Huge thanks to Del Rey and Chuck Wendig for the ARC - I may now officially fear both forests and friendship. Well played.

Now, let’s get one thing straight: The Staircase in the Woods is almost impossible to talk about without spiraling (pun absolutely intended) into spoiler territory. But here’s the setup: five high school friends go camping, stumble upon a mysterious staircase in the middle of the forest (as one does), and one of them climbs it - then vanishes. Years later, the group reunites to confront the truth about what happened, where their friend went, and what the hell that staircase even was.

Yes, I know what you're thinking - childhood friends reuniting to confront supernatural trauma is a tale as old as time (or at least as old as It by Stephen King), but Wendig taps into what keeps that trope alive: characters. Not just archetypes, but complex, beautifully messy people with history and pain, all drawn back together like emotional magnets. It’s not just about spooky vibes - it’s about the psychology of fractured friendships and the scars left behind. It’s the Avengers, if the Avengers had unresolved guilt, panic attacks, and a creepy staircase that may or may not be sentient.

Where these characters go - physically and emotionally - is nightmarish. Creepy, disorienting, unsettling, and at times downright heartbreaking. Trauma isn’t just part of the backdrop, it's the heart of the story. The characters are tested relentlessly - by their past, by each other, and by the horror of where they end up. It’s psychological horror in the purest sense: everyone’s lost in more ways than one, and Wendig drives that point home hard. But, as he beautifully reflects in the afterword, maybe getting totally lost isn’t the end - it’s the beginning of growth.

Each character feels real. You’ll see yourself in one of them - or see someone you know. And if you’ve ever gone through any form of trauma, prepare to get emotionally sucker-punched.

My biggest gripe would be the limited POVs. We mostly follow two of the four, while the other two only occasionally break the surface. It’s a missed opportunity, because exploring each of their inner turmoil could’ve taken this already rich psychological narrative to another level. I wanted to feel each of their spirals, not just see them from a distance.

To sum up: The Staircase in the Woods isn’t breaking new ground, and it doesn’t pretend to. But what it does do, it does well - it haunts, it hurts, and it offers just enough light to guide you back out again. That, in my book, is what horror should do.

3.5/5

PS: Shoutout to Wendig for throwing in nostalgic nods for '80s and '90s kids, especially for fantasy and sci-fi nerds. One reference had me legit whisper “No way” out loud - it’s my favorite book (nope, not Tolkien). That kind of attention to generational flavor adds a nice human touch to all the horror.

Thank you Netgalley for the eARC!
This book!!! I was hooked pretty much straight away. The writing style is just incredible and I really liked the way things were described. I've never read anything by Chuck Wendig but I will definitely be checking out his other books now. The characters are unlikeable and annoying (in my opinion) in the beginning which I love in a horror/thriller book and then by the end I ended up liking them! Short chapters make it really fast paced and I loved the multiple POVs. Between 80%-90% the writing is quite dark and there are some heavy scenes so maybe check out trigger warnings for that if certain things make you uncomfortable... overall I cannot fault this book at all I was addicted to it and hated having to stop reading!

In this creepy tale we follow a group of teens who find a mysterious staircase in the woods. 5 go into the woods and only 4 come out.

This book takes a close look at friendship and how far are we really willing to go for the people we care for. As well as what trauma can become if it’s bottled up.

This book was so atmospheric, really brilliant haunted house vibes with a twist. And boy was this story full of twists and runs both literally and in regard to the plot. I kept thinking I knew what was happening to have the rug pulled out from under me.

The characters in this story are so interesting to follow. Their development from teens to adults and then again with their experiences trying to survive what I can only describe as a nightmare made real. There is really good look into friendship and how even your closest friends can be struggling but you miss it. What does that do to your friendship? What does it do to you when you’re alone with your thoughts and you feel like there’s nobody that can really see you. This cast of characters is also interesting in its representation, we have an MMC with OCD which I feel was portrayed brilliantly through Owen. And while all of these characters are deeply flawed and not entirely likeable you still wanted them to make it through this ordeal.

I really enjoyed this book and I’m absolutely going to be getting a physical copy.

Chuck Wendig’s The Staircase in the Woods is a compelling blend of horror and mystery. The story follows five childhood friends—Matty, Nick, Hamish, Lore, and Owen—who, during a 1998 camping trip, discover a mysterious staircase deep in the woods. When Matty ascends and suddenly vanishes, their bond shatters. Decades later, when the staircase reappears, the remaining friends are drawn back together, forced to confront their past and uncover long-buried secrets.

Wendig’s atmospheric storytelling is one of the novel’s strongest aspects. His exploration of friendship and childhood trauma is gripping, nostalgic, and undeniably eerie. The dual-timeline narrative, weaving between past and present, instantly pulled me in. I found myself completely invested in unraveling the mystery of what happened that night when five friends entered the woods and only four returned. The story builds tension, balancing themes of friendship, loss, guilt, and the lingering ghosts of the past. The eerie, unsettling vibe kept me engaged, and Wendig’s ability to craft a creeping sense of danger added to the overall suspense.

However, the pacing at times felt slow, with the horror elements simmering beneath the surface rather than delivering immediate scares. Additionally, some of the characters felt underdeveloped, making it harder to fully connect with their emotional stakes. If you enjoy slow-burn horror with emotional depth, this book offers plenty to appreciate—but if you’re looking for fast-paced thrills, you may need to adjust your expectations.

My thanks to NetGalley and Random House Uk for a free eBook and an honest opinion.

DNF @ 35% - Supposedly thriller / horror

Five high school friends are camping in the woods when a staircase appears. Matty walks up the stairs and disappears, never to be seen again. 20 years later, the other four, no longer friends, regroup when one of them tricks the others into coming back together when he finds another set of stairs.

Requested on NetGalley as the premise sounded really interesting and creepy and it is a choice for a popular horror book box. At 35% I found no creepiness nor horror and the story was extremely slow paced - I normally read between 80-100 pages per hour this one was taking me an hour to read 30 pages.

I feel like the staircase / horror (if there is any) is more of a side story to the characters own troubled upbringing and friendship group. I found all four characters highly unlikeable - the story is told mainly from Lor / Laurens and Owens POV. Owen has a very repetitive nail biting habit and an unrequited crush on Lor that takes up most of his pov. Lors chapters is mainly about her being a Bisexual, drug taking, Trump hater. Another part of the story I deeply disliked was how Nic got the gang back together by lying that he was dying of cancer!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me a chance to review the copy of the eBook. Not the story I was led to believe it was, unfortunately.

I need to started with a disclaimer - I am a lightweight when it comes to horror! I haven’t eaten an apple since reading Black River Orchard, that was some visceral imagery. So my terrifying might just be a walk in the woods for you.

This book was seriously disturbing, and kept me awake at night. Partly because I couldn’t put it down and partly because I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
But the main reason I love it was the humanity, the friendships and the fact that friendship needs effort, it’s all too easy to get sucked into the void that is modern life. We expect so much but give so little.
The horrors persist, both in the real world and in this book, made worse by them being a reality in both. Humans seem to carry around their own little buckets especially for pain and self-flagellation, and boy do we hate putting that bucket down.
A definite recommend, as are all the books I’ve read by this author so far.

So this was a very slow start for me, I struggled to get into it at first but it picked up around 40% and even then I still kept losing interest but I didn’t want to DNF so I carried on.

The premise is good, I liked the idea of the staircase and what happens with it, it’s a good idea but it felt really slow in most places. It kinda fell flat for me as well, some of the “rooms” were interesting and they were incredibly detailed but it didn’t really feel like a horror.

I couldn’t connect with any of the characters, none of them were necessarily bad, I just didn’t like any of them and wasn’t rooting for anyone. I also ended up skimming a few times went I felt like things got a little too draggy.

So unfortunately, this wasn’t for me. It didn’t feel like a horror and it’s also too slow for me. I liked the premise and the ideas of all the rooms, I just personally didn’t get on with how it was executed

Thank you to netgalley for providing me an e-arc in exchange for an honest review. I do tend to enjoy this type of horror, I enjoy the changing rooms, alternative reality type of situations that can come of it. However, I feel this story fell a little flat. I did "enjoy" (if you can call it that) reading about the different rooms, and some of the descriptions were gory. But I didn't have that sense of dread and tension that I personally want from a horror. It was a good book, and entertaining enough but left something to be desired from me. Part of this is due to the flashbacks to different events, I understand that was important to help create the backstory for the characters but also pulled you out of any tension that was building. I would try this author again though!

Five high school friends bonded over their misfit status and the uncanny discovery they made in the heart of the woods. When camping together they came across an endless staircase, stretching into the sky and seeming to ascend to their highest wonders or fears, if only they had the nerve to discover which.

Highly anticipated but unfortunately not for me. I enjoyed the early similarities to [book:It|830502] but then events began to make less sense and the horrifying elements never truly impacted me. There were a lot of bizarre and potentially spooky scenes but I never truly felt anything for them. I merely read and moved on, which is the opposite of what I come to the horror genre for.

Chuck Wendig is back with an eerie forest book that really captures your attention from the start. However, the ending had a lot to live up for and I'm not sure it hit.

Hmmm, I didn’t love it but I didn’t hate it. :) I thought the premise of a weird staircase in the middle of the woods was actually amazing. Definitely had King vibes and that‘s always good. For me the story dragged a little, however. All in all a good read though.

I thought this sounded interesting. However I found the pace of the book to be quite slow, and I didn't like any of the characters so didn't really care what happened to them. Unfortunately it wasn't a good read for me. hope others enjoy it more.

What a ride! I loved the idea tremendously (how great to base a whole story on weird dilapidated shit you find in forests?) and the execution was near perfect. I really enjoyed the friends, their different characters, and their dynamic. I read in other reviews that they seemed to hate each other - I disagree, the different timelines made it perfectly clear that people change, but some friendship bonds run deep, specifically when forged young and under much duress. I can only imagine how much fun Wendig had thinking of all the different rooms and their creepy stories. Admittedly, it gets super dark and gruesome at points. It had its lengths, maybe - I did catch myself being a bit annoyed by them being separated for so long. But overall, a great story and I'll await the next Wendig with anticipation.

I was incredibly lucky to be given access to an early review copy after hearing it recommended. This one had definite vibes of Stephen King’s ‘It’, with flashbacks and modern timeline following a group of friends, and those friendship are tarnished by a shared trauma/event that had huge repercussions on their adult lives.

The premise of this one really appealed and I was keen to where this one would take me. We follow the group of friends after the mysterious disappearance of their friend Matty, how that even more mysterious staircase in the woods is connected, and how this has all impacted on their adult lives. But when they’re all reunited with a chance to uncover what really happened - do they really want to open that door? Needless to say, their past family and relational traumas, and of course Matty’s disappearance have all left their mark.

I wanted to enjoy this one, but I really struggled with the pacing, and also found it hard to relate or sympathise with any of the characters. I liked how the parts in the house unfolded, but they felt too late in the overall timeline for it took really hook me. I know other readers will love this one, so do check out their reviews.

Thanks to NetGalley, the team at Random House/ Cornerstone, and the author for the opportunity to read this review copy.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is my first Chuck Wendig read, I’ll be back for more but this one was a bit of a struggle.

The concept is familiar, based on real life examples of staircases in woods and many creepypasta style stories. A group of friends getting drunk and high in the woods stumble across a staircase in the middle of nowhere in a forest. As you can imagine this leads into some strange and disturbing content as we dive into the pasts and psyches of the characters.

I’ll admit that it took me until about half way through to really get into this book. I found that I wasn’t connecting with the characters - none of them were loveable but I found they and their dialogue/thoughts were a bit repetitive, and unoriginal.

What kept me going was wanting to understand the why they were where they were, and the how or if they escaped.

The ending was a little abrupt after the considerable build up through the book, and a bit more closure would have been nice… a sequel perhaps?

All in all, if you like Chuck Wendig’s work then you’ll probably enjoy this.

This was creepy, mysterious and gripping from the start. The characters and their friendships were interesting and the whole 'climbing a staircase in the woods and disappearing to who knows where' idea was great. What happened after they climbed the staircase... Well, that was dark and gruesome in places, bizarre and freaky in others. The flashbacks to the group's teenage years kept things interesting, and it all built to a pretty satisfying conclusion.

I have to say that this book reminded me (in the best possible way) of a Point Horror that was one of my favourites when I was younger. The mysterious disappearance of a teen, a group of friends being blamed and ostracised because everyone believes they're to blame. A crazy supernatural trip to get that friend back... It reminded me of that, but on steroids.

The afterword is really interesting because the author talks about how there actually are staircases in the woods, and talks about his visit to one of these.

My thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the advance review copy.

4.5 stars, rounded up.

This was a genuinely scary book! I read an eARC of this book on NetGalley so thank you to the author and the publisher.

This book was so dark and had some harrowing moments! I would definitely read this again but do check trigger warnings if there’s topics that make you uncomfortable. The fear and menace in this book was so oppressive with some terrifying moments.

We explore a group of friends across two timelines. One as teenagers where they find a mysterious and unexpected staircase on a camping trip in the woods and something terrible happens. Then as adults where they once again are confronted with a staircase in the woods and have to face up to their pasts to right a historical wrong.

I want to avoid spoilers so I won’t say too much on the plot. I loved the way this unveiled throughout the book and I was so glad I went into this without too much prior knowledge so I could fully immerse myself in the reveals the author had cleverly plotted. The tension was palpable and I couldn’t put this book down! I was so worried for the characters!

Read the author’s notes at the end! This made me look at the book in a whole new light and was so utterly fascinating! A great book if you want to be an unnerved, scared and to immerse yourself in something weird and unusual.

I’ve not read from this author before but the premise is what intrigued me and didn’t sound like anything I’ve read before. The initial set up was well done but it very quickly became a slog to get through and I wasn’t rooting for any of the characters. Given the initial premise of the book I think this would’ve worked much better as a novella with a more satisfying ending.

Thank you to netgalley for providing an ecopy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Creepy, unsettling, and fantastic!

Wendig was successful in giving me an eerie feeling that I've been trying to achieve from a book for a while.

'The Staircase in the Woods' pulls you into a world where the familiar and the terrifying collide, leaving a sense of dread. Simply put, it is fantastic! Wendig's story builds an ever-growing tension around the environment to which the staircase leads, and it just gets worse! (In the best kind of way!)

The unsettling nature of the narrative is further enhanced by the struggles we have all faced at one time in life, which the characters must inevitably overcome.

If you're a fan of the uneasy vibe, this book is for you!

3.75 stars rounded up for goodreads.
The main things that I liked about this book was that it was told from a dual timeline that I was expecting from it being a typical book in the “group of adults return home to face a supernatural event when they were teenagers and lost their friend” trope. Also, while there are 70-something chapters, they are quite short, and these really helped maintain the fast pace and tension of the story. I felt like it got quite repetitive in the middle as they were just doing the same sort of thing over and over again. While I enjoyed reading this book, the main reasons for it dropping 1.25 stars is that I thought there were a few too many plot holes and the open ending of the book just felt a bit rushed. As it is a horror book there are obviously some moments that aren’t for squeamish readers and may have ruined pizza for me, as well as a long list of potentially triggering topics so be sure to check the trigger warnings before reading this one. This was the first book I had read by Chuck Wendig and I look forward to reading more soon.

TW: mentions of a certain political figure and heavy criticism of them and their supporters, cancer, drugs, bullying, body horror, PTSD, child death, self-harm (off page but talks about how they felt at the time), suicidal thoughts/suicide (descriptions of how they were planning it), murder, domestic abuse, animal harm/death (not by the main characters), non-descriptive mentions of child abuse/SA by a family member, racist language

Thank you so much to the author, Netgalley and Random House UK for giving me an arc in return for a voluntary review. All thoughts expressed here are my own.