Have you ever played a video game where you travel through rooms in a house, trying to find an exit? If you have, you know all the rooms have booby-traps that can wipe you out in an instant. Yet you keep playing because you want to get out of that house and you want to win. The Staircase in the Woods is much like one of those games, with the exception being that the booby-traps are deadly serious. The novel is about a group of friends who bond when they are in middle school. Four of them are misfits. Owen, afraid of his own shadow and terribly insecure; Lauren, who is probably brilliant, but has always been alone; Nick, endlessly sarcastic who harbors a dark secret; and Hamish, a big overweight kid, the butt of bullies’ jokes. The fifth member of this squad, is Mattie, who seems to be an outlier. He is the perfect kid. He stars in school plays, gets good grades, succeeds at sports, and all those other attributes most parents wish their kids had. Yet, he and the other four become best friends and, in fact, form what they call “The Covenant” to protect and defend each other.

The novel starts when they are adults and have grown apart. Owen receives a call from Lauren (now called Lore), about an email she received from Nick. Nick says he is dying of pancreatic cancer and is invoking “The Covenant”, demanding that his friends come see him. Reluctantly, they comply and fly to Boston where they are greeted by a limo. The limo takes them, not to a hotel, but to the woods. Nick tells them they’re going camping and a disgruntled Lore, Owen, and Hamish follow him into the forest. They finally come to a clearing and there it sits – the staircase in the woods. Something they’ve dreaded for years.

The novel then shifts back in time to 1998 for another camping trip. It’s then that they see the first staircase and Mattie, having had a tiff with Lauren, decides to ascend it. When he gets to the top, he disappears and is not seen again.

Now, years later, Nick challenges his 3 remaining friends to help him find Mattie by invoking, once again, “The Covenant.” Thus, the four ascend the staircase and find themselves trapped in a malevolent house with no windows or doors.

The Staircase in the Woods is a superb horror novel. The characters, while, at first, are not really likeable, grow on you and, as they travel from room to room trying to find an exit and their lost friend, you can’t help but root for them. A thoroughly addictive read, I found it hard to put down. The Staircase in the Woods is highly recommended for lovers of horror fiction, intricate puzzles, and video games like the one described above. It’s an absolutely amazing and thrilling read.

I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced reader copy of The Staircase in the Woods in exchange for my honest review.