Wow, what a wild ride!
A group of five teenage friends go on camping trip and after finding a mysterious staircase in the woods, only 4 of them return. As adults, they have grown apart but when one of them gets a terminal diagnosis, they reunite and discover the staircase has returned.
I really enjoyed the flashbacks and glimpses into the groups childhood stories. It is a sad reminder that you never truly know what another person goes through. The friendship dynamics were complex and emotional. The story took a super creepy turn and had a few jump scares for me. I enjoyed the twists and the reveal at the end. Very cool concept, I really enjoyed this book!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House/Del Rey for the digital advanced copy in exchange for my honest review. This book is publishing April 29, 2025.

The entire set-up premise for the friends getting together seems like it was torn from 3 Body Problem. However, it is an original concept and how we get where we get to is nuts. Matty disappeared years before after a group of 5 teenagers found a staircase in the woods. Years later, the other 4 friends have lost touch but come together again. However, another staircase in the woods is found, and what happens next is nuts and very sci-fi.

I have read a few of Chuck Wendig's stories and novels and can happily report that, so far, he has never really disappointed. This was no different.

This is about friendship, about despicable humans, all kinds of social hot topics - and, sadly, about redemption. Yep, it's about rekindling friendships and atoning for what you've done / coming to terms with what has been done to you. Personally, I was disappointed by that. I wanted blood and guts and by all the bookgods, these assholes would have deserved it. *lol*

Vibes I got while reading this were that of "The Cube" (anyone remember that movie?) what with the changing rooms. That was actually a nicely nightmarish element of the story. Not to mention that when there was the literal writing on the wall ("the house hates you") I vigorously nodded my head in agreement. #teamhouse
For those who know it, maybe even played it as kids, there are also classic D&D vibes in here.
Whichever of the above appeals to you more, the worldbuilding is providing some really cool atmosphere.

As I'm used to by now when reading one of Wendig’s stories, the writing was top notch, the characterizations extremely detailed. Not every book can make you feel so deeply about its characters (whether in a positive or negative way). I hadn't known about the urban myth behind this story but researched it a little while reading this book and quite liked it - just like I enjoyed what the author made of it.

While I had wished for a different direction for this to go and while I was ready to strangle at least one character myself since the author refused to do it, I absolutely loved the atmosphere, the horror elements (because they are definitely exist) and the overall reading experience.

This book had such an amazing “creepypasta” type concept and also so original. Five friends found a lone staircase in the woods while out on a camping trip. One of the friends goes up the stairs and never comes down. Written in a past and present timeline, this book continues years later when another set of stairs appears.

This was my first book by Chuck Wendig and man can this guy tell a story. I was not expecting what a journey this was going to take me on. I almost DNFd because it got really scary all of a sudden but the plot was so intriguing that I had to know what happened. It did start kind of slow but one it picked up it was so well paced. I admittedly did get a few nightmares if I read this too close to bed so it took me longer to finish this because I had to wait until I could read it earlier in the day. I scare easily so at times I had to do the book equivalent of consuming the story while peeking through my fingers while covering my eyes during gory scenes but also being unable to tear my eyes away from the page.

The ending left me with mixed feelings and I'm not talking about the final scene, that I didn't mind. I didn't care for how it wrapped up overall. It's hard to go into details without spoiling it but it toed the line of being cheesy.

I loved this book even though I would've preferred a different ending but I couldn't even begin to think how someone could end a book like this. This would make an excellent horror movie. The scenes were so vivid and well-written that it feels like I watched this instead of reading. I will definitely read more books by Chuck Wendig when I'm feeling brave.

Thank you Netgalley and Random House Works - Del Rey for letting me have an eARC of this book. The opinion on this review is my own.

3.5⭐️ rounded up… this book was different. I knew about the staircase in the woods in NH, remnants of an old castle that burned down, so the title of this book intrigued me. This was a gamer, horror, sci-fi amalgam. At times fascinating, creepy, disturbing… others bizarre. For the most part, there was always something going on. I definitely had a WTF did I just read moment when I finished it.

The story follows four childhood friends, still reeling years later after seeing their friend disappear off the top of a staircase in the woods and being accused by their community of murder, as they reconnect and search for their lost friend. The horrific, game-like adventure forces them each to face their demons, both individually and as a group as they fight to survive.

The constant reference to “the covenant”, which was used to invoke the groups promise to always be there for each other, started to get on my nerves in the second half of the book. The switching amongst the four perspectives did get a little confusing and I had to reread a few parts, but over all it was eventful, entertaining, and different.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Worlds for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I want to thank Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC of "The staircase in the Woods" because this is one of my alltime favorite horror books now!

If you're a fan of "The House of Leaves" or even some of the surreal horror like Joe Hill-- don't miss this when it is released in April of 2025. I was legit terrified at times reading, once yelling at my husband for scaring me in the middle of the night!

This was my first Chuck Wendig read, and will be by no means my last. This is the story of 4 lifelong friends who, over the years, have grown apart after the disappearance of a 5th friend, Matty. Matty found a staircase in the woods and climbed it, with his friends too scared to follow him..
Matty was never seen again.
But years later, when they're invited to the "funeral" of one of the friends dying of cancer, their whole world turns upside down, and the group, called The Covenant, faces their most horrifying fears, when they find another staircase..
But, leading to where? and whom?
The writing in this novel was exceptional, with shades of early King.
Mr. Wendig has a new fan in me. I look forward to reading more from him.
This was a 5 Star read for me.

I have mixed feelings about this one. The beginning was very slow, it only picked up during the middle part and there I started to quite enjoy the story. There were some really good horror sequences and I liked the haunted house setting a lot.
However I never grew to like any of the characters or their dynamic, it didn't feel like a real friendship group and honestly not even like they liked each other a lot. For me there was too much focus on their backstories, I didn't care about any of that, and it took away time from the actual horror elements. I also couldn't ignore how similar this felt to Stephen King, not sure if it was intentional, but I was missing originality in the story. Everything felt like it had been done before. After the initially strong middle part I also didn't enjoy the ending, it felt anticlimatic and confusing.

So I truly wanted to get more into this book. The whole summary captivated me and look at that cover, beautiful! I really love the whole myth about staircases and doors in the woods just randomly being there and causing all kinds of crazy things but this one wasn't it for me.

I couldn't get past the characters in this book. With their reactions and conversations you wonder how they ever could be friends.

This book turned from getting to know our characters and their trip to see Nick their old friend who is dying of cancer, to a political rant.

I meant this one goes very deep. I understand that some people would appreciate this political rant included but for me it took me entirely out of the story as we see the authors feelings more in the book than our characters themselves. This rant about Trump and political beliefs last for pages.

Overall based on what I've read so far I can tell I won't enjoy this book. I already hate the characters and don't understand how they could have ever been friends or decent humans towards each other. This book just was not for me.

The Staircase in the Woods by Chuck Wendig
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wendig has done it again.

He's quickly becoming my go-to for beyond-solid horrors. He's got great, complicated, messy characters, a discovery-till-you-puke vibe, and some serious growth for these guys. As teens, then messed-up adults, we've got a while IT vibe going on here that I absolutely love.

Friends, people. Growing up, growing apart, growing back together. That's what this one is about. I LOVED it.

Oh, and be forewarned, there's so much characterization going on here that I got lost in it. Wendig is usually pretty fantastic for this, but I truly got lost in these peeps. And, let's not forget, this IS a horror, but I've never seen a horror serve so much THERAPY as SK's IT as this.

Plus, let's be real, this one's a very Gen X kind of therapy. So, whatever. It is what it is. Muahahahahaha

What a book to finish on Halloween night! Chuck Wendig did a fabulous job of writing a twisty, terrifying, and gripping tale about friendship, loss, struggles and triumphs through a dual timeline story about a group of 5 friends, a staircase, and the woods!

The story begins twenty years after the group of 5 high schoolers find a staircase in the woods while on a camping trip. On that fateful night, while not in their right frames of mind, one goes up the staircase and disappears. At this point in the story everyone has moved on from that night, except for one of the friends, Nick. He sends a message to the other 3 friends, Owen, Hamish and Lauren (Lor) saying he is terminally ill and would like one last reunion with them. They all fly to meet him in NH, a car picks them up and drops them in the woods where Nick is waiting. It turns out Nick has lied to the group and has set them up to go camping in the woods in honor of Matty (their friend who disappeared up the staircase). Don't you know, they come across another staircase and all go up....hoping to find Matty....but what they find instead is something I will not ruin for you!

As the story goes on, we see flashbacks between high school and the present, and we learn about the inner workings of the family lives of these young adults, and how it was growing up. Feelings of loneliness, abandonment, guilt, and all other things that are still present in the thoughts of these young people.
This book was filled with tension, was a page-turner, and filled me with a sense of eeriness. And wait until the ending! Blown away!

4.5 stars and can't wait for the next one by Chuck Wendig!

If there is anyone I could compare to Stephen King, it would be Chuck Wendig. The goes so in-depth with his writing and descriptions, you can't help but visualize everything he's saying. Sometimes it does get a little long winded for me, like all the small details are needed. The premise of this book is unique, just like all of his books and always so interesting. I did NOT like the politics in the book. I saw someone else say something a bit similar, I read to escape all this BS. It felt like a lot...

When I was invited to read this book, I was super excited. I have never read Chuck Wendig before, but I've been curious about him and have heard great things. There are definitely some good things to be said here. I found the concept of this novel absolutely fascinating. I won't say what happens once they climb the staircase, but it's very interesting. Especially as you learn more about the story behind it. Really good stuff. The writing is also great. Sometimes graphic, sometimes gross but always descriptive and well-done. There were a couple of quotes I absolutely loved, and parts I thought were brilliant. I also loved the explorations of friendship and trauma. However, there were things I did not like as well. First, the politics. Ugh. It doesn't matter if I agree or not, I don't want them in my book. I read to escape and going on and on about Trump and, identity and gender politics and COVID, etc., etc. is so off-putting to me. I don't want the real world to intrude. I want to get lost in a world outside of reality. It was also done in such a forced clumsy way. It had no place, it wasn't relevant, and the heavy-handed way it was done ended up reeking of virtue-signaling. I hated being ripped out of the story by political rants. Still, so much of the book was good that I was prepared to rate this book 4-stars. But then the ending. So unsatisfying! I turned the page, eager to see what happens next, and found the acknowledgements. That's it? No! I need more! I was so disappointed that it ended where it did. So unfortunately, I had to drop my rating down to 3-stars because of that. I would consider reading another book by this author, because I did love his writing, but if politics is something he always brings into his books, I might have to stay away.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Worlds/Del Ray for the ARC!

I felt this book started really well. A great premise, feeding into the social media hype about mysterious staircases in the woods from a couple of years ago. You have a group of adults who were childhood friends, drawn back together by a major event for one of the characters. So far, so Stephen King. There was a childhood trauma and an opportunity to try and right a wrong. This segued into a creepy, haunted house scenario. However, it was all downhill from there for me. I felt the pace was too slow and it all seemed too neurotic. Really disappointing after a good start.

Turning fae lore of stairs/doors in the forest into a sentient haunted house tale was a story I didn't know I needed!

While it was a very slow paced book, the world building was brilliant. The characters were dark & tortured for their own reasons and it made this rag tag crew of friends more believable.

It was too slow for my taste but otherwise a great book.

3.5stars rounded up

A compelling magical thriller that will have you pulling your feet up on to the bed and covering yourself with blankets from fright.

There are elements that I really enjoyed of this book. The overall concept, the depictions of anxiety and depression and some of the writing was absolutely fantastic. I also felt the first half of the book was great and I couldn't put it down. I felt the second half of the book lacked clear direction and was left confused at times. I was also not a big fan of the ending. It felt rushed and unsatisfying. Other little things I did not like were the very short and jarring chapters along with the unnecessary chapter titles and some of the political references and conversations were a bit heavy-handed and felt out of place. But overall, I found the concept of the book unique, I just felt the execution was a bit off. But I still enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone who needs a good horror that focuses on trauma and relationships.

Thank you NetGalley and Chuck Wendig for letting me read this copy early!

DNF-NO rating on Goodreads

Although not a reader of horror of fantasy, I am a fan of SUSPENSE and I was intrigued by this PREMISE so when I was invited to read this by the Publisher, I thought I would give it a try.

Five high school friends-a crew-are bonded by an oath-the Covenant -to protect one another no matter what.

When on a camping trip, they find a mysterious staircase to nowhere.

One friend walks up—but the staircase disappears before he can ever come down.

Twenty years later, the Covenant has been invoked, and the crew will reconvene to get answers when the staircase reappears.

Unfortunately, I am not the right demographic for this book. I could not relate to the characters-the sex, the drugs, or the online gaming, and I don’t enjoy books that include Politics and/or Conspiracy theories.

DO read a sample of reviews to determine if this would be a better fit for you. There are plenty of positive ones out there!

Thank You to Del Rey for the gifted ARC provided through Netgalley.

I loved this book. I had to take a few days to process what I read, but it was an excellent spooky read. It reminded me of House of Leaves meets Room 1408. The pacing seemed to change depending on what the characters were experiencing in the story, which added another layer to the experience. Perfect October read.

Mixed feelings about this book. I loved the author's Wanderers and thought it was a compelling take on the usual zombie story. Having seen blurbs about Staircase's main plot - a friend climbs a mysterious staircase in the woods and doesn't return - I was hooked with the idea and went in otherwise blind. The author talks about this phenomenon, rooted in real life for good reasons, in an afterword, and it's legitimately creepy and weird as a concept. I imagined something akin to Annihilation but with a Stephen King vibe.

The Stephen King vibe assumption was legit. The story follows a group of adults that had a traumatic experience as teens - the before-mentioned staircase experience - and how they face it again in the present. It toggles between past events and the present to give more depth into the characters and also to slowly unfold what happened, with a good chunk of the present dedicated to (to say without spoiling) revisiting what happened back then. The (redacted due to spoilers) revisiting of those events in the present day ended up being satisfactorily creepy and the ultimate reveal was something I hadn't guessed ahead of time. If I could change one thing it would be that the book started with the first flashback scene. The beginning ~15% for me up to that point dragged because I didn't like any of the characters and wasn't hooked by the actual plot yet (see more on that below), but as soon as the first flashback happened, it was engaging.

All that being said, my personal enjoyment of the book ended up closer to a 2/5 for a few reasons. It could be these elements wouldn't bother others, but for me the problems were:

- There's a *lot* of gore described in overly-detailed ways, and it felt relentless to me. And not just in the (spoiler) events where most of the last half takes place - one of the MCs, for example, has a fixation with chewing his nails and picking at his fingers. Way, way too much time is spent on describing this fixation in detail through his thoughts, to a disgusting degree. My skin crawled constantly with how gross and frequent it was, and it goes imo much farther into detail than it needs to.

- I strongly disliked the ending. It felt so disappointing after being so invested in the conclusion that's dangled in front of you, only to have there be no conclusion at all. I get that this was probably intentional but I felt like my time had been wasted and was frustrated.

- Not a major point, but one that needs to be mentioned; others have said this in their reviews, and it's legit. Look, I'm a lefty like the author and I get how dangerous certain politicians are and how terrible things are in the world right now. Wanderers hit too close to home because of that, and the sequel imo was much too heavy handed, even though I get where the author is coming from. There's a point where including long-winded rants are transparent that it's coming from the author and it ends up being a distraction instead of (possibly?) helping change someone's mind when they read the story.

To that end, this book has a long, multi-page rant from what felt like the book's queer character (Lor) to their previously-Trump-supporting friend about how terrible he is for voting for Trump, and as someone who politically is the same as the author, I still cringed hard at how this was written. It's transparent and way too long-winded to make sense in the story. Think of a classic Mike Flanagan monologue but longer and more angry. It's legit that an old friend becoming a Trump supporter would be disappointing and hurtful, especially if you're in one of the many groups oppressed by conservative policies. But that could have been brought up in a much better, much less "unhinged rant" sort of a way that felt more natural for the story. Instead, once again it felt like the author's outrage about Trump (which again, I totally get and agree with) bled into the story here, and it's not a good thing.

It doesn't help that this specific character is essentially a caricature of a queer person. They're not just queer and poly, it feels like they were designed off cam girls whose tailored image is "I play video games"... yanno, things like neon cat headphones, edgy clothes, etc. And of course, they aren't just queer and poly and love video games and wear the edgy clothes, they also are AuDHD and get into a shaming argument with the same Trump supporting friend about their lack of understanding about these terms, pronouns, etc. Again, it's just way too over the top. And they, along with basically all the characters, felt unlikable because of it.

I wonder if I would have enjoyed the story more had the characters been written differently. I wasn't rooting for any of them, instead having to focus on the one-dimensional aspects of each that we had to focus on: the disgusting details of peeling strips of skin off the fingers, Lor's narcissism, etc. I realize how they were written was meant to have a different impact, that they were each dealing with the trauma differently, but for me, it pushed me away from all of them. So all that was left is the story, which was great enough to keep engaged until the disappointing ending.

Overall I think this was a good book that would have been great if certain aspects were different. I hope there's a sequel someday (which I doubt) to give a more satisfying closure to what happened.