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. . . .

In the Staircase in the Woods, Chuck Wendig has created a powerful and complex novel. While a pact between friends might not be a new concept, Wendig spins the story into something new and different, a story that tackles dark and intense themes without flinching. 

In the novel, the first thing that I noticed was the complexity of the characters, each individual with a past, all of them weighted down by regret. Each character is flawed and has parental issues that they cope with and is what brought them together as friends in the first place. Told mostly from the perspective of two of the friends, Owen and Lore, each brings different viewpoints to allow us to see the dysfunctional relationships between them all. 

Once the characters move up the staircase, the story becomes creepy and compelling. The narrative is very rooted in game dynamics although the true horror goes far beyond that aspect. This is full of dark corners and psychological truths, which is what makes the story so powerful. It is also full of surprising turns and a truly interesting ending. 

If you like supernatural thriller and Chuck Wendig, I strongly suggest that you read this book. It is powerful and complex, a story that embraces characters that are flawed and believably human. The narrative tackles dark themes and it is creepy for what the characters face in their journey. But it is the emotional relationships that drive the story and create a compelling novel that is impossible to put down. 

Rating: 5 out of 5 rooms. 

Penguin RandomHouse

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