC- my opinions are my own.

I think this might be a case of "I know this is a good book but it's just not for me". I was intrigued by the premise of Wendig's new novel and I really want to delve back into horror a little more, so I was excited for this one.
And there is a lot to like: The premise is cool, the mystery intriguing, and the place beyond the staircase is not just scary but also thematically a lot deeper than I thought. Although, admittedly, it's a very on-the-nose kind of depth that spells everything out instead of leaving some nuance for the reader to grasp and really make them think. Still, I quite enjoyed it.
My very personal issues with this book are that I didn't really vibe with the writing style and I just genuinely did not like any of the characters. Not one, not even a little, and not in the unlikeable-yet-intriguing kind of way. I just couldn't care less, and they at times felt weirdly overwrought in an almost satirical way. There is an instance of the one girl in the group having a monologue that almost felt like Wendig was making fun of the stereotypical "Woke Crowd" with our evil pronouns and our fascist exclusion morals and sinful sexualities and constant triggers. I was really taken aback by that, though I don't actually think it was meant that way (and it doesn't align with the political stance otherwise taken in the narrative). But from that point on I just really didn't know what Wendig actually wanted to achieve with these characters. I never really felt their friendship either and was more or less annoyed the more often they used their little catchprase.
There is really just one I felt some sort of positive emotion for, and it's Nick, and only because his backstory with the later reveals really felt like an emotional gut punch. That was amazing storytelling right there.
So yes, middle of the road I'd say. I do think a lot of people will enjoy this more than I did because my reading enjoyment generally very much depends on how connected (positively or negatively) I feel with the characters and I felt no connection in this case. Also the writing's just not my thing, but others will definitely agree. The themes, at least, are on point.