The Staircase in the Woods

It is difficult for me to find good stories, I love horror, specifically sci-fi horror and liminal horror. This book was recommended to me by AI after I discussed the kind of books I enjoy reading, and man it scored 100% on this one. Thank you Chuck Wendig for an amazing journey, can't wait to read more of your work!

What would you do if you were out in the woods with your friends and came upon a staircase that went nowhere? Would you climb up and down it, or would you steer clear? If you answered the first question, I present to you Chuck Wendig's THE STAIRCASE IN THE WOODS. After finishing it, you most definitely will change your mind.

The one thing I will take away from THE STAIRCASE IN THE WOODS is that it freaked me out. It is the first book in at least a decade, if not more, where I was so creeped out that I couldn't sleep with my back facing out or any body part hanging out above my duvet. I had nightmares every single night I was reading it. If you measure how good a horror story is by how scared you are, then THE STAIRCASE IN THE WOODS ranks up there among the best.

I wish I could say more, but the entire premise of the story hinges on what, if anything, is at the top of those mysterious stairs. And to share that ruins not only the surprise but also the tone of the story. I didn't know what to expect, and I feel the story has a greater impact when you go in blind.

What I can say with confidence is that THE STAIRCASE IN THE WOODS is intense, beyond scary, gory, and yet very thoughtful. Mr. Wendig takes the reader on the same journey as his characters, so you also get the same opportunities to reflect on your past and on your definition of what constitutes a home versus an abode or house. It is unlike anything I have previously read, and it was so good that I eagerly look forward to whatever Mr. Wendig publishes next.

Terrific haunted "house" story. The metaphysics were surprisingly specific, but didn't disappoint (as is usual once the weird starts getting explained).

The book ends with a very satisfying mood, and I'd advise not reading Wendig's acknowledgements and afterward as soon as you finish the story. It short-circuits that lingering effect.

3.5 stars rounded up. The premise is fantastic, straight from r/nosleep. The direction it went isn't one I would have picked, but was still terrifying and vaguely House of Leaves. I think it was a little on the long side, and the horrors were blunt and on the nose, no metaphors here. Still a good scary time.

A haunting blend of mystery and supernatural suspense, The Staircase in the Woods follows five friends bound by an old oath and a shared trauma. When a bizarre staircase appears in the forest—and one of them vanishes—it changes their lives forever. Twenty years later, the staircase returns, and so does the past. Atmospheric and emotionally tense, this novel explores friendship, loss, and the eerie unknown.

Real Rating: 4.25* of five

The Publisher Says: A group of friends investigates the mystery of a strange staircase in the woods in this mesmerizing horror novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Accidents.

Five high school friends are bonded by an oath to protect one another no matter what.


Then, on a camping trip in the middle of the forest, they find something a mysterious staircase to nowhere.

One friend walks up—and never comes back down. Then the staircase disappears.


Twenty years later, the staircase has reappeared. Now the group returns to find the lost boy—and what lies beyond the staircase in the woods. . . .

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: As paranormal horror stories go, this is a very competent and well-strung-together example. As a character study of how the bonds of found family are tested, and how they can fail, it's a top-flight effort.

I'm pretty sure most of us have experienced the intense young-adult friend group phenomenon. For lots of people it's their big moment of bonding, forming a found family that either supplants entirely or enhances greatly their family of origin. In this telling of that family story you're treated to the bonus intensity of a tragedy befalling the scooby-group in such an incredible way that no one not there could possibly be able to credit the details. All the remainders are saddled forever after with quiet, or not so quiet, blame for the disappearance.

At the midpoint of their lives, after this judgment has weighed on them in ways they have just turned into ordinary background—as survivors of trauma often do in order to live "normal" lives—the trauma demands revisiting, as traumas so very, very often do. They are drawn together by a death foretold, a cancer diagnosis for one of them, though this will give way to their adolescent trauma's reappearance: here's a...the?...staircase, now what? Will you climb it? Will you all climb it, all together, in small groups, singly?

And here's where I go sibylline. The staircase is where we kick off our paranormal experience of reading, and that's a place I don't have the skills to navigate without spoilering SOMEone, who will then whine at me and elicit my accustomed "oh grow up" response, and then mods will get involved and yet another woman will have her knife ever-ready to stab at me.

But I digress.

The experience of paranormality isn't ever convincingly real to me. It's always just that one frame too slow or too fast, or each in turn, for my mental movie not to pop a sprocket. Meanings can be expressed, however, that are not easily evoked by other more "realistic" (silly word to use about fiction, if we're at all honest) settings/vocabularies/characterizations. That is so powerfully the case in this story that I am happy to leave the spoiler veil in place. The scooby-group does its deeply, unbreakably bonded thing, ie splinter. The story does a cracking job of making these self-centered kids grown into flawed and bone-deep ordinary adults relatable, if never really (for me anyway) likable people. I will say that if you can read this story without saying at least once, "that's exactly what X would do," then you're most likely X.

Don't kid yourself, though, it's a horror novel. Not a splatterpunk-y one, and nowhere is violence slathered with prurient, pornographic adjectival drool. But violence and intense conflict there is in here. In that way it feels to me as cathartic as less horror-themed and non-paranormal stories can't be...when done as well as this, the great selling point for horror is its ability to slide right around those improbability filters we all carry. Not since The X Files, whose story-sprockets matched mine superbly, has one done it so successfully as the staircases of the title for me.

A rare over-4-star rating for a horror story was thus awarded. I have not read Black River Orchard, with which the present volume seems to be linked (I can only assume thematically, since the settings are different), but will now add it to my grotesquely enormous list of things to be read.

Apparently I believe I'll live past 100, based on TBR size.

The Staircase in the Woods is Chuck Wendig's new novel.

Have any of you heard about stairs in forests? Stairs that aren’t meant to be there? I have read some, but I went digging a little bit further this time. And then I opened Wendig’s book. Take a second to just stop and have a look at the cover….

Five high school kids go to party out in the forest. 5 went in and four came out. One minute he was there and next he was gone….. and so were the stairs. They’re adults now and reluctantly gather for this 20th anniversary of his disappearance - back where it started. In the forest…

The five personalities are quite different from each other. Wendig has done a great job creating each of them. He portrays the good, the bad and the ugly of each one of them. Wendig’s imagining of what’s behind the door is downright scary. Very.

Summary? Lean on Me meets Stranger Things.

Gotta say, I am never disappointed by a Chuck Wendig horror/suspense novel. I’ve been looking forward to reading this one since I was approved for it, but there were a few books ahead of it! I loved it.

While the novel focuses on a group of five characters, the story is told from the points of view of only two of the five.

Lore is a game designer/writer and the only female in the group. She’s successful and likes to spend the rewards of her success. Lore struggles with her mental health. She won’t rely on anyone to help her out. She is what she is.

Owen is probably the least likely to belong to this group. He’s more of an introvert and reckless really isn’t in his vocabulary. At one time, Lore was his best friend. They planned to become game designers together. But something happened along the way, and now he floats from job to job just to stay alive.

Rounding out the group are Hamish, the hippie of the group; Matty, the overachiever; and Nick, the reckless one.

Back in high school the five took a camping trip. A staircase appeared out of nowhere in the woods. Stoned, drunk, and foolhardy, one of them ascends the staircase and disappears. For the next twenty years the remaining four go their separate ways. Until one of them brings the group back together, at a new staircase. It’s time to try to find their friend.

Truly a horrifying yet epic story about the bonds of friendship and what you are willing to sacrifice. The way this one ended makes me wonder if there is a follow up to this story. I hope there is, because I am dying to know what comes next.

If you’re a fan of contemporary horror, you’ve probably heard Chuck Wendig’s name. He’s written sweeping, post-apocalyptic horror like The Wanderers, and more intimate, family focused horror, like in The Book of Accidents. The Staircase in the Woods is another tightly focused, intimate story that revolves around a group of high school friends. One night in the woods they discover a strange staircase, apparently leading to nothing. Despite the oddness and the bad vibe, one of them climbs to the top, and disappears along with the staircase.

20 years later the remaining friends have grown apart and lost touch. They’re all scarred in some way, broken by the shared trauma and guilt of what happened that night. They reunite for one last time, only for the staircase to reappear. What would you do? Would you go into the unknown and try to rescue your friend, or would you run screaming?

It’s a trope to be sure – super close childhood friends experience a shared supernatural event, reunite as adults and try to put things right. I really love it though, and the blend of horror and coming-home story. This also has the two-timeline perspective with the narrative alternating between timelines so we get the tension building simultaneously in both. Sometimes the pacing is off a bit and doesn’t juggle the two quite perfectly, but overall it was hard to put down.

It's all about found family and a deep abiding friendship, the power of love vs the power of trauma. How the past can dig its claws into you but at some point, you need to find a way to let it go or it’ll pull you down into the void screaming. Also, super creepy psychological haunting! Who doesn’t love that? It’s a great spooky read, especially if you’re a fan of Wendig’s prior books.

The Staircase in the Woods is coming out April 29, and thank you NetGalley and Random House/Del Ray for the early copy in exchange for my review!

So having only read two of Mr. Wendig's books, Wanderers and Wayward, I felt it was time to dip into his scarier looking stories and The Staircase in the Woods did not disappoint. This tale covers childhood traumas, the friends you make growing up and overcoming the obstacles that can separate you from those you love.
I found that the characters were definitely all flawed in some way which made it hard to really cheer for anyone in particular. But what I did find engaging is how they managed to support each other through this horrific nightmare that they find at the top of the staircase.
I gave it only 4 since I can't do 4.5 because I wasn't particularly keen on how it ended but all in all, I loved the book.

In 1998, four loser kids and one golden boy were best friends—they called the bond between them the Covenant. But one night, drinking and doing drugs out in the woods, they came across a staircase standing alone in the woods, and the golden boy climbed it and disappeared, along with the staircase. Decades later, the one who stayed in their town calls the rest of them back, and leads them to another staircase. Trapped in an apparently unending house of horrors, can they survive and maybe find out what really happened? Effectively creepy in its use of trauma and the mundane; a few typos in the eARC.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC!

This was neat! I think at certain points it dragged a bit, the flash backs got a little over done for me, to the point where I just wanted to be back in the present. I thought the concept was really interesting, a unique take on the back rooms kind of concept. Really spooky!