In The Staircase in the Woods, Chuck Wendig masterfully explores the fragility of friendship, the meaning of home, and the complicated ties of family, all while delivering a fresh, chilling twist on the classic haunted house narrative. With his signature darkly lyrical prose and a profound understanding of human vulnerability, Wendig constructs a tale that is as emotionally resonant as it is terrifying.

At the heart of the novel lies a chilling idea: “Friendship, like a house, can go bad, too.” Wendig uses this metaphor to full effect, weaving a narrative in which the comfort of the familiar is slowly corrupted. The home, often a symbol of safety, becomes a site of festering pain, repressed rage, and lingering sorrow. Through this lens, Wendig blurs the lines between emotional trauma and supernatural horror, suggesting that the real terror often lies in what we carry with us.

Set against the backdrop of an ancient, whispering forest, the story’s atmosphere is palpable. The creak of old wood and the rustle of leaves are no longer innocent; they hint at deeper, more sinister forces lurking just out of sight. The forest becomes a character in its own right—twisting, watching, remembering.

What truly elevates The Staircase in the Woods is Wendig’s ability to balance dread with heart. His characters are flawed, deeply human, and achingly real, each grappling with their own ghosts. As the mystery unfolds, so too does an emotional narrative about belonging, loss, and the complexities of love and loyalty.

A symphony of shadows and sorrow, The Staircase in the Woods is a haunting, unforgettable journey into the heart of fear. Wendig has crafted a novel that not only unsettles but lingers—long after the last page is turned.

Verdict: A gripping, atmospheric read that redefines haunted house horror through a deeply human lens. Highly recommended

Terrifying, gripping, nostalgic, and creepy, The Staircase in the Woods grabbed my attention and never let go! I was instantly drawn into the dual timeline story about a group of friends, the past, the present, and all the things in-between. I had a hard time putting this book down as I was fully invested in learning what happened when five friends walked into the woods and only four came out! I don't know about you but if I am walking in the woods and see a staircase, I won’t be climbing it. Just saying. Nothing good can come of it, and yet five teenage friends on a camping trip are intrigued and decide to climb........

Twenty years after the night they found a staircase in the woods, four friends came home. Their lives have taken them in different directions, and they lost touch after that fateful camping trip. But they have been invited back and hope to find their missing friend once and for all. If you are getting It vibes, you are not alone. But The Staircase in the Woods stands on its own (pun intended) and Wendig delivers a creepy and terrifying tale of friendship, abandonment, grief, loss, guilt, love, and the things that haunt us.

I loved the creepy and eerie vibe of this book. I also loved the tension, the atmosphere, the sense of danger that oozed throughout the book, the vivid descriptions, and the heaviness of the character's feelings. Don't even get me started on the ending!

Creepy, tense, well thought out, and hard to put down!

4.5 stars


Thank you to Random House Worlds | Del Rey and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

If you love horror like It, with a group of friends gathered back together, give this one a try. It has unique characters that you get to know as kids and as adults, and horror in both timelines.

When five friends find a lone staircase in the woods, one friend ascends the stairs and disappears along with the staircase. Now 20 years later the staircase reappears and the friends face their fears to try and find the friend they lost all those years ago.

This is not my normal read but the synopsis was so interesting I decided I needed to read this and so glad that I did. This was such a wild, weird ride. I never knew what was going to happen next and that was so fun. This book felt like a fever dream in the best way!

Five friends decide to go camping and they find a staircase in the woods and one of them decides to climb it. He is forever gone, and his friends move on with their lives. Twenty years later, one of the friends reunites them again as his last dying wish. The staircase reappears, and this time, they all decided to climb it. What they find there will change them forever. Through shifting rooms, supernatural, and creepy situations, all the friends will confront their traumas and deal with their demons.

Thank you, Netgalley and Random House Worlds/ Del Rey!


The Staircase In The Woods is a novel like no other. A must-read for everyone who enjoys horror, thrillers, gore, magic, and the supernatural! 💫💫💫💫💫

Chuck Wendig has another extraordinary novel that explores what it means to be human, focusing on the disturbing and disgusting aspects of who we are while also examining friendship and found family. This novel also delves into being seen, what it means to individuals, and how not feeling seen can have a profoundly negative impact on lives. I'm eager to read and discuss this with my book club next year.

In this book we follow a group of friends on a camping trip in the woods when a mysterious staircase leading to nowhere appears. One friend walks up the staircase never to be seen again. Now several years later, the staircase reappears and the rest of the group uses this as an opportunity to find their friend who went missing years before.

Honestly, I really enjoyed this book. I wasn’t sure what to expect since this was my first book I’ve read from this author but I loved his writing style. I felt like it was sarcastic and funny at times while also being extremely deep and insightful. I also just loved the entire premise. Felt really “creepypasta” to me and I loved how the author took this concept and made it into something really impactful and interesting. I also grew to root for the characters. They all have their story with pretty sad pasts and situations but I really grew to love them. The one negative I will say is it just felt a little long at times and it got to be a bit repetitive but overall I highly enjoyed and would definitely recommend!

I had no idea where this would go and it continued to “go places” I couldn’t dream up or imagine. I found myself skimming through quickly in the middle but intrigued enough to continue to the end. I’ll forever “look” at my house differently. Thanks to NetGalley for the experience.

As a horror fan Chuck's books are my favourite to read as I know I am always in for a surprise. This one definitely creeped me out as the staircase in the middle of the woods that leads nowhere is a folk / scary story I have heard but always manages to scare me. I felt invested in the friends as they sought to encounter the evil that took their friend.

Four friends confront the past and an old evil as they search for their lost childhood friend. This one started out as entertaining but it didn’t quite hold my attention like his previous books did, it seemed to wander in the middle and lose its way. I did enjoy the afterword about abandoned staircases. Thanks to NetGalley for the chance to read and review this book.

Rounded down from 4.25 ⭐️'s

This is a hard book to describe. It definitely falls into the horror category - literally every depravity is represented 😅. Some parts were pretty graphic, and the imagery was next-level (but GROSS). However, the heart of this story is so much deeper than body horror, creepy crawlies, violence, and scary stuff.

I love it when a book transcends genres, and this one did just that. The plot explores many deep themes, and you can't help but root for all the characters. It was heartbreaking, relatable, and, of course, eerie as hell.

The only thing that kept me from rating it five stars was a lull in the middle. I think the book was just a little bit too long.

Overall, The Staircase In the Woods is a unique, standout horror novel. I have never read anything quite like it.

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher, for the chance to read an early copy!

This book started out so strong. I was in. I was really interested in the premise. A mysterious Staircase steals their friend away when they are kids. Terrifying. Where it lost me was how long it took to get to the twist and the explanation of the house. I thought that the origin/backstory should have happened earlier in the book. Overall, I did enjoy the story. It was just too long and could have gotten to the twist and ending sooner.

3.5 stars. Thank you, Netgalley and Random House/Del Rey, for the ARC. This has been classified as a horror story with a psychological element. I was intrigued by the premise of a mysterious staircase in the woods. I regret that I struggled at times, but many readers were enthusiastic. I urge you to read the positive reviews and not be influenced by my misgivings. The book will be published on April 29th.

The story is told in two timelines. One introduces us to five characters in high school: four males and one female. The second timeline takes place about twenty years later. I had difficulty engaging with or liking them. It was a stretch to believe there was a genuine friendship among the disparate personalities. They didn't seem to even like each other and constantly squabbled, assumed leadership roles, and insulted other group members. They had unpleasant childhoods and developed a Covenant in high school, where they swore an oath that they would always support and help each other. Unlike the others, one of the boys, Matt, was popular, a good student, musical, and into sports. He refused to indulge in LSD, causing drama and a rift, because he had plans for his future.

The five were intrigued to find a staircase in the woods while camping. Matt climbed up the steps and vanished at the top. The four remaining young people were distraught. They feared they might be blamed for his disappearance and even for killing him. They knew that nobody would believe the story that he vanished on a staircase that led nowhere. After searching, the group collaborated on a story that Matt was high on drugs and wandered off, and must be lost, or had an accident. The police didn't seem to consider the case a priority. When Matt vanished, so did the staircase.

Lore described herself as non-binary, gender, and aromantic, but two of the men developed a closeness with her. She took a leadership role and was quite demanding. Owen was nervous, lacked self-confidence, and tended to self-harm, including excessive nail and finger biting. Hamish was overweight, expressed his dislike for current politics, and argued with Lore. Nick was abrasive with everyone. He was obsessed with finding out what happened to Matt.

The group had almost no contact for the next twenty years, going their separate ways. Every so often, Nick messaged them about finding Matt, but they ignored him. They were saddened when Nick informed them he had a fatal disease with only a short time to live, and he wanted to meet and go camping with them once more before he died. They learned that this was all a pretence on Nick's part.
The staircase had reappeared. Feeling guilty for not stopping Matt's climb or accompanying him, they decided to ascend and look for clues to what had happened to Matt.
Rather than finding the middle of the story horrific, I found it confusing, repetitive, and slow-paced. It seemed too long, disjointed and meandering, and was losing momentum.

We learn that Lore is now a successful video game designer. When young, she worked with Owen on game ideas but took some of his ideas without crediting him. Hamish has lost weight and is married with children. He is proud of his family and his life in the suburbs. Owen works in a bookstore.

Once the four reached the top of the stairs, it became eerie and contained a strong element of the supernatural. They found themselves in a haunted house with creepy shifting rooms. As they explored the rooms, they saw badly injured, dead bodies in each room, one a suicide. Elements of the occult enabled the characters to face their greatest fears, and they began to overcome trauma. I liked how they used gaming strategy to navigate their way through the house, realizing that it resembled a video game. They found a few signs that Matt had been there, but no Matt.
Do we ever find out what happened to Matt? Maybe!
The writing was sharp, and thanks to a detective's discoveries, the story headed toward a massive twist at the end. The group plans to observe and confront these new developments. The finale was unresolved and open-ended.
Recommended for anyone who enjoys a challenging thriller with great characters and a dual timeline.
The author skilfully brings all threads to a powerful conclusion that raises more questions than answers.

Thank you Del Rey and PRH audio for review copies. This one is a bit too intense for me, even as a tremendous fan of Wendgi's but I 100% loved the themes and the tension, mood, and tone that Wendig creates... I have to say the whole story is fascinating and a powerful examination of trauma and the challenges of adolescence and lingering grief. What worked for me was the character development, as always, and the open exploration of darkness, mental health, and diverse characters. What was less for me, but won't be an issue for others, was the fairly graphic descriptions of all the things once they went up that staircase... it was just a little more unsettling than I wanted and that's not a criticism as much as a comment on where I found my limits and having trouble diving back into the story.

I love Chuck Wendig’s writing and he never fails to pull you right into the story. The cover artwork draws you right in and the title makes you want to read this book. Books with creepy vibes with a group of kids always tend to capture my attention!

I was excited to read this after seeing some early reviews. The premise was intriguing. In 1998, five high school friends go out to the woods. They stumble across a creepy staircase, and on the return trip, only four come back...Twenty years after the disappearance, one of them guilts the rest into a reunion and the present day action begins.

There's a familiar vibe with the five teenagers. They're not all the most popular kids, some of them party, one's a jock, some of are gamers, some college-bound. They're misfits, bound together. We've met this type of group before. The four survivors grow up with varying degrees of success, and over the years their bond has gone dormant. They haven't kept in touch, there may be some bitterness between them, it's awkward.

OK I'm not giving anything away, it's in the blurb, by saying that they're lured back into the woods, where there's another frigging staircase. They're not being honest with each other, there's baggage, and now there's a staircase. What will they do?

The Staircase in the Woods felt like a mashup. Creepy pasta, gaming, haunted house, and a lot of dark, brutal, sick scenarios. It was a lot. And it didn't quite work for me. I didn't love the writing, so many "likes" as a simile it was distracting, the repetitive use of specific examples (wake up by waterboarding; sandcastle dissolves in a wave) that stuck out, and paragraphs and paragraphs of characters explaining their feelings.

"I just don't get it. What's the point of all this? This place?" one character asks. Yup.

My thanks to NetGalley and Random House Worlds for the Advance Reader Copy. (pub date 4/29/2025)

"You are not afraid of the dark. You fear what is within it." (Forgive me if I am paraphrasing.)

The Staircase in the Woods is one of those unsettling books that leaves you feeling dizzy and a bit nauseous. It has the adolescent friendship feels of "It" and the mind-bending infinite claustrophobia of "House of Leaves" but is its own story. Starting this book while home for Easter to visit my family in Pennsylvania made this all the creepier. There is just something heavy about the woods in Pennsylvania that you just don't feel in Ohio. The weird things you stumble upon while out on a walk. The cacophony of nature that suddenly turns to silence. The feeling of being so alone and far from reality. What is reality?

What makes a monster? Is it something supernatural? Or is it just man? Are you the monster inside yourself? So many questions and rooms to explore if you dare.

Thank you to Random House Worlds | Del Rey and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

Thank you Netgalley & Del Rey for an eARC ❤️❤️❤️

Five kids, bound by some blood oath they called *The Covenant*—because of course they did—swearing to always have each other’s backs. Fast-forward to senior year, and they’re already fraying at the edges. But hey, one last camping trip, right? 😏
Then they find it.
A goddamn staircase🫣 Just standing there in the woods like some cosmic IKEA piece assembled wrong. No walls, no reason, just steps leading up into… nothing.
Matty, being Matty, climbs it.
And poof—gone.
Lore’s tripping balls on acid, so obviously, she’s zero help. Nick’s trying to logic it out. Owen’s freaking out quietly. And Hamish? He’s just standing there like, Well, this sucks.
The cops find Matty’s backpack at the bottom of a cliff—not where they last saw him—and suddenly, the Covenant isn’t just a dumb kid pact, it’s a murder conspiracy. Matty’s family bans them from the funeral. The friend group? Shattered.
Cut to: Thirty Years Later.
They’ve barely spoken since high school. Hamish has a wife, kids, a mortgage. Owen’s working part-time at a sad little bookstore. Lore designs video games about monsters because of course she does. And Nick?
Nick’s dead.
Or so he says in the email titled *"Funeral. Be There. Also, Staircase."*
And just like that—despite decades of silence—they drop everything and go. Because buried under all the bitterness, the guilt, the what-ifs, one truth remains:
Matty’s still out there. Somewhere.
And now there’s *another* staircase.
What follows is a nightmare funhouse of endless rooms, each worse than the last. Doors that shouldn’t open do Hallways twist into themselves. And the deeper they go, the more the past claws at them—old betrayals, buried secrets, the reason Matty really climbed those stairs.
One thing’s for sure:
The Covenant isn’t done with them yet.
And neither is the staircase.😩

I was so excited to read The Staircase in the Woods. I have long been familiar with the creepypasta that created its premise - and truly, what is spookier than a staircase emerging out of nowhere, leading to who knows where? Unfortunately, the novel itself read like one long creepypasta. I know Chuck Wendig is an established author, so I was surprised at the fanfic-esque air to his writing. I could have excused it as camp, but the prose took itself way too seriously to be intentionally campy. And I couldn't help but feel both that his characters were much younger than they were meant to be (I guess you could argue that their maturation froze at 17, but I couldn't help but physically cringe every time they mentioned "The Covenant), and also that the novel was meant for a much younger audience. I could see teens buying into the melodrama and getting invested in the theme park-ish haunted house walkthrough. But as an adult and horror fan, it was hard to feel any fear from such contrived ~sPoOky~ scenarios.

While I enjoyed the setup of the novel - estranged friends reunited and faced once more with a mysterious staircase in the woods - once they passed beyond the staircase, I really had to slog through the rest of the story. Again, I do think a teen, or an admirer of fanfic and creepypasta, could really get into this book. Unfortunately, it was not for me.

Thank you to Del Rey and NetGalley for the eARC! The Staircase in the Woods is set for publication on April 29th, 2025.

The Staircase in the Woods by Chuck Wendig  is a horror novel about a group of friends who discover a rather unique phenomenon.

First, let me thank NetGalley, the publisher Random House, (and especially Kay Popple for sending me a widget), and the author, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.




My Synopsis:    (No major reveals, but if concerned, skip to My Opinions)
In 1998, five friends found a staircase in the woods.  One that seemed to go nowhere.  Matty Shiffman decided to climb it.  When he got to the top, he stepped off, and was never seen again.  The staircase disappeared.

Now, the remaining friends: Owen Zuikas (Bookstore clerk, OCD, nailbiter), Lauren Banks (queer, game coder), and Hamish Moore (mortgage broker, runner, father of three), are called by Nick Lobell who says he is dying.  Although some of them correspond, they haven't seen each other in a long time.  The disappearance of Matty Shiffman ruptured their friendship.

But at one time, they had "The Covenant", a vow that if one of them really needed them, the others would be there.  So, the friends met Nick, in the woods, where he showed them a staircase.  This time, they would all climb.  They want to find Matty.

  

My Opinions:
This is a story of teenage friendship,  love, and fellowship.  It is also a story about anger, about jealousy, and about childhood and teenage trauma.  It is a story of what happens when the friendship is shattered by the loss of one of them, and how the rest try to revive it 20 years later.

It's also a horror story about a staircase in the woods that appears to lead to nothing.

The story is told in two time-lines, which helped create the back-story for each character.

Be warned, Chuck Wendig writes really vivid and graphic horror.  He imagines a staircase to nowhere, and suddenly a house of horrors appears.  Some of the rooms in that house belong to the characters, but not all.  The author also writes characters that have depth, that show compassion and love, that have the reader cheering them on.  But even these characters have a rough side.  They are all a little broken, and have all had less than perfect childhoods. It is a reminder that not even close friends share everything, and that even the nice ones have a darker side.

I guess my only complaint was that the story moved rather slowly, and sometimes seemed a little ragged, or dis-jointed.

Overall though, it was a creepy, atmospheric, and entertaining tale.