Thank you NetGalley and Del Rey for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I have never read from Chuck Wendig before, but it certainly won’t be my last. This was an easy 5 star read for me. The story focuses on a group of friends who dealt with a shared tragedy during the late 90s. Flash forward twenty years later, and we now see our group revisiting the trauma that they thought that they had left behind.

This story focuses on grief, loss and finding friendship in the most unlikely of times. The horror elements in this were extremely well written. Everything was described in such detail that some of the parts had my skin crawling. I was quite satisfied with the ending and it had me thinking about it well after I had finished it.

This is a tale about five friends who made a pact, The Covenant, to always be there for one another. How that promise was broken because of a mysterious staircase that showed up in the middle of the woods, took one of them, and vanished. And how twenty years later the remaining four meet up again to go looking for their missing friend and rediscover that staircase.

The suspense and plot of this story had remnants of Stephen King's It. The characters each are given their own backstories, and we get to see what made them the way they are, their personal demons, and their struggles.

I really enjoyed this dark fantasy thriller, the mystery of the staircase, and where it leads to. Chuck did a great job with the world building and the visualizations it invoked.

This author is very hit or miss for me. I love some of his stuff and some of it does not work for me at all. This was one that should have been great, that could have been great, but I kept getting annoyed by random rants from the characters that didn't fit into the story. I mean I agree with the rants, but...they shouldn't just be shoved into the book to put them in the book. They need to make sense within the story...so I kept putting the book down cause they made it not great. It is unfortunate since the author can write some good, creepy scenes. I kept setting it down and coming back to it and this last time I just found all of the characters a bit annoying and finally gave up and called it. I wish some of it would have been taken out or incorporated better cause it could have been a great read.

Overall the story was good and kept me engaged. There were a few parts that seemed rushed or missed information.
The characters were interesting and the storyline itself was different.
The idea of the storyline was interesting just needed more explanation and definitely an actual ending.
The ending leaves you hanging a bit without a really conclusion. So maybe a 2nd book. Not sure.

I was interested in the premise but a little worried that it would go over my head at the same time. The first half, I really enjoyed. After that, my interest did wane a bit because I wasn’t sure what direction the book was taking or how complex everything would become.

I really liked Lore and Owen. I could relate to Owen’s anxiety and fears.

Overall, I liked the book and would read more from the author. Thank you to NetGalley, Chuck Wendig, and Random House Worlds for the opportunity to read it! I have written this review voluntarily and honestly.

Only three books have ever unnerved me. A Staircase in the Woods by Chuck Wendig might be the fourth. This was a fun trip into a labyrinth of horror, but what I found most impressive was the heart and human core in this novel.

This story revolves around five friends: Owen, Lore, Hamish, Nick, and Matty. On a camping trip when they’re young, a staircase mysteriously appears in the woods. Matty, in an uncharacteristic moment of anger, climbs the staircase, enters the doorway at the top, and disappears. The staircase disappears after and Matty never reappears. 20+ years later, Nick finds another staircase in the woods and lures the remaining friends to it. Still riddled with guilt and feeling like they’ve never really moved past the events of that night, the four remaining friends climb the staircase and cross the threshold at the top to find their lost friend. What ensues is a slow descent into and unraveling of external and personal horrors.

There were so many moments of classic horror: spooky scenes, abandoned rooms, threatening entities. But what hit me most were the very real horrors that these people faced: dealing with their issues and past, and the reality of the complicated nature of their relationships with each other and with themselves. The novel flashes back to when they’re growing up together, and so we get a really good sense of who these five people are, their friendship, and how they’ve passed through life.

This novel paints a very real picture of how complicated people and friendships are juxtaposed to the classic horror elements. Together, they combine into what I love most about horror: not only the exploration of spooky circumstances but very real human-based horror.

There were multiple truly haunting scenes in this (both of the horror variety and revelations of the past). Some continue to stick with me. And that ending? So good, even if I want a sequel to get more!

Also, I’ll say this: I don’t usually love books that feature a friend group. I feel like they usually devolve into something too toxic or are too idealistic to be real. But I loved reading about these five friends, their relationships, how they navigate the current horrors together, and how they explore their individual and shared pasts. Would I want to be friends with any of them? No. But I really enjoyed reading about them.

If you want an unsettling horror story that has truly spooky and creepy scenes that seamlessly explores what it is to be human and the complicated nature of friendship (and our relationship to the past), this is for you. I for one was so excited to read a book that truly had me spooked and on edge while exploring these deeper subjects.

This definitely has some trigger warnings, but nothing felt gratuitous or sensational. This includes:
- blood
- self harm
- abuse (mental, sexual)
- pedophilia
- medical/hospital scene
- addiction

This gave me similar vibes as:
- The Spite House by Johnny Compton
- The Body by Stephen King
- We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer

Thank you NetGalley and Del Ray for the e-ARC! All opinions are mine.

Lore, Hamish , Nick and Owen are never the same after their friend Matty goes up a mysterious staircase in the woods and disappears. Years later when Nick calls the friends back together they reluctantly agree to meet. But the mysterious staircase continues to haunt them… can they find Matty or will they become lost?
Atmospheric, suspenseful and vaguely gruesome- great addition to the horror genre. Thanks Netgalley for the ARC- my opinions are my own.

I think this might be a case of "I know this is a good book but it's just not for me". I was intrigued by the premise of Wendig's new novel and I really want to delve back into horror a little more, so I was excited for this one.
And there is a lot to like: The premise is cool, the mystery intriguing, and the place beyond the staircase is not just scary but also thematically a lot deeper than I thought. Although, admittedly, it's a very on-the-nose kind of depth that spells everything out instead of leaving some nuance for the reader to grasp and really make them think. Still, I quite enjoyed it.
My very personal issues with this book are that I didn't really vibe with the writing style and I just genuinely did not like any of the characters. Not one, not even a little, and not in the unlikeable-yet-intriguing kind of way. I just couldn't care less, and they at times felt weirdly overwrought in an almost satirical way. There is an instance of the one girl in the group having a monologue that almost felt like Wendig was making fun of the stereotypical "Woke Crowd" with our evil pronouns and our fascist exclusion morals and sinful sexualities and constant triggers. I was really taken aback by that, though I don't actually think it was meant that way (and it doesn't align with the political stance otherwise taken in the narrative). But from that point on I just really didn't know what Wendig actually wanted to achieve with these characters. I never really felt their friendship either and was more or less annoyed the more often they used their little catchprase.
There is really just one I felt some sort of positive emotion for, and it's Nick, and only because his backstory with the later reveals really felt like an emotional gut punch. That was amazing storytelling right there.
So yes, middle of the road I'd say. I do think a lot of people will enjoy this more than I did because my reading enjoyment generally very much depends on how connected (positively or negatively) I feel with the characters and I felt no connection in this case. Also the writing's just not my thing, but others will definitely agree. The themes, at least, are on point.

I DNFed and I’m so sorry. I wanted to like this so bad but I just didn’t. I didn’t feel any connection to any of the characters and I really felt like I was forcing myself to push forward.

I’ve been a fan of Chuck Wendig’s work since reading his dystopian duology Wanderers and Wayward. The Staircase in the Woods leans much harder into horror than his other books I’ve read, and while I prefer his dystopian work more than this book specifically, Wendig’s signature grit and relatable (if not always likeable) characters are still very much present here, which I appreciated.

The premise of the book feels familiar in a way: a group of friends, a mysterious staircase in the forest, and a decades-old disappearance. It almost reads like a story you’ve heard before, but it’s executed with such a unique twist that the narrative stays fresh and compelling. The horror elements are heavy: there’s gore, there’s atmosphere, and a total sense of creeping dread that sticks with you from the beginning to the very end.

There is also a nod to nerdier interests (in such a good way!) with threads involving video games/coding that will definitely appeal to fans of speculative horror with a tech twist. There is also some queer rep with one of the main characters identifying early on as nonbinary and pansexual. Though present, it wasn't what I would consider central to the plot.

THAT ENDING THOUGH. It really did take me by surprise though I wasn’t entirely satisfied with where it left off. It’s still killing me that I don't’ truly know what happened next after the final reveal.

Overall, I enjoyed this, despite it not being QUITE the standout as the Wanderer series was for me. I will definitely read more of Chuck's work in the future!

wanted to love this book, I really did. I was a huge fan of the Reddit stories series years ago about the mysteries and bad things that happen when staircases appear in the woods. So seeing this book had me extremely hyped. However, overall I was really let down by this book. It dragged on in the middle and felt completely rushed at the end. At times it was also a bit confusing when they were in the house. I didn’t find it clear that Nick had been in the house before until the friends were discussing it. My biggest gripe is the number of unanswered questions:

1) Since Nick had been in the house before why didn’t he tell them how to get out when he was “himself”?
2) How much time actually passed when they got out?
3) How would Matty disappear as a child and then escape but completely start a new life without anyone knowing?
4) Why does the book end right before they meet Matty again?!?

I wish I could give feedback on this book. I requested this book when it was still possible to transfer on Kobo.

I'll update this review once I read this book on my own.

The Staircase in the Woods is the newest Chuck Wendig novel, and it is the first novel written by him that I have read in a long time, since Blackbirds and the Angry Robot days. I have bought a few of his novels and have watched him find success, particularly with the Star Wars novels that he wrote, but this is the first I have read in close to a decade. It is a shame that it has taken me this long to get back to another Wendig novel, especially since when I wrote the review of Blackbirds in 2016, I said that he was a novelist that should be followed and read. I guess I did not follow my own advice.

His newest novel starts with a group of five friends that were always there for one another during high school. They saw themselves as friends with a bond that could never be broken. Until they were on a camping trip and a staircase in the middle of the woods appears and Matty decides to go up the stairs. He disappears and so does the staircase. After this, the friend group is accused of his death and their friendship dissolves. After years, one of the members, Nick, finds another staircase in the woods, and they decide to climb the stairs to try to find their friend who disappeared years earlier. The horrors that await them are unspeakable. A hidden world unfolds, making the friends face their individual and collective past, their anger toward one another, and their sorrow in and attempt to survive long enough to find their friend.

When I first started reading The Staircase in the Woods, I quickly remembered how Chuck Wendig writes. He uses a tone that feels lighthearted and jokey, even when his characters are in horrible and dangerous situations. There are times when the tone of the writing is what keeps the sadness and fear at bay, as if he is reminding us that these characters are in this story, but it’s still a story. There’s nothing to be afraid of. This tone keeps The Staircase in the Woods from being so bleak and dreary that it is unreadable. The way Wendig writes scenes and chapters keeps us as a spectator and just removed enough from the story to bring too much heartache and sadness. This separation is what makes this novel palatable and effective, and this is why any reader should not hesitate to climb up the staircase in the woods and disappear into this story.

I received an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

In high school, The Covenant, a group of 5 teens, went for a camping trip in the forest to drink and get high. A staircase appeared that led to nowhere and one of their own, the athletic, popular cool kid (Matty) who had no cause to hang out with the geeks and druggies, was keen to go up. None of the others were, but he called on the covenant, their bond, their promise to each other, and they all said no. He went anyway, the staircase disappeared, and they never saw him again. After that, the Covenant broke up, each going their own ways. One, Hamish, became a real estate agent really into fitness, the one woman in the group, Lor, became a killer video game designer, leaving one of the others who helped her, Owen, with ideas behind to work dead end jobs and give up on game design, and the fourth, Nick, that went to jail for them all after their friend disappeared. Now, twenty years later, Nick calls on the covenant, gathers them into the woods, and another staircase awaits them. This time, they all go up in the hopes of finding Matty alive. Creepy and sinister, the house they find themselves in is a character all its own that tests them – their flaws, fears, griefs, secrets – at every turn, forcing the group of four to lean on each other to try and find the truth and escape the house. Some of the truths break their friendships further and some of them bind them together even more tightly. If you like books by Chuck Wendig, Joe Hill, and Paul Trembley, put this book on your list to read.

After reading The Book of Accidents by this author, I was nervous to pick up another of his books as that one was really confusing and didn’t really work for me. But the premise of a mysterious staircase in the woods where a teen just vanished into thin air was too intriguing to pass up. And I love stories about childhood friendships and bringing the gang back together again, so I gave it a shot. And I ended up really enjoying this!

There were definitely still elements of the story that felt over my head, but this was overall a much more enjoyable reading experience for me. The mystery at the center was so intriguing, and I loved that we got flashbacks to when the group of friends were teens and their friend initially disappeared. I loved getting the background on their friendship as well as it then totally made sense why they would be willing to go to the lengths they would for each other. There is just something so special about the friends you make before you are an adult, and Wendig really captures that sentiment in a very Stephen King-like way. I also appreciated that he made each friend in the group very distinct and gave them their own set of traumatic experiences they were working through as well as their shared trauma. The author also described one thing about a character with anxiety that was so specific to my own anxiety that I was completely floored.

Although the friend group was the highlight for me, I really appreciated this as a kind of twist on the haunted-house story but also kind of like another dimension kind of horror story. I don’t even know what to call it, but I’ve never read anything else like this. The house itself was so well described and just seemed like the trippiest and most terrifying experience to be involved in. But I also loved following the characters as they discovered new rooms and slowly put the pieces together of what was going on in the hopes of figuring out what had happened to their friend. This book really made me think and got under my skin a little bit as I was trying to figure out the house alongside the group (I definitely didn’t figure it out). And the ending was so unexpected for me that I am still piecing myself back together from the shock.

Overall, I can’t recommend this one to psychological horror lovers enough. It is such a unique read and really showed me once again why horror is my favorite genre.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Chuck Wendig's “The Staircase in the Woods” is an unsettling, atmospheric dive into contemporary horror, blending elements of folklore and existential dread into a gripping narrative. Wendig, known for his sharp prose and complex character development, continues his tradition of crafting narratives that linger long after the final page.

At the heart of the novel is a simple yet haunting premise: a mysterious staircase appears in the heart of a dense forest, defying logic and nature. The protagonist, Owen, is a well-developed character whose personal grief and curiosity draw him and the rest of the characters toward uncovering the secrets of this eerie phenomenon. Wendig excels in portraying the character’s internal struggles, confrontations with past traumas, and the palpable tension as reality begins to blur.

Wendig’s writing is vivid, sensory-driven, and immersive, creating a sense of unease that permeates the entire novel. His depiction of the woods as an almost sentient entity adds to the psychological horror, enveloping readers in an atmosphere thick with suspense and dread. The pacing is skillful, with tension escalating gradually, culminating in an intense and satisfying climax.

However, “The Staircase in the Woods” does have its shortcomings. The narrative occasionally veers into overly ambiguous territory, particularly in its exploration of the staircase’s origins and its broader implications. Readers craving clear explanations or neatly tied conclusions might find the novel’s resolution somewhat unsatisfying. Additionally, while Owen’s character is richly drawn, supporting characters occasionally feel underdeveloped or peripheral, serving primarily to move the plot along rather than contributing meaningfully to the narrative's emotional depth.

Despite these minor flaws, Wendig's novel remains a captivating and chilling read. Its strength lies in the psychological depth and masterful buildup of suspense rather than overt horror tropes or explicit scares. Fans of thoughtful, atmospheric horror that emphasizes mood over shock will find much to appreciate.

Overall, “The Staircase in the Woods” is a compelling, haunting addition to Chuck Wendig’s oeuvre, reinforcing his place as a significant voice in contemporary horror fiction. It is a recommended read, especially for those who enjoy unsettling, slow-burn narratives that challenge as much as they entertain.

A new Chuck Wendig book is always a welcome sight. This one is called The Staircase in the Woods. It’s a novel of supernatural terror packed with emotional depth, if that’s your sort of thing. It’s got a Losers Club meets House of Leaves feel to it.

A quick synopsis: Twenty years ago, five teens found a strange, freestanding staircase in the woods that seemed to lead to nowhere. When Matty climbed it, he vanished. The staircase disappeared too, until it rematerialized two decades later. With its return, Nick, still haunted by the past, calls the group back together to face what really happened.

The staircase is menacing but the real horror involves a house with no exits and rooms that reshape themselves into personalized hellscapes.

Staircase is a fast read that’s surprisingly short for Chuck Wendig at “only” 400 pages. Recommended.

This book hit all of the points for me. I love a story where kids make horrible choices and then those choices come back to bite them in the ass as adults. I thought this story was going to revolve around faeries for the first bit because of the structure in the middle of nowhere, but it definitely gave me a run for my money! I highly recommend this one to anyone who loves to have their mind blown in a terrifying way!

I really tried to get into this one. I know this is a super popular author so my feelings may be in the minority here but I just couldn't connect with the characters and the plot was a little too slow-burn in the beginning and didn't really hook me in.

This was such a wild, eerie ride - and I loved every minute of it. Chuck Wendig has a way of writing that’s both creepy and beautiful, and this book is no exception. The premise is instantly unsettling (a staircase in the middle of the woods? that's a no from me), but it’s the slow build and emotional depth that really got me.

There’s horror, yes, but also grief, memory, and the weight of the past woven in. The characters felt real, flawed, and relatable, which made everything hit harder when the weirdness ramped up. Wendig manages to keep the tension high while also pulling at your heartstrings. Totally recommend if you're into horror with substance and a touch of the uncanny.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!