This was another really good story by this author, this one leaned more into the horror genre, but overall very good. A group of close friends decide to go camping in the woods, something they have done frequently usually to drink, do drugs get busy that sorta thing. Two of them wander off, Matt and Lauren (Lore), he wants them to be bf/gf, she's undecided and wants them to drop acid, he doesn't want to and takes off when she offers. She catches up to him at the campsite where he sees a staircase in the woods and decides to take the steps up, yeah so not a good idea, cause he doesn't come back down. Several years go by and of course the remaining friends have moved on, lost touch, they were never charged but many people thought they had something to do with Matt's disappearance. Then one of them decides they need to get together, he's dying and wants them to go for one last camping trip in the woods, so of course they all agree and meet up to go on this trip. That's when things go very sideways. The story goes back and covers the backstory for each person, not all of them have had a nice life, all of which is what they experience for the latter half of the book Going into detail would be a spoiler, but I would highly recommend, a very good and fast read. Thanks to #Netgalley and #Del Ray for the ARC

The Staircase in the Woods by Chuck Wendig is the creepiest book I've read in a while (creepy in a good way)!
A friend group made up of 5 teenagers head to the woods for a weekend of camping to escape their issues at home.
But only 4 of them return after one of them climbs a staircase in the woods and jumps off. The teen and the staircase both disappear without a trace.
Years later, the 4 friends are brought back together and come across another staircase in the woods. This time they all decide to go up the stairs to try and find their missing friend and fulfill their pact to each other.
They end up lost in an unknown place that's ever changing and filled with horrors. Here they learn more about them selves and each other by having no choice but to face their trauma head on.

The ending felt a bit like a cliff hanger. The characters did achieve what they set out to do, but I was left with even more questions.
At times, it felt like the author was trying to tie a deeper meaning through out the book but it sometimes fell short for me. I couldn't quite grasp it and weave it together until I read the authors note. I did like the story alot and thought it was very unique. It had my stomach in knots and I had to sometimes put the book down when reading at night!

I had high hopes for this book. The story sounds intriguing and the reviews were good but i couldnt get into this. Some might like it but it wasnt for me.

Another knock out hit by Chuck Wendig.
With the authors books, I always learn something. Black Orchid was the many types of apples and people trying to save them. This book, it was about staircases in the woods from houses no longer there.

The author weaves a great tale of growing up, the pains of childhood, the injuries that our parents inflict upon children, and trying to reconnect with childhood friends.
All the while that is going on, the reader must come face to face with an evil house. The Heart is where the Home is, after all.

This is a spellbinding tale that will leave the reader wondering how many staircases are in the woods and where doe the stairs lead?

A brilliant psychological horror book that is a masterful tale. I highly recommend.

Very good book. Very atmospheric. I really liked the general plot, characters were great, and just was creepy but fun.

This is my book of the year. Absolutely amazing from beginning to end without a lull. An incredible story of supernatural houses, friendship., the horror of humananity and the power of love. 10/10

Chuck Wendig has a way with words I'm both envious of and enamored by. This epic story of friendship, loss, and the hardships we choose to face alone (when we shouldn't) is heartbreaking, terrifying, and exactly the kind of book we need.

This kind of sucked? I was disappointed as I’d heard so many good things about Chuck Wendig’s writing, and I was intrigued by the idea of adapting a Reddit horror concept into a book, but the execution just left so much to be desired. The constant game comparisons in the book ended up very apt- it really felt like one of those indie games with bad graphics you buy on steam hoping for something truly original and scary but ending up with a bunch of bad horror cliches and some stomach turning imagery that, while gross, isn’t really impactful- just shocking for a moment.

Maybe his other books are better.

Review: "An epic read. Hooks you from the very beginning and has you feverishly turning pages until the end. Chuck Wendig's best work yet."

Still some typos to be fixed but the storyline itself was addictive and well-paced. Fans of Stephen King's IT will adore this book. Bravo, Chuck!

This book was FANTASTIC!!! Thanks to #randomhouseworlds and #netgalley for letting me review #thestaircaseinthewoods. What a great concept. The writing style reminded me a lot of Stephen King and it was a definite page turner that kept me up way past my bedtime. Highly recommend this book !

***Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this upcoming book***
An incredibly unique take on the "friends band together to take on an evil entity" sub-genre of horror books. This is the first Chuck Wendig book that I have read since the Aftermath trilogy of Star Wars books, which I remember enjoying at the time. His writing style is easily accessible, the characters are fleshed out and feel like real people and the situation they are placed in is truly unique and scary.

This one ends on a mild cliffhanger which makes me wonder if the author plans on a sequel somewhere down the road. It wasn’t perfect, but I really enjoyed this one and will definitely be seeking out the author’s other works in the near future. Give it a read!!

Thank you to netgalley and editors for allowing me to read this as an arc. This book was so disturbing and scary, relentless and thrilling. Written and told in a way that made you want to keep reading to see what would happen next only to find that it’s never what you’re expecting it to be. Not even a little.

A group of friends–Owen, Lore, Hamish, and Nick–find a strange staircase in the middle of the woods. The encounter changes their lives forever. Many years later, they get together and have to reckon with the trauma of what transpired.

I really enjoyed this book. The characters were interesting and the setup unique. The description of the house reminded me a lot of the DVD cover of Cabin in the Woods, and that's a good thing.

I'm not much of a gamer, so a lot of the gaming references were lost on me. I was able to infer most of what they were describing, though. Or at least I think I was.

Chuck Wendig is one of those authors who can write anything. Any premise, any idea, and he'll turn it into a writing concept. A true talent!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!

The title is eerie enough on its own, reminiscent of tales found within the realms of creepypasta or fervently debated in paranormal discussions on reddit, something about a random staircase just existing in the middle of the woods is creepy right? but far from just a scary story (which it really is) Wendig explores heavy topics such as childhood trauma and finding one's true self in this smart powerhouse of a novel that is deceptively deep, delving into the importance of friendship, an introspective and almost carthartic experience, this time there's no weird apples.

This had echoes of early King, a group of adults reconnect to face something they have dreaded since childhood? Sound familiar? This felt like a wonderful mash up of IT and Stranger Things, with a lil bit of Hellraiser. If you're like me maybe you would anticipate some sort of grand rediscovery of their former camaraderie however, what unfolds instead is pure nightmare fodder, some of the imagery I haven't stopped thinking about. As they try to unravel the mysterious disappearance of their best friend who vanished on the strange staircase in the woods when they were younger, they face a haunted house built of their own memories, emotions and trauma. This is up there with some of my favourite reads this year!

This was a great 5 star read for me. I love the concept of it, the backroom-like world it created. The characters are thought out, and scenes are described so well I felt like I was living it it with them. I haven't read anything by this author before but will be picking up more by him in the future! Again, I love this book!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

The Staircase in the Woods centers around a group of friends who’ve known each other since high school. During a camping trip as teens, they find a staircase in the woods. One of the friends goes up the staircase and vanishes, never seen again. Years later, the remaining four friends reunite to try and find out what happened to their friend all those years ago.

This staircase very much reminds me of Stephen King’s “It” because it has some very similar tropes. However I quite enjoyed the setting and vibe of this book. As someone who read a lot of the old reddit stories about staircases in the woods, this was such a fun take on those stories, it’s eerie and creepy but also a coming of age story. This story is themed around trauma, loneliness, love, and forgiveness.

4⭐️

The Staircase in the Woods is an incredibly unique story that blends the fundamental roots of friendship with the mysterious phenomena of free standing staircases found deep in the woods. Each character presented in the story has relatable problems that can easily be applied to the average person's life. The story follows a group of 4 friends on their search for their friend who has been missing for many years.

I found this story to be original and creative. As someone who enjoys the darker psychological side of things, I found myself genuinely disturbed with some of the images portrayed in this book. Which is exactly what I look for when reading a thriller/mystery/horror novel. I enjoyed the story and was captivated, I needed to know how it would end. However, the ending was not what I expected, and I am craving a full ending to this story.

In all, I am giving this book 4 stars. As I mentioned before, the creativity and originality that Wendig put into this book is evident though characterization and the story line. I am thoroughly impressed with the discomfort and sheer horror it made me feel.

I was preapproved for this ARC, which is the first time this has ever happened. And I’m so glad. This was amazing. I was completely sucked into the story of these five friends, and I felt like I really got to know them. The story in itself is creepy and mysterious. The writing is phenomenal. This was a tense read and I was enamored with figuring out WHAT was going on. Also, I’ve always been obsessed with those random staircases people find in the woods. To have someone take that and make horror from it was absolutely phenomenal and scratched an itch I didn’t know I had.

This will be out in April of 2025. I can’t recommend it more highly. Put it on your list!

3.5 ⭐️

First, thank you to Random House Worlds/Del Rey publishing, Chuck Wendig, and NetGalley for allowing me to preview this title in advance of its release date of April 29, 2025 in exchange for an honest review.

This book is about a group of friends that find themselves in a strange, ever changing house when they go after a friend that went up a staircase in the woods and disappeared. The book takes place mostly in the present but does spend some time in the 1990s explaining how the group came to be friends, and how/why their friend climbed the mysterious staircase. While this is 3rd person narrative, it jumps viewpoints constantly which wasn't jarring, but added to the story by giving insight into all character thoughts and feelings.

The plot of this book was very interesting, but I do feel that it dragged on in parts. For example, the ever changing house became tedious after awhile. The main house plot point of "it changes, it's terrible, and it can change into something personal" was established early on but the author had them go into many different rooms, all having the same gist. And, to be honest, the whole house as the bad guy was a bit hard to swallow. I was interested in the book leading up to the disappearances and highly invested once they were in the house. Then them getting out seemed to drag and I found myself just wanted to get to the end. That being said, that characters had wonderful character development and they were diverse enough in the personalities that they were interesting to follow.

I did not hate this book or feel that it was a waste of my time, but I did not overly love it either.

This is a book full of things I want to gush about, deserving of praise I’d love to heap upon it. Yet part of the reason I want to, a big part of the reason, is because the book wasn’t what I expected. It moved in ways I’d have never guessed when I picked it up. Part of the reason I enjoyed this book so much was because it managed to surprise me like that. So I need to watch what I say, I think, to make sure reading this review doesn’t make it too easy for anyone else to see what’s coming.

But there are things that are safe enough for me to go over, I think. This book leans into the horror trope of a group of friends coming back together to confront something that happened during their childhood. I think I’m becoming something of a sucker for that trope, the mixture of nostalgia and terror and ties that bind, and this book does it well. It also does a wonderful job of keeping a low-grade creepiness running throughout the book, picking its moment to ratchet up the unease in key moments. The pacing of it, the lulls and peaks, is wonderfully done and keeps you dialed in throughout the entire story.

But overall, like I said earlier, I can’t really say too much about it here. It’d be too easy to clue you in on things that I think most readers would prefer to discover themselves. So if this book has caught your eye, if you think you’ll enjoy it…you’re probably right. And you owe it to yourself, I think, to find that out for yourself. Go on, set foot on that staircase…see what awaits you at the top.