Five teenagers find a mysterious staircase in the woods seemingly leading to nowhere. One of their friends walks up but never makes it back down.

The plot was intriguing and had me hooked from the first page. I loved the dynamics between the various friends and their character development throughout. This story reminded me a lot of Stephen King’s IT with the multiple timelines, horror elements, and the characters having to face their demons on their journeys.

Thanks to Net Galley and Random House Workds for an ARC of this book!

Hmmm. I love Chuck ‘Apple Snacks’ Wendig…but this just didn’t get me fired up like BRO did. Were there scares? Was there gore? Sure, yes. That said, it felt like we tried to explore all, and yet completely left chunks of central metaphor out. I found myself trying to force my hands to pick up this book.

It’s not bad by any means, Wendig writes horror with such beauty, it just seems like all the elements of the story didn’t quite ‘click.’

At least for me, and my humble little bibliophile brain—I needed more and less at the same time? Does that make sense?

Thank you Random House and Del Rey for this ARC!

2.5 stars rounded to 3 ⭐️⭐️⭐️.

I couldn't get past the overblown prose and the story didn't grip me. I struggled to finish it. I don't think I'm interested in reading anything else by the writer.

This book gives you the best of both worlds. The classic horror gang set up, where a group of kids traumatized by an unknown/tragic event return decades later to face it again. Wendig is a master of atmosphere and tension. However, in the vein of Stephen King, he can also be very wordy where it is not needed. Tiny details that serve no purpose but filler can sometimes drag on. But for its missteps, this book definitely serves up dark, tense, emotional and disturbing in a great novel package.

Thank you for the opportunity to preview The staircase in the woods. Chuck Wendig is a master storyteller and horror and horror is his passion. It truly shows in his work and this book will scare you for sure!
A group of young high schoolers find their way into the woods. They find themselves seeing something they are not sure they believe they are seeing. A staircase.
One of them disappeared this day and the group is shaken to the core.
But what comes next haunts them all and what comes next will change their lives forever. Literally! What a book. Scary and terrifying. Another great read. Wendig is on his game in his new book.
4 stars

Never climb a staircase in the woods - that's the moral of this really creepy horror story. The story begins with a tight group of five friends going through their high school angst, while trying to fit in, when the golden boy of the group disappears, never to be seen again. Their spooky reunion years later is the rest of the story. I really enjoyed the bizarre unfolding of the mysterious world they found themselves in, although I didn't understand much of the gaming tech end of things. I ripped right through this one.

Thanks to Net Galley and the author for an ARC to read and review.

The Staircase in the Woods by Chuck Wendig was obtained directly from the publisher and I chose to review it. I have read many of Chucks works in the past and he continually tells a good tale. This book, about the stairs in the wood phenomenon, which i had never heard of but I had indeed seen such steps, generally from locations where a house had previously stood. Childhood friends happen upon one of these stair way and mayhem commences. The book was kind of long and I found myself skimming while reading this on a plane ride, skimming over long drawn out descriptions and conversations. If you like Chuck or atmospheric slow burn type books, give this book a read.

3.5 rounded to 4 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for allowing me to read an ARC of this book. This is a fantastic book! I love the idea of the staircase and where it leads to; it is unique and creative. It creeped me out in such a good way. This is the first book I've read by this author but I'm definitely going to check out more of his books!

Chuck Wendig has a talent for weaving horror with emotional depth, and The Staircase In The Woods is no exception. At first glance, the novel sets up what seems like a classic horror premise; a group of childhood friends, long estranged, come together as adults to fix a mistake they made years ago (One of my absolute favorite tropes) But Wendig takes this familiar setup and transforms it into something far more profound: a haunting meditation on friendship, regret and the inescapable grip of the past.

From the very first page, the atmosphere is thick with unease. The titular staircase (which, I didn't know was a phenomenon, really creepy) is both an eerie mystery, drawing the characters, and the reader, deeper into its secrets. Wendig's writing is immersive and cinematic, painting vivid scenes that feel both nostalgic and menacing. There's a creeping dread that lingers, not just from the supernatural elements, but from the weight of the characters' past choices.

The horror elements are classic yet fresh. Wendig knows how to build suspense, balancing unsettling imagery with psychological depth. The story delivers it scares but more than that, it lingers in the mind, forcing readers to reflect on what truly haunts us: is it the unknown lurking in the woods, or the regrets we carry with us.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. I thoroughly enjoyed this gripping, eerie and deeply introspective story, and I can't wait to see what Chuck Wendig writes next.

Liminal, emotional, raw, and strange. Chuck Wendig tangles us within a strange horror in the woods that puts us betwixt and between the worlds. We are immersed in the human emotional condition and what happens when finally having to confront old buried emotions. A group of friends watch their friend climb a mysterious staircase in the woods and then that friend disappears and moments later the staircase also vanishes. This moment will haunt them all their lives. A second chance appears 20 years later where they might be able to redeem themselves. Do they take it? What happens? A truly eerie and horrifying journey to save a friend where they will also have to save each other as well.

An emotional rollercoaster of love, self-hate, self-harm, self-doubt, personal insecurities, what friendship means, and so much more. Dark and disturbing in all the right places.

This is one of those captivating books that stays in your mind for a while after reading it. I could not put this down and was sucked in until the end.

In The Staircase in the Woods, five high school friends go into the woods, find a staircase, and come out one short. Fast forward twenty years, and another staircase has appeared. Reunited, the four remaining friends strike onwards and upwards to find their missing piece and solve the mysteries beyond the staircase.

I went into this book desperately wanting to love it. And it’s clear that a whole lot of people have enjoyed it. But, alas. It was not meant to be for me and The Staircase in the Woods.

The pacing in this book left me hanging at every possible turn. This book clocks in at 400 pages and it really needed better direction to keep it flowing and interesting. Every time the story seemed to be picking up, we were flung into a different scene entirely. It jumped from the adult timeline, back several decades to high school, to a pages-long recap of how one character found God, to a few political rants, to the history of the characters’ pact that they all insist on calling The Covenant even decades after their last meaningful conversation.

And oh boy, the characters. From the jump, there is no way I bought that these kids would have ever willingly shared oxygen with one another, much less formed such a strong bond that they would literally do anything for one another (except, you know, the whole climb the original staircase thing). Matty is the star athlete, the lead in the school play, the straight A student, Nick seems to just want to get drunk and cause a ruckus, Lauren/Lore and Owen are firmly in the nerd category, and Hamish is there to… get bullied at school and have his weight and size commented on every time he’s on the page. I’m sorry, it’s the 90s, there is no way that this group of teenagers is going into the woods together to have a little weekend vacation. And, to make this group somehow more insufferable, of course half of the male characters wanted to be with the one lone female presenting character (and although we do learn later on that Lauren/Lore uses she/they pronouns, she is only ever referred to as ‘she’). That is exactly what I signed up for in a book that promised me a staircase in the woods. Stop making out and go climb some steps already.

The horror elements in this book are more about gruesome trauma than anything else. As the characters explore what awaits them at the top of the staircase, they wander through seemingly endless rooms that are filled with the seemingly endless and terrible demises of other people. Murder, suicide, disease, on, and on, and on we go. After five or six of these death rooms, I really just wanted them to find the exit door already. Or the exit staircase, whatever.

Given all of this, I had hoped that maybe the writing would be able to save this book for me. But then one of the full grown, 40-something year old man thought to himself “senpai noticed me” and I wanted to throw myself out the window to get away from my Kindle.

Overall, this was just not for me, but it’s clearly working for other readers so it must be doing something right that didn’t translate for me. Thank you to Del Rey and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

Definitely a scary read. Who knew there were staircases in the woods?? One friend went up the stairs years ago and never came back. Now it’s back and they all go to try to find out where he went. What happened next is SCARY!

I am not a horror reader but I am a Chuck Wendig reader. I read an arc for Black River Orchard and I was hooked. When I saw this pop up on NetGalley, I couldn’t stop myself!! This was creepy as hell, and was gross at times (but what do you expect from horror?!). The characters were complex and not easily likeable, but I was definitely able to root for them, I wish we got more information on what happened at the end. I was dying to get confirmation one way or another (leaving this intentionally vague so there are no spoilers). The only thing I didn’t like was the explanation of how the house came to be. It just felt too…specific? Like, that situation had to have occurred prior to that one house, so making that the explanation just felt too hand wavey to me. I would’ve preferred something more fantastical, even. Like I’m happy to suspend my disbelief for fantasy, but suspending my disbelief for something trying to be rooted in reality like this was just not working for me. Anyway. The rest of it, it was clear how powerful a writer Wendig is. Even the names of the chapters delighted me!! And who has any right being delighted when reading horror?! He’s just that good.

4/5 stars

Five friends in high school make an oath which later gets put to the test when they go for a camping trip and find a staircase in the middle of the woods. One of them is curious enough to walk up that staircase and never returns, leading to the staircase disappearing. In twenty years, the staircase reappears and the group unites to try to find their lost friend.

This reminded me so much of Stephen King's It. A group of friends make a pact and are tied together for life, a tragedy strikes, and then one of them calls the rest back many years later to finish what was started. Even though The Staircase in the Woods reminded me of It, it still had its own mystery and unique twists.

I loved the diversity in each character's personality and how we got to see each of their struggles. This book really emphasized their internal struggles and forced the friends to face them head on. That being said, this book does contain mental illnesses and the struggles that arise within those illnesses. Please check the trigger warnings, as always, if that type of thing bothers you. There is some sensitive content.

The atmosphere in this book was great. It was creepy and mysterious. I enjoyed the writing too. The ending was maybe a little bit too rushed but besides that, it was a pretty good read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc. All thoughts are my own.

TW: self harm, suicide, blood, murder, violence, child abuse, body horror, gore, suicidal thoughts, physical abuse, suicide attempt, child death, injury detail, mental illness, rape, death

I have never read a Chuck Wendig book before. THE staircase in the Woods was very good. It had a few twists and turns. Chuck Wendig keeps you guessing. He could continue this book into a series. I would continue reading his books.

The atmospheric writing immediately pulls you into a world where the lines between reality and folklore blur in unsettling ways. The characters are compelling, and the eerie mystery surrounding the staircase keeps the tension high throughout.

I'm obsessed with mysteries, especially when it comes to weird things like random staircases in the woods. I watched a video about it by Stephanie Harlow a couple of years ago on YouTube and I think that's what initially drew me to this novel and request it - that and also loving most novels Chuck Wendig writes.

This story is told from the different perspectives of four friends who's other friend disappeared up one of these staircases years ago, when they were just teenagers. When they all come together to find the staircase and find their friend, they do so because of their "covenant", a kind of vow they made to each other years ago which bound them together as teenagers. What I liked about these perspectives, is that none of the characters were particularly likeable; they are all flawed and all full of their own traumas and history.

Everything which unfolds once they ascend the stairs and enter "the House" is eerie, creepy and completely addictive to read. There's a kind of House of Leaves unease and a cosmic unrealness which just kept me hooked. But more than the horrors, it was about getting lost and finding yourself, about unhealed and healing trauma, about family and connections and what connects and sometimes disconnects people in the first place.

I can't recommend this novel enough. I just loved where it went and loved the unloveable characters and found it unexpectedly moving in the end. One of my faves so far of the year.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Chuck Wendig put together a story that examines the heights of friendship and the seemingly eternal depths of grief.

Imagine finding a way out only to get locked in....

I enjoyed it very much. There's creep, there's heart.....sometimes there's a creeping heart.

You should read it

A whole lot of horror and darkness with a few glimpses of hope and humor mixed in. A stairway found in the middle of the woods, once when they were teenagers and found again as adults. It leads them to a house of horrors, in which every room is a new memory of something bad that happened, and it tries to take them over. I love the short chapters that for me made it easy to read despite the dark tone of the book.
The book does start out a bit slow, and I also wish we had seen more of the multiple POVs (although I know that can become a bit much. But I would have loved even a few chapters focused on Nick since he found the staircase first, was taken over, and led them all back there because of the house.)
This book has a lot of triggers, although many aren't graphic and just mentioned in passing. But this is definitely not going to be a book for everyone because of them. Like all of my tags probably aren't even all the things that are mentioned in the book.