The Staircase in the Woods
by Chuck Wendig
Random House Worlds | Del Rey Pub Date Apr 29 2025
courtesy of NetGalley
Publisher’s Summary:
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 extraordinary: 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…
The Review:
Every time I read a Chuck Wendig book, I feel like a student again. Making notes in the margins (digitally on Kindle) and highlighting the hell out of half the pages. Sometimes these actions are to remind me about the characters’ journeys for reviewing; sometimes it’s about pacing and remembering to mark the percentage complete thus far; but, a lot of times, it’s simply because he writes even the most foul, grotesque details with pure poetry.
The Staircase in the Woods is a horror novel. Yet, it’s so much more than that. I urge readers to make sure they read about the book’s creation at the end from Wendig himself. He says the same thing I’m saying. It’s a story that could be reworked and pitched as a My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic comic book series. I know he’d be great at that too. But make no mistake, there are quintessential Wendig horror traits in Staircase.
What might those be?
For starters, maggots. I think every Wendig book I’ve read has maggots (I haven’t read Star Wars, but I bet there’s a creature that dies covers in creepy crawling make-me-vomit bugs).
Death, decay, grief. These are common Wendig elements no matter what time period or planet he sets his world.
Blood, vomit, and other bodily functions. I give him a great deal of credit for balancing drama, trauma, and humor with these elements.
Survival. If you’re familiar with the Wanderers series which was epic, prophetic, and frightening because of how its human vs. human, human vs. AI, human vs. nature, and I think every other versus plot possible. In today’s climate, survival is indeed an important piece of a plot about moving characters along from point A to B via Pi π.
Friendship/Family of Choice. This is one of Wendig’s strongest elements to storytelling which is why I compared it to MLP. It is by no means an insult (and I don’t think he’d see it as one). Quite often biological family members are atrocious pieces of shit. Even serial killers have family.
Reading the press copy, I don’t know if there are Trigger Warnings in the front, but I hope so. There’s family abuse from neglect, emotional abuse, self harm, and childhood sexual assault. This distressing part of humanity is how Wendig pulls together a team of characters.
I don’t know my D&D well enough to be certain, but the characters: Lore, Owen, Nick, Hamish, and Matty have varying degrees of ethics and morality like a paladin, rogue, monk, cleric, and barbarian. As they go from high school friends who suffered a tragedy to being reunited and fighting for their lives, this guild of misfits changes significantly. One might start as Chaotic Evil but end up Slightly Less Chaotic and Neutral. Maybe a reader can relate better to a character who also an INFJ or I9C3G6. Readers will find all types with their own strengths and weaknesses in Wendig’s Staircase.
Will Readers Fall in Love with the Characters?
Maybe if that reader has a fetish. I guarantee readers will feel an attachment to one or more characters and root for the team to complete their mission—but fall in love the way all genders of fans fell in love with Tom Hiddleston’s Loki? Probably not. I will say, Lore, the one member of the crew on the queer spectrum, affords an outlet for Badass NB Energy. Lore states, “I’m genderfluid, pansexual, aromantic, AuDHD,” and uses she or they pronouns. I don’t recall any of her old childhood friends understanding it enough to refer to Lore as they.
You Can’t Have a Staircase Without a House
It might surprise readers to know that there are actual staircases in bizarre locations. What blew me away was that Wendig started plotting his book while on tour for Black River Orchard when a fan told him there was a real abandoned staircase in the middle of nowhere nearby. He detoured and immediately went to find that staircase. He covers the entire story at the back of the book. It’s remarkable so don’t skip it.
The fictional house brings up a lot of questions. Metaphysical questions. Psychological questions. Basic questioning of what’s real and what isn’t. If you can see it, is it real? If you can touch it, is it real? If your companion also has the same experience, is the thing real? When is a house a home? Is home where the heart is or vice versa? Does liminal space exist? Does Purgatory or Hell exist? Can you think of anything worse than what you think your biggest fear is?
Things in Staircase boil down to a question: Do you have anyone who would truly have your back even if it meant going through their own personal Hell to save you? This team does and that’s why they call their bond not just friendship, but The Covenant. More powerful than family or friendship.
What I Appreciated:
Among the team’s personality types, Lore and Owen are the main two. Owen is the Yin to Lore’s Yang. He’s emotional, sensitive, distraught, self-loathing, in love, furious with jealousy, and quite clearly suffering from one of the few cases of anxiety that I’ve seen in a character that felt real. And I mean all caps ANXIETY, the kind that’s more than a disorder—destructive enough to require forcible intervention like a 51-50 (code for committing someone to an institution against their will).
Owen hides—or believes he has—his compulsive actions like cutting his skin. His friends easily notice his nail biting and it comes up as a repeating way to knock him down into shame spirals even further.
There’s never a dull moment. In fact, there’s a bit squished into the pages called The Interlude and it is not a time to go get snacks. It’s absolutely vital information about the what the Staircase and House are. It’s a look at the villain’s origin story which carries forward to June 6, 1998 when The Covenant found the Staircase.
What I Loved:
Bucks County, Pennsylvania. It’s one of my favorite places in the world! Not that I’ve seen much. Driving on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River is a long stretch of winding road with intermittent charming small towns including New Hope which Wendig mentions in the book. He talks about a “head shop” there. I remember when there was one right on the river near the bridge to Lambertville, New Jersey.
There isn’t a ton of exposition about the landscapes of Pennsylvania, the Pacific Northwest, and New Hampshire. There are enough Easter eggs for readers who have been to the towns mentioned to conjure up a dreamy sense of nostalgia.
That warm fuzzy feeling also includes all the nerd references to gaming, most of which even I had heard of. You don’t need to have a degree in game theory to follow Lore’s trains of thoughts as The Covenant journeys precariously through danger. They violated the number one rule of team quests.
Summary:
While there are plenty of gross moments in The Staircase in the Woods, Chuck Wendig makes a little bit of gore and dead/undead refreshingly bearable compared to modern horror movies.
The Covenant of five high school friends becomes four in search of the missing fifth, the one who was unofficially the leader. Wendig navigates a variety of character personalities suffering from childhood trauma (or ACEs, adverse childhood experiences) in graphic detail with a care and sensitivity that it’s a wonder how he got through the creation of this book. The human characters face various antagonists and villains from other humans to their disorders to surreal supernatural forces of evil. Fortunately, the team of friends (Lore, Owen, Nick, and Hamish) find one safe place where they get unpredictable and momentary respite. Readers get to breathe as the team handles adrenaline fatigue.
If you’ve experienced déja vu or perhaps felt something paranormal and aren’t afraid to explore the buried, dark aspects of humanity, then you won’t want to miss this spectacular arrival from Chuck Wendig.
Rating: 5 stars
Founder and Editor-in-Chief of AmberUnmasked.com and Vodka O'Clock Podcast. Author of The Farrah Wethers Mysteries, comic book short stories, prose, and non-fiction. Cosplayer and figure model.