I really liked how the novel crafted this psychological maze, forcing the characters to push through layers of repressed trauma toward revelation. I’m forever team HoL, but this was a great contender of its own!(4.5★)

Popular culture has always been a reflection of the hopes and concerns of the general public at a particular moment in time, with horror in particular being well suited to handle the latter. What it says about us then that there has been a recent spate of titles focusing on the very nature of fear itself is up for you to decide, but it’s been an interesting time for the genre. We can now add prolific author Chuck Wendig to the list of those tackling the topic with his highly engaging latest.

In the late 90’s in Bucks County, PA, a group of five teenage best friends went camping in the woods near their homes. While there, they stumbled upon a strange staircase among the trees, with no evidence of a structure nearby to explain its existence. Matty went up the stairs and disappeared, never to be heard from again, and leaving the others to endure the hatred and accusations of a town that couldn’t believe they had nothing to do with his demise.

Decades later and having scattered to the wind, the now-very-distant friends are called back together when one in their group reaches out, asking for one final reunion since he has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Despite barely speaking to one another anymore, they reconvene for another camping trip, where they once again discover a staircase. This time though, they all go up, hoping they can find their long-lost friend or at least some answers. What they find however is far stranger and more dangerous than they could have imagined.

The malevolent force they encounter feeds off of their pain and uses their fear to get the group increasingly agitated and hostile towards one another. It’s an effective metaphor for the ways that modern society and especially social media is doing the same to all of us on a daily basis, with increasingly disastrous results. As each of the group is forced to face the darkest parts of their pasts and psyches, many of us will recognize similar feelings that we’ve battled ourselves, helping to ground the otherwise fantastic proceedings and engendering a good deal of sympathy for the characters.

More eerie and foreboding than outright scary, the events of the story still linger with the reader. Wendig is a gifted writer, whose elegantly simple prose glides by while he slips in a host of modern social critiques. The Staircase in the Woods is an involving, deeply interesting examination of the weaponization of fear, but it’s also a touching tribute to the power of friendship. I don’t know if kindness and care can really solve all our current ills, but I’d like to think so. This book, despite being unafraid to go to some very dark places, serves as a strong argument that they could.

Where to begin? First off, I think “This Place Hates You” would have been a much better title.

I think a lot of the first 30-40% could have been omitted. It would have been better, in my opinion to have the events of the 90s be condensed to a prologue instead of having the first several chapters bounce back and forth.

I found the characters unlikeable and completely unrelatable.

I did love the majority of the events that occurred after they go up the staircase though. I found the concept fascinating but it eventually did become somewhat redundant.

The ending was disappointing. Anticlimactic for sure.

Overall though, I found this entertaining and worth a read.

I jumped at the opportunity to read this book when offered by NetGalley. I hate to report back that I was majorly let down. This book is labeled as horror/thriller, in my opinion it had neither of those characteristics. This book discussed a lot of childhood trauma and the pain/suffering that goes along with that.
It was really hard for me to get through this book. There was a lot of unnecessary dialogue that made the book feel like it was never ending. The multiple political statements that were made throughout the book contributed to that. I have nothing against the statements that were being made, but it served zero purpose to the actual storyline.
As the story was wrapping up, I thought that I would get all of my questions answered, but sadly I didn’t. The ending was so rushed, I found myself going back and rereading because I thought I missed something.
Overall, it was a let down for me. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Worlds for the eARC.

Ever since I read Wayward I have been the biggest Chuck Wendig fan! This book was an exceptional read. So gory and creepy and I loved every minute of it. I like the pacing of this one more than Black River Orchard. The story reminded me of (and don’t come at me) a better version of IT. A lot more scary moments with the group facing their fears. I really enjoyed the ending and felt it was satisfying to the story. I am loving Chuck’s writing these days and excited to see what he comes up with next!

More proof that Chuck Wendig can do no wrong. This is a slow-burn, of a novel, about a group of friends coming back together after years apart to discover what happen when they were kids. This has a bit of everything - insane liminal spaces, testing the limits of friendship and childhood pacts, supernatural elements. Highly, highly suggest.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the free digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wendig hits it out of the park again. This is the third book I’ve read by Chuck Wendig, and Black River Orchard remains my favorite of 2024. Whenever I pick up a Wendig novel, I know I won’t be able to put it down—and this one was no exception. I’m a sucker for the childhood-friends trope, and this story delivers, weaving together dual timelines to gradually reveal each character and the dynamics between them.

At around 400 pages, it's relatively concise by Wendig’s standards. The narrative is steeped in nostalgia, exploring the bonds we form in youth, along with themes of guilt, grief, trauma, and the difficulty of moving on. His eerie twist on the “staircase in the woods” legend is both chilling and thoroughly entertaining.

I read through this book very quickly. The story was super creepy, exactly what I was looking for at the time. The characters felt real and were written in a way that made them relatable. The author wove in and out if the past and present seamlessly which enhanced the plot. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone. I can't wait for the next new book from Chuck Wendig.

Thank you to Netgalley and DelRey Books for this e-arc!

The premise of this book is what really drew me in. One friend goes missing after climbing up a mysterious staircase in the woods (Red Flag #1), then the staircase disappears and comes back 20 years later? Intriguing.

This book while it does have a lot of chapters, does read very quickly and kept my interest. The only thing I wish there was more of is the investigation after Matty went missing.

Just ok for me. Not really creepy or unsettling. A bit predictable at times. Some bits just didn’t work for me as a reader. Overall a good story idea though.

4.5 stars

This was so much darker and more eerie than I was expecting. I mean, I'm not sure what I was expecting from a story about a group of misfit kids finding a mysterious staircase in the woods but I was happy with what I got from this story.

At the heart of this story we are exploring grief and trauma and guilt and the consequences of secrets that are kept locked behind closed doors. However, this is also a love letter to enduring friendship and accepting people for who they are and where they are at even if it isn't pretty or perfect. The place in which our group finds themselves as a result of the staircase was a perfect reflection of a literal labyrinth and also a metaphorical one that explored the cycles of trauma and the ways in which we can get lost in these repetitive ruminating intrusive thoughts that continue to drag us down into the lowest parts of our selves. I also think that there was really interesting commentary on how people are in your life to be a support system - to literally support you through the ups and downs of life and make it easier to keep moving - not to magically fix everything with a flick of their magic wand. No one in this group is able to solve another's problems. Nothing is said to rectify past mistakes. Instead, they share the ugly parts of themselves and agree to move forward as best as they can and I think that is really powerful.

The horror in this was, as per usual with this author, top tier in how descriptive and unsettling it could be. There is plenty of blood and gore, for sure, but I love how the true horror in this book is shown in the ways in which real evil lurks behind closed doors and in the intentions of the people that we think that we can trust.

Thank you @delreybooks @netgalley for the free book!

📖 A group of friends are on a camping trip when they stumble upon a mysterious staircase in the woods. One of them climbs it and disappears and moments later the staircase vanishes. Twenty years later the staircase appears again and this time the friends are determined to climb it and find their lost friend.

💭The premise of this book was so interesting. I loved the creepy vibes and the suspense. I didn’t find any of the characters particularly likeable, which usually turns me off of a story, but it didn’t with this one. My only complaint was the very end. I had a feeling where it was going and we were going to be left with unanswered questions and I just personally hate that. I spent all this time reading the book, I want it wrapped up! But I’m sure the ending will appeal to other readers.

📚Read this if you like…
Mysterious disappearance
Found family
Multiple POV
Paranormal elements

✍️How I rated other books by this author:
The Book of Accidents- 5⭐️

The phenomena of staircases in the woods is real and Wendig leans into what can happen when you cross one. This thriller keeps you guessing as to what will happen next as four friends attempt to find their friend who disappeared on mysterious stairs. Confronting loss, trauma, and horrors they couldn't imagine are just the beginning of what can be found at the top of the stairs.

Other than grin-and-bearing my way through that (somewhat infamous) comic by Adam Ellis, I’d never realized that hangnail-related body horror was a thing. And yet with The Staircase in the Woods, author Chuck Wendig (The Book of Accidents) has proven few things will make my entire being curl in on itself faster than gnarly descriptions of someone peeling the gnawed, bleeding skin on their fingernails. (A testament to his craft.) Eeesh. Truthfully, I’d rather read about someone being torn to shreds in gory detail. It just squicks me out, man.

But enough about me and my hangnail-related hang-ups!

In addition to all that, toxic friendships take center stage in Wendig’s new horror novel. The story drags us along on a trippy journey through the forest and a perilous descent into a haunted house of broken friendship following four estranged friends who are given the chance to potentially find a long-lost pal two decades after his tragic, eerie disappearance on a camping trip their senior year of high school. (Cue the malformed metaphors, survivor’s guilt, and long-simmering resentments.)

Chronologically, the story begins when Pennsylvania high school students Matty, Nick, Hamish, Owen, and Laur go on what’s meant to be a run-of-the-mill camping trip despite the emotional entanglements lurking just under the surface of their collective friendship (secret romances, unrequited crushes, jealousy, and painful secrets, etc.). They’re bonded by an oath — ‘the covenant’ — to protect one another, no matter what, interpersonal drama be damned. The hike up there goes well enough and the group sets up camp, but it’s not long before things take a hard left: a mysterious staircase appears in a clearing not far off from their campsite. (A staircase. To nowhere. In the middle of the woods.)

Thanks to a potent cocktail of alcohol, miscommunication, and rejection, Matty, high school golden boy and the group’s unofficial leader, decides to investigate. He goes up the stairs, takes a step off the top before anyone can grab him, and . . . disappears. Poof. And then the staircase also vanishes into thin air, leaving the remaining four to figure out what just happened, and what to do next. Everyone in town is convinced the remaining four had something to do with it, even if the police can’t prove anything. Matty is never seen again, and Nick, Owen, Laur, and Hamish struggle in vain to put the pieces of their lives back together.

Flash forward twenty years and the staircase has somehow, miraculously (or nefariously) reappeared, prompting the world’s worst high school reunion. Together they must climb the staircase, just like Matty did; they have to see what lies beyond the top stair once and for all, and bring back their missing friend.

Very cool concept, no? I was expecting something more folk horror-y. Maybe aliens? Certainly not what Wendig actually ends up revealing once the crew takes their literal leap of faith off the staircase. The story dwells in the more psychological and cerebral scares of fractured friendship and adulthood, rather than going for the jugular with straight-forward terror (for better or worse). As a result it reminds me a lot of Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay and Mister Magic by Kiersten White, with a dash of Stephen King’s It mixed in, for flavor.

There’s a ton of really interesting, cool, and decidedly freaky imagery going on here (Marshie . . . I’ll be thinking about Marshie for a long time — IYKYK) and a very unique, almost video game-inspired framing to the narrative that I liked. But something about this just didn’t click for me. (For what it’s worth, I wasn’t crazy about Horror Movie either, which you can read about here.)

Was it my lack of connection to some of the characters? Potentially. Given that the story revolves largely around the ups and downs of friendship and the lasting scars of childhood trauma, everything that ends up happening would’ve felt a lot more meaningful had I been given a better sense of the nature of their friendships earlier on. (I would have liked to see more emotional groundwork laid for Nick, Hamish, and Matty in particular.) Meltdowns over guilt, resentment, and past mistakes don’t pack the same punch when they’re delivered by a character who is essentially a stranger to me as a reader. Laur/Lore’s grating character — a capital E, capital C, capital G, Edgy Cool Girl™️ — didn’t help matters either, and neither did the dialogue. (From the MAGA rant during the car scene, to word choices like “unalived” — as in “That was, in theory, a teen girl who unalived herself” — it . . . ah, man. Nope.)

So, although I really appreciated what an eerie, twisty concept Chuck Wendig dreamed up for The Staircase in the Woods, this bleak horror novel didn’t pack the emotional punch I was hoping for. (Regardless, I’ll be taking the elevator over the stairs from now on, juuuust in case.)

Shout out to NetGalley and Del Rey for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was looking forward to this novel after reading the synopsis. However, I did not like this book at all.

To start with, the characters were insufferable. When you have a character driven novel, you need to have at least SOME good characters. Not the case here. Made for a very painful read.

This book DRAGGED on. So many unnecessary details. I was super bored! Not good for a horror novel. The unnecessary filler really took away from the creepy atmosphere. Found myself skimming much of the book.

Really disappointed with this one. Do not waste your time!

thank you Random House Worlds | Del Rey and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was really drawn to the premise of this book. I felt that there was so much originality behind the storytelling. The rooms were present off of the staircase because the rooms retain the memory of the traumas that occurred within them. This blew my mind a bit and was extremely fascinating at the same time. I felt that the second half of the book was much better than the first, but I felt that there was a struggle because of how unlikable all of the characters were. I felt that this book needed at least one hero to really make it work. I definitely would be open to reading more from this author in the future. Thanks for the ARC, NetGalley.

This one was not for me, while I loved the ideas and it was in vein of Stephen King's "It" something about it just fell flat for me. I think that a lot of people would love this though

*Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Worlds | Del Rey for providing me with this ebook, in exchange for an honest review*

I have to be honest. I didn't bought the thriller/horror aspect of the book. Most of the times it was way too predictable, and at some points where the plot should be thick was meh, and other times where the plot should be more to the point, it wasn't. That being said, Chuck Wendig, is a MASTER, and I can't stretch it enough, of creating characters. Every single character was so uniquely crafted that it didn't disappoint me that all of the characters were utterly cliché,

The world building would need more of care but other than that, I really loved it.

The title to this one says it all… I had to suspend a lot of belief that our characters would be naive enough to indeed follow a staircase in the woods. Didn’t give the jump scare thrilling ride I was hoping for. Thank you for this arc!

This book blends supernatural horror with emotional depth in a way that strongly echoes Stephen King. Centered on a family moving into a house with a dark past, the novel delivers eerie imagery—especially the mysterious staircase in the woods—and builds tension through character-driven storytelling. The horror spans the psychological and cosmic, with some truly unsettling moments. While the plot occasionally feels overlong and crowded, Wendig’s prose remains sharp and affecting throughout.

This is a chilling, imaginative read with heart and atmosphere—well worth it for horror fans. Loses a star for pacing.