What a read - what a read!
Thankfully the author summarized the themes at the end - I got them right! LOL!
What a writer! Excellent representation of a queer, poly woman calling out her friend who voted for that guy. Lore's rage and expression of the political climate - YES YES YES!
I loved the theme of friendship and showing up for each other - even years, years later. Just such a well done you had no idea I was battling these issues when we were kids but that's ok. Closure. Reconnection. Forgiving your previous self.
Doing better.
Just excellent read!

Content warnings are important for this one: self-harm, suicidal ideation, domestic violence, drug abuse, child abuse, sexual abuse, rape, bullying, etc. – it’s incredibly dark.

In this thoroughly original take on the haunted house novel, Chuck Wendig takes us into the woods on a weekend in 1998, where five teenage friends, bound together by an oath to protect one another, are surprised to find a staircase standing alone in the clearing where they plan to camp. On a whim, one of them goes up the staircase… And by morning, the staircase is gone, and only four teenagers walk out of the woods. Now, twenty years later, the staircase has reappeared, and it’s time to reclaim the friend that was lost.

The Staircase in the Woods features a familiar horror trope – a group of friends reuniting in adulthood to confront something menacing from their youth – but this is Chuck Wendig, so the book is anything but ordinary or derivative. He takes the idea of a haunted house and frames it as a place where the ghosts are actually remnants of trauma, so it’s heart-wrenching as well as frightening. There are some scary moments, but even beyond those specific scenes, the entire vibe of the book is unsettling and liminal. It feels immersive and immediate; we are right there with the characters, not sure what’s going on and what will happen next. This is existential, psychological horror at its finest.

I have to confess that trauma horror, which this book also very much is, isn’t my favorite subgenre, but Wendig navigates the murky depths of his characters’ trauma with deeply-felt emotion and sensitivity. All five central characters are developed well, quirky and interesting and easy to empathize with even if they aren’t all very likable. I did struggle, though, to believe in the bond among them; the flashbacks didn’t give me quite enough. I also felt like the book lost its way a bit in the middle act, retreading some already traveled ground, but the first and last acts are stellar and make up for that.

Horror doesn’t usually serve as a meditation on the power of friendship and the difficult, worthy work of recovering from trauma, so I really appreciated that The Staircase in the Woods works to do that. Wendig is a great storyteller, and I love (and am frankly a bit scared of) the way his mind works. Thank you to Del Rey for the early reading opportunity.

This one was not for me. There are a lot of different plots going on with characters that felt half developed. The story is too long, making everything feel disjointed and sporadic.

For a little context: I'm familiar with (and enjoy) Chuck Wendig's social media presence, but this is the first book of his I've read. Also, I read (and watch) very, very little horror.

That being said, The Staircase in the Woods was fine; I didn't love it, nor did I hate it. I was frequently reminded of both Stephen King (I've noticed several reviewers compare this book to IT, which is one I never got around to reading) and the TV show Supernatural. I'm sure this will be too dark/gruesome/gory for plenty of readers, and I did have to skim several of the more descriptive scenes. But I found it to be humorous enough to balance things out.

In Chuck Wendig’s latest book, The Staircase in the Woods, he constructs quite the harrowing house of horrors for unwary readers to troop through. Distracted by the shockingly gruesome, visitors in these haunted halls will finally detect the insidious feeling of being hunted a little too late.

A staircase inexplicably appears to a ragtag bunch of teenagers one ill-fated night in the woods. These friends are chained together by a simple promise pledged with youthful abandon---they must protect each other at all costs. But they break their sacred childhood Covenant that night when one friend recklessly ascends that incongruous staircase in the woods alone, vanishing without a single friend lifting a finger to help him. Two decades later, the staircase is back but their friend is still missing. Now this broken friend group must confront all-consuming fears of the unknown to save the lost boy in the woods. They must dare to know the unknown from the past, resurrecting memories and traumas best left closeted and forgotten, and they will have to face what lies in wait for them at the top of those stairs.

Nobody will get away unscathed from their first encounter with the staircase, each of them contending with various mental health issues and feelings of crushing failure/inadequacy, but together again as adults, they will discover they have the capacity to face their fears and heal their hurts and defeat their bogeymen with the power of friendship. It honestly reminded me strongly of Stephen King’s book, IT. A small detail I really appreciated were the Chapter Titles---love, love, love! Seeing chapter titles in a story where the predictable fallibility of childhood memory plays such a major role really furnishes a more personal feel to the story by creating a sense of familiarity within the reader. It’s such a small detail with a surprisingly bit impact! Wendig’s writing traps the reader inside a twisty, bloodcurdling nightmare plucked from the deepest, darkest recesses of ephemeral memory. I was repeatedly horrified to my core, but unable to stop myself from traversing into yet another chapter, our friends leading the way of course.

Inevitably everyone must finally grow up: You leave your childhood home and strike out for the unknown, severing the umbilical cord to your parents and everything you knew from the first chapters of life. Often you are only left with the vestiges of your previous life and lamentable regret you didn’t realize how much you’d miss what you were so quick to abandon. This story is a horrifying haunted house with the bones of a good mystery, but it was also a very heartwarming story of new beginnings where friends relearn to fight for their broken relationships, realize that being together is better than apart, and ultimately unite to conquer the monstrous traumas from the past pursuing them well into adulthood. Wendig successfully engineered a ghoulish tale that will haunt the masses far beyond the last pages of his book! I highly recommend NOT walking up that staircase in the woods…

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Random House Worlds/Del Rey for the ARC and the opportunity to share what I think! All opinions are my own. I will be posting this review on my Goodreads and Instagram accounts.

A group of former high school friends revisit a mysterious staircase in the woods that has suddenly reappeared decades after one of them went missing. With nods to Stephen King's IT, Chuck Wendig spins a tale of psychological horror told between two alternating timelines – the past and the present – as the group enters a seemingly haunted house to discover what may have happened to their friend years ago.

This was an engrossing book with quick, short chapters that kept the story humming along, although it’s a bit of a slow burn overall. My major complaints with the book were the unlikeable protagonists and the general repetition of the unconventional plot devices overall. Wendig also hits you over the head with the thematic concepts of his abstract horror that are both emotional and subjective – there is little room for subtlety here.

Overall, this comes recommended for those that appreciate thrillers with a psychoanalytical angle that explore relationships and trauma. A very special thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy.

Twenty years ago five teens discover a mysterious free-standing staircase in the woods while camping. One of them goes up and never comes back down, disappearing without a trace along with the staircase.

Now the remaining four friends reassemble, called together by a decades old covenant promising to always protect one another. The staircase has reappeared and it's their turn to go up and find out what's waiting on the other side.

I'm a Chunk Wendig fan and have read a number of his novels. I think he's a masterful horror writer. That said, The Staircase in the Woods is not my favorite of his catalog. Though I appreciated it overall I had a bit of an uneven reading experience. I love the premise of this story and quite enjoyed the first third of the book, I thought the final third of was strong and really improved my overall estimation. Unfortunately the middle third of this book was sort of a drag for me. I understood the point and purpose and there's some good horror writing in there, so certainly not a complete waste, but it felt to me like the wheels were spinning for a little bit.

Excellent premise and masterful horror writing aside, what really captivated me were the deeper and horrifically relevant themes Wendig explores through this story: the forces working to divide us and the remedy connections offers. His ability to tell a good story with deeper roots is exactly why I'm a fan.

I'd been curious about Chuck Wendig's novels for several years before reading this. Even though I'd never read any of his fiction, I had read a few of his nonfiction books for writers and I loved them all.

I'm glad I finally got around to his fiction and I'm especially glad I did it by reading 'The Staircase in the Woods.'

If you've read the publisher's description of the book, then you already know that the story within it has a very unique plot. As soon as I saw that the story was about a mysterious staircase in the woods which someone had climbed many years ago and then suddenly disappeared - well, I knew right away that I wanted to read this book.

The story is very clever and very compelling. It's also downright creepy at times. I mean that in a very complimentary way, though.

I normally read mysteries and thrillers, so 'The Staircase in the Woods' was quite different that what I'm normally used to. I'm happy to say, though, that I enjoyed it a lot.

Chuck Wendig is a very talented writer and I think he did a fantastic job on this. I'll definitely read more of his fiction in the future.

NOTE: I received an advanced reading copy of this book from the publisher.

Big thank you NetGalley and to the publisher for the chance to review this book pre-release. This was my first book by Mr. Wendig, but now I just have to read his backlog of other horror books because WOW. I loved this one. The premise was unique, I liked the characters we followed, and the horror was top NOTCH. I was genuinely uncomfortable numerous times. A more formal review will be available on my IG/TikTok and Goodreads for release.

Unfortunately, I only got through 13% of this book before deciding I couldn’t take it anymore and decided to DNF (so I can’t give a star rating, but had to in order to submit my review, so I gave it a one star). I’m very bummed about that because I think the title of this book is so intriguing and it really could have been a great book. However, I had never read anything from this author before and I think the writing style just is not for me. There was a lot of overly descriptive writing and that just isn’t my jam. In addition, there was a lot of foul language and for me that just ended up being distracting. The thing that really turned me off though was that there is a strong political agenda to this book and I just do not care for that in my fiction books. Had I known that I never would have requested an ARC of this book. Now I know moving forward that this author just is not for me, and that’s ok! I learned something that I can use moving forward.

In The Staircase in the woods, yet again, Chuck Wendig dishes out horror that examines the tensions and complexities of our lives with much panache and wit. Superb work!

Lore, Hamish, Nick and Owen haven’t seen each other in person for eleven years. They are, unexpectedly, summoned by Nick for one final meeting as he invokes the Covenant, paying for each one of them to fly to him for a celebration of his life - Nick is dying of cancer.

Eleven years ago, they were a close-knit group of five teenagers - each sixteen or seventeen years old, all of them soon to be seniors at Central Bucks North High School until a trip into the woods - seeking refuge from a world that didn’t seem to care very much about them - doesn’t go quite as planned. Within those dark, shadowy trees something supernatural happens when they find a mysterious staircase - one that seems to lead nowhere; the events that follow will irrevocably alter the trajectory of their lives.

The shared trauma leaves them all scarred, with the exception of Matty, who simply disappeared that nightmarish weekend. What happened in the woods? What happened to Matty?

Wendig carefully introduces this motley crew, each battling their own demons: Owen is an anxious wreck finds tranquility in the world of a second-hand bookshop, Hamish has reinvented himself in such a way that none of his friends recognise him anymore, Lore is a successful openly pansexual game designer. They are all still coming to terms with what happened to Matty that weekend, still haunted by unanswered questions. How could someone simply vanish like that? They are collected by a chauffeur in a Cadillac Escalade who takes them to meet Nick. And Nick, in turn, takes them back to the staircase in the woods. They have no choice but to confront their past.

The Staircase in the Woods explores the meaning of friendship, home, and family within Wendig’s expertly reconstructed take on the classic haunted house horror trope. “Friendship, like a house, can go bad, too. That air that you share? Goes sour. Dry rot here, black mould there, and if you don’t remediate, it just grows and grows. […] And then the place just […] sits there, abandoned. […] In the deepest dark of a house, of a home, hate and pain and suffering can fester. All that effervescent rage. All that crushing despair. Flourishing, festering.”

Wendig crafts a spine-tingling psychological labyrinth of rooms, each exposing dark subject matters and eliciting fear, terror and disgust. It has all the existential dread, gore, and supernatural entities that you wish for in a horror novel.

“Home is where the hurt is…”. This is horror like no other; Wendig conjures up a truly abominable stairway-to-hell house, and I am so glad I stepped into it. This is a book I will likely be re-reading over many Halloweens and Christmases to come.

Thanks to Del Rey and Random House Worlds, and Netgalley for the arc.

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

I needed like a full day to process this book after I finished it because my mind was truly blown. I absolutely loved The Book of Accidents so I had very high expectations going into this, and it’s safe to say that they were exceeded. The sheer amount of creativity that went into this book while also having strong characters, a strong plot, AND maintaining a level of horror throughout? MIND BLOWING 🤯
This book is The Spite House meets Cabin in the Woods meets Dark Matter. The only thing I can complain about is that I turned the last page without realizing it was the last page and screamed BUT WAS IT MATTY? The cliffhanger is killing me, but only because I WANT MORE. Song pairing is True Friends by Bring Me the Horizon, because THE COVENANT 🌳🏠🚪

PUB DAY: APRIL 28TH 2025 🥳

The Staircase in the Woods is a book about teenagers and their bonds 20 years later. Teenagers, whose lives are twisty and messed up, except with each other, and who have a pact to always have each others' backs. They go into the woods one night and find a staircase leading nowhere. One of them, Matty, goes up it, and both he and the staircase disappear. Some 20 years later, the friends reunite at a staircase in the woods and seek to find him.
What they find is the epitome of horror, in that it is also rooted in the absolute worst of reality. The haunted house the friends are in is terrifying, and only gets worse when you realize that the scariest parts already live deep within us. The trauma humans endure and hide from the world is shocking.
Apparently staircases in the woods are a real thing. If I ever see one, you can rest assured that I will be turning right the eff back around and getting away from it as quickly as possible.

4.5

This was cozy like when you finally see friends again yet so incredibly claustrophobic and psychologically terrifying….it was incredible. The slower/medium pacing and the open ended ending are what bring it down for me personally but overall spectacular

There are many aspects of this book I cannot stop thinking about. First, the premise. The fact that staircases simply exist in the wild is amazing, and I have seen remnants of them from houses that no longer stand. The author's use of the staircase is amazing. Second, the horror elements and shifting spaces of the house are brilliant. Third, the growth and deterioration of friendships is a great theme to follow through the book. Throughout the book, the author reminds the reader that the living friends were misfits in high school, and I needed this reminder because I kept situating them with Matty (popular, wealthy, talented, etc.). This is my first Wendig read, and I will definitely be reading more.

I already knew that I should never cross bridges to nowhere or abandoned huts in the middle of the woods and now I can add staircases and never going up them or I too might find myself in some nightmare dimension (or is it all in their heads?)! Chuck Wendig definitely has the talent for writing extremely disturbing yet fascinating horror stories! Though along with the horror, this book has a good message about friendships and how they can be strong, if people put in the effort, or how they can erode and grow twisted or even break completely but always there can be a chance to mend old wrongs. And so I enjoyed (and sometimes cringed at the horror bits, which were awful but had good reasons) traveling up the staircase (something I would never ever do!) to save Mattie and maybe themselves for a better future than where they were. This book definitely did not go the way I would thought but the ending was nicely satisfactory while still being unsettling.

I have enjoyed all the books this author has written and hope to be able to read more! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this awesomely horrorific book!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a gifted ARC of this novel!

This novel is a fabulously atmospheric read. Told from multiple POVs with dual timelines, readers get a great sense as to who the MCs are and what their motivations may be. Although I would believe that this novel is better classified as horror, there were definitely some surprising elements within that are reminiscent of a thriller novel. While reading, I was invested from the first page, which has one of the best “hooks” I’ve seen to date. I will say, however, that the pacing did seem to slow down a bit right after, picking back up about 30% in. Once that happens, however, I found myself reading this one quite quickly. Because of this, I would overall classify the novel as a bit of a slow burn. However, I do believe that it is definitely worth the read, especially if you enjoy horror novels!

This is the kind of horror that I enjoy. It is about a group of high school friends (Nick, Matty, Owen, Hamish and Lore) who are very close and one day they go camping and come across a staircase in the middle of the woods. Naturally they get curious about them and Matty goes up the staircase and is never seen again.

Fast forward 20 years and we learn that the friends drifted apart. One day they all get an email from Nick saying that they need to reunite and of course they do. Once they have reunited they realize the real reason Nick wanted them all to come together, which is to find out what truly happened to Matty. To their horror, they see that the staircase has reappeared and they have to decide if they go up there knowing what could happen or if they ignore the stairs.

Curiosity gets the better of them and they decide to go up the stairs and this is where they start to learn of all the things that Matty went through as they are transported into something very haunting. As the story progresses we learn about what each friend went through in their adolescence and how it ties in to where they ended up. There was abuse, self harm, suicidal tendencies, feelings of loneliness.
Together they have to work together to get out of this place and to try to find out what happened to Matty.
Overall I really enjoyed the story. I really enjoy books with friends that go through something together and then as time passes they must reunite to confront the situation. There were some moments that were very creepy and scary!

Thank you Netgalley and Random House Worlds/Del Rey. All opinions are my own.

While I thought this book started off a bit on the slower side, I was soon utterly involved in the story and unable to put it down until I turned the last page.
The vibes were perfectly creepy; a staircase in the woods, standing alone, is spooky enough without adding anything else. But when you take in that one of the members of our group went up, and somehow with nowhere else to go but down, didn't. He disappeared, but many years later, they are back and trying to find him.

I didn't really like any of the characters when we first met them, but over the course of the story, they grew on me more and more. The horror is more slow burn with creepy things coming out of nowhere, and a mystery of what happened with Matty, and if they find him, what condition will he be in?

I had a great time with this one, and I can't wait to see what Chuck Wendig is going to come out with next.

4.75 stars! I received an arc from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This was absolutely brilliant. It read like a cozy horror pop-up book and I couldn’t get enough!