There was a lot that I loved about this one - the set up, the characters, and the themes. The first 75-100 pages were fantastic. About half of this was perfect.

However, about halfway through, the plot just stalled and I felt stuck, similar to the characters really. Most of book was character driven, rather than plot driven, which is totally fine, but just make the pages kept on going and going, with no resolution to anything.

Eventually, the plot did get going again, but by that point, I was barely pushing through to finish it.

Again, I can’t say that I disliked this one, it does so many things so well, I just prefer stories with a faster pace.

A huge thank you to Del Rey for the ARC.

I love Chuck Wendig’s writing so very much. It’s smart, it’s funny, but he also knows how to write characters that you care for deeply. The Staircase in the Woods checks all of those boxes and more. Guilt, trauma, nostalgia, anxiety, the power (and danger) of friendships make Staircase so much more than a horror novel. But, to me, this is one of Wendig’s scariest and darkest yet - I had to step away at times from reading and even after finishing the book feel unnerved and unsettled. There is so much to take away from this book and so much to discuss, I can’t wait for everyone to read it when it publishes in 2025.

This title was one of my highly-anticipated books for 2025 and I was thrilled when I discovered it in my inbox. Chuck Wendig has a way of describing humanity, both positive and negative, and create a clearly hopeful conclusion to a horrific reality. This book is genius—the antagonist is a twist on a classic horror trope, but the heart of the book is friendship.


Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an early copy of this book. Opinions are my own.

Chuck Wendig takes a concept that could be some surface level creepypasta and builds an insane horror labyrinth around it. So much of my praise will spoil things, so I'll keep it short. The result justifies the ambition. Some of the scariest stuff I've read this year, I was repulsed, entertained, sad, happy, and eager to see where all of it was leading. The story sticks the landing, and this book cements itself as one of my favorite Wendig books, and I've read most of his books!

This was the creepy little novel I was hoping to read over the fall season. The Staircase in the Woods is about a group of friends who came together to explore a staircase to nowhere that tore them apart when they were teenagers. This was my first Wendig book and I thoroughly liked it! As I said, it was perfectly strange and horrific but equally sad and grief-filled. My only complaint would be its repetition. It gets a tad annoying, and I'm aware it a little necessary considering the nature of the book, but it just was a little too much for me. But overall, this was very good.

Chuck Wendig is a go-to, auto-buy author for me, so getting approved for an early look at The Staircase in the Woods was a special treat. Thank you to Random House Worlds and NetGalley for providing an ebook.

I will not go into plot details, the blurb is intentionally vague and to say too much would spoil major plot points. I wrote down some comparisons to other books/media, along the way, but upon review, even those would likely give away more than I'd like. What I will say is that this is another great horror book from Wendig and that if you've enjoyed his previous work, you will enjoy this. There are creepy scenes (like a lot of them), heartfelt moments, just the right amount of humor, and believable characters. I enjoyed the plot and really didn't know where it was going and that kept me flipping pages. This one had pretty short chapters too, which I personally love.

I wouldn't say it's my favorite book that he's written, but honestly I'd have a hard time picking a favorite, they are all so good. A Staircase in the Woods hits shelves on April 29, 2025, you don't want to miss this one.

Ore, Owen, Matty, Nick, and Hamish are a group of high school friends bonded by something they call The Pact. Each of them has their own history of family traumas, known or unknown to the others. These traumas shaped how they reacted when Matty disappeared atop a mysterious staircase in the woods. Twenty years after the incident, each is living their separate lives until Nick summons The Pact to reunite them for a weekend getaway.

This book feels like a horror escape room, but it’s also about more than that—it’s about friendships. Each of these characters has their secrets. Over the years, they’ve grown apart as jealousy, fears, and misunderstandings created barriers. They argue, exchange bitter words, but they’ll have to work together to escape the hellish landscape they find themselves in.

A big thank you to Chuck Wendig and NetGalley for this advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was so incredibly good; a unique and creepy story that at its heart is about friendship and how our friendships can help us navigate our lives. Plus an incredibly unique way to depict how homes absorb our stories. I recommend this book wholeheartedly and know it will stick with me.
Thanks to NetGalley and Del Rey for this ARC in return for my honest review.

After having a hard time getting acquainted with the characters in the story (they all start out so unlikable, honestly) and the author's crass voice, I dove into a world that felt like a cross between IT and Stranger Things.

Matty Shiffman decides to follow a staircase in the woods and disappears. His friends become social pariahs and are blamed for his disappearance. They grow up and move on, but are drawn back together as one of them has cancer.

Nick has found another staircase in the woods. He invokes The Covenant - a pact and an oath for their group - to implore the others to finally find their missing friend. With shitty parents, guilt, shame, and secrets we journey through a Hell-house of horrors. Is there any escape? And where is Matty?

Once I got into the meat of the tale, I couldn't put this book down. The visceral descriptions of OCD tics were skin crawling. The story, told alternating between the present and the past, was compelling. You felt like you were part of the group, searching for a way out of this nightmare before completely losing your grip on reality.

Thank you to NetGalley and Chuck Wendig for the ARC of Staircase in the Woods. I resisted loving this book, but it was futile.

Another great book from Wendig!
Read if you like... childhood traumas, childhood bonds, existential nightmares, ambiguous endings!

#NetGalley

Let me start off by saying I am usually not a horror, spooky, type of gal. This book was hands down one of my top 3 favorite books for 2024, and again in 2025 when I read it again. I was annotating, I was reminiscing, I was sad for the characters, I was so many emotions and none of them can describe what I feel for this book. This was incredible. You get 4 different characters and their individual experiences that make them who they are in their adult lives and you get to learn about yourself that if you don’t heal stuff from your childhood it will come back to haunt you (literally). 12 stars out of 10 for me. I cannot wait to have the book on my shelf in my house!

(Slight spoilers)

The Staircase in the Woods is my favorite book of the year. I felt so deeply for this group of friends, their journey, the house, its inhabitants, that I cried when it was over because I wanted to read more.

The plot starts off slow, but it gets its hooks in you and makes you care about the characters. Then the story becomes such an original twist on the traditional haunted house story that there were no cliches, I had no idea where it was going. It broke my heart. It was claustrophobic and felt yucky (in the best way), like playing Silent Hill.

I'll be writing a more eloquent review for Goodreads/IG/Amazon, but I wanted to share my immediate thoughts on Netgalley because I can't get this book out of my head. I'm so happy this was my first Chuck Wendig book, because now I have his entire backlog to explore.

This book hit me like a ton of bricks. I finished this in one sitting and it's probably going in my top reads this year. Not only was it incredibly well-written and fun to follow, it as also genuinely disturbing, sad, and terrifying. The staircase is based on a real stair case Chuck Wendig visited and my brain immediately goes to back doors and other dimensions and realms. Why is there a random staircase in the woods and where does it lead to?

My mind is blown and I need more. This is an amazing book!!

Please be aware this book does contain content readers will likely find disturbing. From gore, violence, and grief to mentions of $uicide, drugs and more.

Thank you immensely to Net Galley and Random House Publishing Group for early access to this book for free. I am writing this review voluntarily because I loved this book so much. I will definitely recommend this to any horror lover, as it's a great story and very disturbing and spooky.

A mystery and horror novel in the style of Stephen King's It that features 4 sympathic but troubled main characters who try to unravel the mysterious disappearance of their best friend who vanished on a strange stair in the woods back in the 90s. The narrative is split between the present, where the four main characters are middle aged, and their past as teenagers during the 90s. The main mystery of the strange stairs in the woods, and the question of their friends disappearance is quite engaging and will keep the reader on edge in this fast paced novel. Short chapters make the book easy to devour for genre readers. In general, I would recommend this book to every horror fan who likes strange mysteries instead of bloodshed.

This had all the elements that I look for in a horror novel, strong characters, found family, spiraling tension, compelling backstories, coming of age and a deeply terrifying haunted house.

Wendig creates such compelling characters that their fears and experiences are completely believable because you believe in the characters. Owen, Lore, Nick, Hamish and Matty have their own mythology, their own friend-language, with jealousies, obsessions and secrets within their love and loyalty to each other.

The stairs are an unsettling image, and the house is claustrophobic and horrific. Wendig uses visual descriptions like the”yellow of flu mucus” but elaborates with touch, smell and taste, with words like oily, greasy, gummy, he describes a “slick stink” and “skin like a popcorn ceiling” and it is all so wonderfully and terribly perfect.

I was compelled to read deep into the night and enjoyed every minute of this book.

Chuck Wendig, you have the most amazing imagination. I just finished The Staircase In The Woods, and I am gobsmacked! It was stuffed with everything that fills your previous stories, but more deliciously gory, gross and soooooo indelibly vivid! The Staircase In The Woods....four friends in search of one friend who climbed the stairs and was gone, just gone! I don't want to give anything else away, but readers of reviews, know this...if you love horror, an incredible sense of humor, and I also have to add, learning words (at least words and phrases that I have not heard before >>>yes, I have to check with dictionaries when reading Chuck<<<<<) this is the one to read. Chuck Wendig is all his own...and after finishing The Staircase in the Woods and reading that last sentence...please tell me there is a sequel in the midst? @chuck_wendig terribleminds.com

What happened to Matty?

actually this book should get 100 stars!!!!

Thanks to Random House Worlds/Del Rey and NetGalley for this ARC of 'The Staircase in the Woods. by Chuck Wendig.

A good and enjoyable combination of the haunted house trope and grown-up protagonists returning to the scene of their teenage 'crime' trope - a combination of 'The Haunting of Hill House' and 'IT', if you like :).

A group of friends (or are they?) reunite at the behest of one of their cohort to find their friend - the best of them - who disappeared up a mysterious stand-alone staircase in the middle of the woods years earlier when they were young teenagers.

We follow them as they navigate a haunted house and their own memories, emotions, fears, egos, personalities to try and come out safe at the other end. None of the characters are particularly likeable but I think that's OK and reflects the trauma that they went through as younger versions of themselves both in terms of the disappearance of their friend but, more importantly, their hidden home lives and experiences (some harrowing revelations there) - seems quite believable in that sense.

All-in-all well worth a read.

Oh. My. God.

I loved this book and cannot give it enough praise! I was scared beginning to end and truly cared about all of the characters. This has some serious classic Stephen King vibes in the best way. I'll be recommending this book left and right.

Review will appear on instagram @stressreads later this week, along with a review on my Goodreads page: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/3489960-jessie

Thank you so much for this review copy.

The Staircase in the Woods, 4.75*

If you’re a Chuck Wendig fan, just buy the book because you’ll love it.

Now, for everyone that’s left, let me say that this was a GREAT supernatural horror thriller. The plot is told across two timelines, the late 90s and current day. A friend group finds a staircase in the woods, one goes up and disappears. Current day, the staircase returns and the friends all go up and disappear. I won’t say much else to keep from spoiling the plot, but what follows is a terrifying ride all the way to the end.

I love how Chuck tells his stories. Characters are multi-layer d and incredibly flawed. This story is one about grief, loss, and self. It’s raw in how it provides a mirror to our worst, and isn’t shy about the brutal honesty of what trauma does to us. I did find some aspects of the story a touch repetitive, but that’s the nature of the setting and doesn’t really negate what’s great about this story.

This is an instant must buy. The Staircase in the Woods comes out on April 29, 2025.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House/Del Rey for giving me this ARC in return for an honest review.

This was so weird and unusual and I find myself still trying to process this. I did enjoy it but I also feel like I was thinking a lot more than I wanted to be. 😅