06/29/2025 RECENT READS & REVIEWS: THE STAIRCASE IN THE WOODS BY CHUCK WENDIG
- Candace Nola
- Jun 29
- 2 min read
THE STAIRCASE IN THE WOODS
BY CHUCK WENDIG
Let me start this off by saying that I have heard mixed reviews of this one but personally, I loved it for several reasons.
First, I've been a long-time fan of the creepy pasta stories about the random staircases in the woods. It's a fascinating premise and yes, I have actually seen two in the wild. Not only is the idea fascinating but there is so much you can do with the concept that it's a great challenge for any author to try out.
I have yet to do so, but will admit, it's been on my mind since long before this book came out, however, it is now on the back burner as I don't like releasing similar books, or concepts too close to any other author if I can help it.
Second, the characters, I loved them, despite how horrible they were as people, but in this case, you needed to look deeper at each of them, at their history, at how their friendship was formed, and at the secret pain each one held inside, even hidden from their friends, that all shaped who they became. This literally could have been any group of friends from my small town. I knew kids with these stories, these backgrounds, hell, I was one of these kids. It's their history that shapes this story into what it becomes.
If you start this book, maybe try the audio, and really stick with it, whether you like the characters or not. It will pay off.
So, the story follows 5 friends bound for life by their childhood bonds, that take a camping trip into the woods. There, they find a random staircase to nowhere. By the end of the night, one of them goes up it, but never comes down. The other four go home, changed in ways that will affect them forever. An investigation ensues but the missing friend is never found. The town turns against the others. Their bonds are tested and strained and ultimately, adulthood pulls them in other directions, including distance from one another, but yet, they remain bound by a single word: Covenant.
When one of them calls upon the others, decades later, using that word as bond, they reunite for a single task. A task that is not known to them until they get to their destination. The story unfolds in ways that the reader will not expect, and their reunion tests them in ways that none of them expect.
That's all I'm going to say. I loved this story so much, from the premise and how Wendig chose to write his story. I loved the characters because I knew them in a sense, each one of them could have been someone that I knew as a kid. Maybe that is the key, maybe this story is not everyone, but if you were a high school kid in the mid 80s or 90s, if you lived in a small town, this is for you.
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