As a huge fan of Black River Orchard I was excited to receive an ARC from @netgalley for The Staircase in the Woods, a novel that’s equal parts nostalgia-soaked horror and an emotional gut punch. In 1998 five friends go into the woods and stumble across a very creepypasta-esque wooden staircase. One genius (there's always one) decides to climb it. He vanishes, the staircase disappears, and their childhood friendships implode. Now fast forward a couple of decades and wouldn't you know it that staircase pops back up and the friends are dragged back to face their emotional and quite literal demons.

I think Wendig is a master at atmosphere and storytelling. In this one he toggles between "awkward teens on bikes" and "grown-ups with baggage" so smoothly it was easy to binge read this. The story is soaked in guilt and grief with just enough heart to make you care. Although walking in the woods and picking apples in the orchard are both pastimes permanently ruined for me.

The pacing meanders at times, occasionally wandering off and potentially getting lost in the woods, but there’s a steady hum of unease enough to make you feel queasy and keep turning pages. If you love slow-burn explorations of trauma and friendship with a quietly sinister edge (think King and Malfi) then this will deliver the goods, if you’re brave enough to climb the stairs.

Thank you to Netgalley for sending me an ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts. I rate this 3.75 stars (I wasn't a fan of the ending)

I don’t know if The Staircase in the Woods was supposed to be suspenseful, but for me it was just slow. Painfully slow. Whole chapters went by where nothing seemed to happen, and instead of being creeped out or hooked, I was yawning and checking the page count.

By the time anything resembling momentum showed up, I’d already stopped caring. The concept sounded cool, but the execution felt like trudging through mud. Definitely not for me.

Absolutely loved this book!! Made me feel disoriented as I physically gasped my way through its pages. It gave House of Leaves vibes which is always very very welcome!

This was my second Chuck Wendig novel, after I tore through The Books of Accidents in one frantic, page-turning weekend earlier this year.

The Staircase in the Woods didn't quite fulfil the promise of that earlier novel but is still a fine read.

Owen, Nick, Hamish and Lore are called back together for a reunion with their estranged childhood friends, but it soon transpires that one member of the group has an ulterior motive. Their group of 4 used to be 5, and Nick wants to go back to the place where they lost Matty one weekend in the woods as teenagers. The now-adult characters deal with leftover resentments and old lies from their teenage years as sworn friends (by the power of an agreement known as "The Covenant"). Soon they have a lot more to divide them as they find out where the mysterious staircase to nowhere in the woods leads.

The plot of this book recalls It and Wendig knows it - there's a sly nod in the early chapters to "a clown-red balloon" to tell us he knows exactly what he's doing: Wending knows contemporary horror and this is far from his first rodeo. There's also a very Stranger Things-feel to the events of the book (perhaps unsurprisingly, since Stranger Things has been described as the best Stephen King story never written by ... well, Stephen King). There's also a band of friends battling their own inner demons and their fears in the form of the supernatural, coupled with the obligatory nostalgia for the better times of childhood and teenage years. In all fairness, the similarities pretty much end there.

Video game players and tabletop RPG fans will also find much to love here. Wendig's contemporary references do start to grate: for me, namedropping things like Minecraft and Lego took me a little away from the horror at times. The ending is strong too and refuses the overly simplistic wrap-up that I often feared was coming whilst reading.

Short tense chapters and mystery will keep you turning the pages of this one.

Since reading this book and looking at other reviews, I have seen some allegations that parts of the story have been heavily inspired (to be polite) by Creepypastas and/or stories from r/nosleep. I'm not familiar with these so can't comment either way, but I thought this was an interesting exploration of the urban legend of the eponymous staircase in the woods.

This was the perfect palette cleanser for me.
It gave stranger things vibes at times but much darker and sinister.
The writing is beautifully disgusting and thought provoking.
I enjoyed the mystery element and the references to gamining was really interesting
Solid horror book!

Eerie, atmospheric and strange, Chuck Wendig's latest novel is a deep delve into the power of friendship and the lengths people will go to to protect the ones they love.

This book is WILD! It started off pretty innocuous but soon developed into a grotesque and scary tale of things that go bump in the night.
I squirmed, I cringed, and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing how the story would unfold.
It would have easily been a 5 star read, but the end for me just felt disappointing after all the anguish throughout the rest or the book.

If you love a good horror novel with twists and turns aplenty, give this book a go!

Five high school friends go camping in the woods where they find a mysterious staircase that seems to lead nowhere. One friend walks up and doesn't come back down, and the staircase disappears. Twenty years later the staircase is back and the remainder of the group decide to try and find their friend and unravel the mystery of the staircase in the woods.
This is my first Chuck Wendig book and if this is anything to go by it certainly won't be the last. This starts off slow as we flit between the past and present getting to know the characters but it doesn't take long before it speeds up and takes you on a wild ride. This was creepy and unsettling. This to me felt a bit like if 'It' and 'House of Leaves' had a baby we've got the childhood friends who've grown apart and join together to defeat something and an unsettling house where rooms change and they can't get out and somethings taking over their minds. This also deals with heavy childhood trauma. The chapters are short and the writing flows nicely and we go between the povs of different characters which I enjoy in this type of story. I like seeing how each character is dealing with the horrors differently. I really enjoyed this and highly recommend

A staircase that randomly appears in the wood the premise of this excellent horror from Chuck Wendig. Interesting characters that have been summoned back to their childhood town. A book that will keep you looking over your shoulder Thanks to Random House/Cornerstone and Netgalley for this review ARC.

Winding, like a staircase, is how I'd sum up this story. It goes somewhere, but it takes a while to get there and then it's over.

I struggled through the first quarter of the book. It was a slog because I didn't like the characters. They felt to contrived and I didn't care what happened to them.
What kept me going what the promise of the staircase and it was a promise well kept. The story woven through the staircase is very interesting. Dark, scary and intriguing. Getting to that point is what changed the whole book for me.

I finished the book wanting more. More about staircases and the characters aftermath.

Grab this book for a long climb, but it's worth it.

Wendig never fails to capture the magic of some of Stephen King’s earlier novels. Two creepy things: abandoned staircases and the woods. Fun characters and writing as always. A great piece of escapism!

I loved the premise and couldn't wait to read it. It started off well and I was really enjoying it, but , then it seemed to drag and I struggled to stick with it..All in all it is a good read that has a touch of Stephen king to it.

I really wanted to love The Staircase in the Woods—the concept had all the makings of a gripping, eerie tale, and I usually enjoy Chuck Wendig’s weird, dark storytelling. But this one didn’t quite land for me.

The pacing dragged through the middle, and even though the mystery of the staircase kept me curious, it felt like the payoff never quite matched the buildup. The characters didn’t feel as fleshed out as I expected—most of them seemed to exist just to move the plot along or embody a trauma, rather than feel like real people.

There were some great atmospheric moments, and I can see what Wendig was going for with the themes of grief and memory, but the emotional beats didn’t hit as hard as they should have. It wasn’t a bad book, just a frustrating one—full of potential but weighed down by its own ambition.

This book gives all the creepy vibes. So five teenage friends go and hang about in the wood to drink and get up to things teenagers shouldn’t be doing when they come across an imposing wooden staircase, just standing in the woods. One of the friends decides to climb that staircase and disappears. The other friends can’t understand what has happened and they don’t find him. They go about their lives as best they can.

After 20 years one of the friends gets them back together. They find another staircase in the woods and they embark on a scary, creepy journey they maybe wish they didn’t.

This book is about friendship, guilt, abandonment and fear. It is a gripping horror that will have you on the edge of your seat.

Many thanks to Random House UK, Del Ray and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this before release.

I've never read anything by this author before so I had no idea what to expect really, but now I for sure know that I want to read more from them! The concept of this book felt pretty reminiscent of Stephen King's It which I thought was really intriguing – it was an interesting dynamic having a group of friends who were so tight-knit in childhood come back together twenty years later to realise how much they've grown apart and become so different to one another, but now have to stick together and rely on each other for survival and to solve the mystery of their friend who went missing. I can't say much more about the plot as I really think it's best going into this one not knowing too much, but I will say that I had SUCH a great time with this; it's thrilling, shocking, a bit gory in places, and completely gripping! I really enjoyed how the plot went hand-in-hand with the character development in this book as we uncover the group members' fears, secrets and regrets. Highly recommend this one if you like tense horror!

Whoa! Wendig did it AGAIN! He is officially one of my favourite horror Authors of all time. This was a classic Wendig style novel…starts a little slow, good character and backstory build-up then WHAM! he hits you with the darkest, twistiest freaky plot imaginable.

You are hooked in then. Cancel all plans. Get food and water and power through. I loved everything about this book. Each character came to life with their individuality, flaws, pain, secrets and their own part to play in this circle of friends who one day made a pact. The Covenant. To be invoked when one needs them all.

The story flickers between times and events and it works really well for this book. I’m not going to spoil a second of the plot as it’s so freaking good and Wendig blows my mind with his imagination. Seriously, what is in this book, cheaper after chapter is pure creative talent. You’ll love it!

A staircase in the middle of the woods?

Let the bizarre begin.

I was enthralled and flicking Kindle pages so fast. The pace and energy in the book just powers you along with it. If you’ve never read a Chuck Wendig book before this is a great one to start with! I plan to read them all. This is fairly delicious, twisted and so much fantastical fun.

I liked the deep issues tackled with the characters too. All of this plays into the storyline and the final outcome. I kept getting more nuggets of surprise thrown my way. I had a few open mouthed NO WAY! moments. Brilliant book. If you love some twisted darkness and horror in your books you’ll love this. Five huge well deserved stars.

Huge thanks to Random House/Del Ray for my ARC via NetGalley.

This book gives out serious Urban Myth horror vibes!
It’s not an original concept but in this instance I don’t actually mean that in a negative way. Staircase in the Woods works with all of those fears you had at the age when you first realised that you actually like being scared witless (preferably amongst a group of friends!). Campfire scary stories, going into the reputedly creepy derelict house in your neighbourhood, video nasties, dark woods/graveyards at night - and obviously, the urban myth.
Coupled with the fact that it’s centred around a group of childhood friends who reunite 30 years after the disappearance of one of their group in a similar location. This horror gnaws away at each character’s own personal demons, which ramps the fear factor up several more notches.
If you are/were into RPG or any type of old Skool online gaming, then you’ll probably really appreciate the take in this book. The characters start to look at their predicament as a puzzle to solve - a strategy RPG. Not my era, but I appreciate what Chuck Wendig is bringing.
The horror is relentless - perhaps too relentless, which makes the book seem to drag at times. But I guess the bombardment of atrocities described does add to the feeling of a hellish cyclical nightmare, so it’s very effective in that way.
The house in the book was like the experience of reading the book - like you were stuck on some Escher-esque stairway. And towards the end, I was thinking ‘okay, I’m done now. Let me out’.
I really, really wish that this book could have had been at least 20% shorter and had some of the repetition trimmed out - then I think it would have easily been a five star book.

The Staircase in the Woods follows five protagonists, both as young adults and then as adults.

In 1998, five teenagers escape from their shitty little lives to have some fun in the woods. However, as the night progresses tragedy strikes and one of the group, Marty, goes missing.

This causes the group to split up, and as we join the group in their later years, we discover that they each ended up in their own destinys, but the shadow of the past has tainted their lives.

Called back to the place where Marty disappeared they discover the shocking truth. Matty did not die, he went to the other side of what lays on the Staircase in the Woods.

There is no doubt that The Staircase in the Woods will garner comparisons to Stephen King’s IT due to the fact that the story revolves around a group of five misfit teenagers, and there is some aspects of the story that put the reader in mind of the eponymous story. However, Wendig skillfully steers the story into a different direction.

The book revolves around both the breaking of the relationship of the five teenagers and how they come back to building their relationship through adversity. We learn about the past and how each member of the group are broken by their parents and the long lasting effects that this has on them as adults.

When we enter the world beyond the staircase, we discover that The staircase that they have discovered does not just stand in isolation, but that it leads to a house. A house full of hate, we discover that in every in every home there is heartache. At times the story can be quite bleak as we move from room to room, horror to horror as we learn the truth of the house and how it came to be.

Wendig layers the horror on with a spatula until the insidious atmosphere of the house palpably permeates from the page into the readers psyche, each room and environment steadily worse than the last.

The story does take some time to build, and much like the house, the story lays its foundations of things that happened in the past and where the group are now. However, stick with it and you will be rewarded with a rich and horror filled story.

The Staircase in the Woods by Chuck Wendig is a chilling mystery thriller with an unexpected ending.
There are so many mysteries, heart-racing moments, so many questions and unexpected turns.
I was so invested at the beginning. It was so intriguing, but around 40% in, it kind of went too stretched, it felt like we were going around, around and around, and I lost my interest. And I am not a fan of political topics, so that was annoying. At the end mystery picked up again, and it was a good twist at the end.

Twenty years ago, 5 friends (Matty, Nick, Lore, Owen and Hamish) went to the woods and just 4 (Nick, Lore, Owen and Hamish) came out. They could not explain what happened because they didn't know. All they know is Matty climbed that mysterious staircase and disappeared.
Now they are back in the woods, and a mysterious staircase is there, and this is the chance to find out what happened to Matty...

This is a really good Halloween book and will be a fantastic read for every horror thriller lover.

Thank you, NetGalley, for this copy.

I've gone back and forth between 3 and 4 stars for this book, so I think a 3.5* feels fair.

If you read horror novels, you often see writers compared to one man more than any other—'the new Stephen King' is the type of blurb you see applied to anyone and everyone, or at least it can feel that way at times. Few of those authors ever seem to really nail the feeling close childhood friends have when they reunite after spending years, decades, seemingly entire lifetimes growing apart, the type of tense and distant vibe in the group that King made me feel at times in IT. Wendig comes very close to managing that here.

A group of childhood friends find, and this won't be a surprise to anyone that has read the title, a seemingly impossible staircase in the woods. There's no sign of any house ever existing around it, and it doesn't go anywhere. When one of them decides to climb it and disappears, it becomes the crack that eventually rips apart their group and sets them on different paths in life. When they're brought back together by one of their own announcing his terminal illness diagnosis, they're forced to examine that night—and whether there is anything they can do to right the wrongs of that fateful day.

The Staircase In The Woods is an atmospheric book, quite a slow burn to begin with, before the story shifts and becomes alien and nightmarish. I went in blind, and I believe I enjoyed the story more this way, and I'd recommend others do the same, so I won't spoil anything here. Suffice to say, the group are forced to face their inner demons, their darkest secrets, their childhood traumas, and ultimately learn to become close again in order to try and save their long-lost friend—and just maybe, save themselves.

This feels like a very personal book for Wendig in many ways, not least that his interests and hobbies are prevalent throughout the book. There's a lot of metaphors and descriptions using board & video game logic, to the extent that it started taking me out of the story a little. What will be more off-putting to many readers, however, is how often politics make an appearance. Whether the character's feelings on Trump, or on sexuality and the gender binary, Wendig doesn't shy away from letting the protagonists make clear how he feels. I found it a little distracting, despite agreeing with the points made, and I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone that found King's references to Covid in Holly or Trump in Billy Summers too much, for example.

Overall I found this a strong read for much of its length, but with periods where the story felt a little directionless. The characters are all troubled and have issues in their lives, and a large part of the book is them attempting to address these, but it doesn't always make them the easiest to like spending time with. If you can get past these issues, however, you'll find a great mind-bending mystery inside, more akin to something like Kliewer's We Used To Live Here than the straightforward horror I expected going in. An interesting, but in my opinion somewhat flawed, story.

How far would you go to find a missing friend? Would you risk a leap into the unknown?

In this psychological horror novel, five high school friends go into the woods together. They find a staircase, ruined and abandoned, attached to no house and trailing off into nothing. One of them – Matty – climbs it and disappears. The rest of them go back to their lives and deal with the fallout of their missing friend. Twenty years later, having mostly lost touch due to guilt and their differences, they somehow find another staircase. This time they climb it. All of them. What they find there is nothing like they expected – a sentient house, made of ghostly murder scenes. A house that loops and changes around them, building their darkest thoughts into shapes. As they race through the labyrinth of rooms to find Matty, they must each confront who they’ve become since they lost him, and lean on their friends as they reckon with their demons.

This is a novel of self-realisation. At the start, each of the four characters has obvious flaws, none of them are likeable and all of them make questionable decisions. There are horrible scenes of suicidal ideation, self-harm, manipulation and abuse of all kinds. But, as often happens in dark times, as the characters face the danger head-on, they discover key truths about themselves – the will to not just survive but live, the power to accept that they’re more than their bodies, the ability to be vulnerable and look to others for help rather than go it alone. I like that their bond, forged of loyalty and nostalgia for the era in which our friends are our world, is what holds them together against the darkness. There’s a lot of evil in these pages, but the thread of hope is just as strong and the mending of broken relationships has you rooting for the characters.

Despite the central group being in their thirties, they still act and think a lot like teens. This frustrated me at times as a reader, but I suppose it makes an interesting point about how defining memories and trauma shape our thought patterns and influence our actions. I love the clever concept of a haunted house formed from the bad energy of terrible acts, and the take on how hate sends out more hate into the world and passes it on to others. However, do go into this knowing the author has a political agenda, and look up trigger warnings because there’s a LOT of dark content in that house.

Overall, this is an interesting read that keeps you hooked and has you wondering how you’d escape.