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Review for Staircase In The Woods by Chuck Wendig

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As I’ve said in my other reviews, I try to find a common thread in them. I want to connect to the stories personally. Sometimes, I can do that easily; sometimes, I can’t.

Chuck Wending is a favorite author. Wanderer’s is a book that my wife and I devoured in a week for me and a few weeks for her. It got us through lockdown in 2020 and everything that year threw at us. It’s a big book about a virus.

Utah experienced a lot of growth in the 1980s. New subdivisions sprouted up overnight, and many were left unattended for days. They became playgrounds for my friends and me.

Half-finished staircases lead to empty floors—kitchens without their floorings.

Among all of this was a staircase that was by itself. It was like that for a month or more. I don’t know why they stopped building. It’s a finished house, but forty years ago, it was a monolith that we’d jump off of. We’d launch our bikes and come down hard on our seats.

While reading Staircase in the Woods, I thought of those days of freedom—of being us, with no parents to avoid, and me and my friends having fun.

I received a copy from the publisher because I reviewed Josh Malerman’s Incidents Around The House. I thank the publisher for trusting me with a book that will be released in April 2025.

This book begins with events that happened years before. We discover the incidents leading to the event and how they changed the group.

We learn a lot of dark things as these friends look for one of their own who vanished years before on a staircase in the woods. One of them decides they need to find out what happened.

SPOILERS INCOMING

I try not to do spoilers in novels; it’s nearly impossible with this book.

They get through a portal similar to the one their friend vanished in. They soon discover the world inside the portal is different. It’s dark, disturbing, and nightmarish, giving me feelings of House of Leaves throughout the reading. The Navidson Record is in place throughout the story, or it felt that way to this writer.

It’s a story about discovering the darker parts of yourself. Confronting those parts, those shadows, the things you’d rather not talk about. The childhood lost because of abuse, both mental and physical.

The book finds its footing quickly when we enter the portals, and the characters move through the world. At once, they adjust and modify their way through. In the book’s latter pages, it’s a dangerous game of cat and mouse as they search for a way out.

When we reach the end, each character has learned more about themselves and their friends.

This is Chuck’s darkest, most visceral, and messed up book I’ve read.

It’s also one of my favorites. I’m looking forward to the world reading this one and discussing it and the characters’ experiences.

It’s made me look at what I’ve been able to let go of, what I continue to hold on to, and whether it’s healthy to do so.

There will be discussions about what occurs in this book. They will cover many topics.

I loved this book, and I’m thankful the publisher gave me a copy. Thank you to Random House and Kay Popple for the offer.

Review for Kill Your Darling by Clay McLeod Chapman

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Every parent thinks about what they’d do if they lost their kid. When they’re babies, we worry about whether they’re breathing in their cribs. When they’re toddlers, they get quiet in their rooms. We run to their room, and they’re usually asleep in a pile of toys or stuffed animals.

We lose sight of them when they get older, and we walk around the store. All the thoughts run through our heads. When they get to be teenagers and start driving or hanging out with friends, hell, in America, we worry about them not coming home at the end of the day because of a shooting.

That latter part is an everyday worry for me.

: SPOILERS AHEAD :

In Clay’s story, he takes the idea of losing your kid to violence and does a masterful job of following Glenn, our protagonist, through the stages of his life. Also, through the stages of grief.

Glenn feels the police have failed him and his son in discovering how he was killed.

His boy was left in a dirty, empty lot as a teenager.

Over the years, Glenn has done research and called whichever detective was assigned to the cold case, but he had a breakthrough when his wife urged him to join a writer’s group.

Glenn writes a story about his son’s death and how he believes it happened.

When he presents the story to the writer’s group, it begins a fracture in a community he believes hid the truth of what happened to his son. Glenn learns he didn’t know his son as well as he thought.

The heartwrenching ending for this book is brilliant, and I believe it captures the book well.

Glenn is looking for one last connection to his son. He finds it in writing the book but also in learning the truth about his son’s death.

It’s a magnificent ending, and as with all of Clay’s books, it will pull on your emotions.

I finished this book at work, and while it was a slow day behind the bar, I had to keep myself from crying.

We all think about how we’d handle the loss of our kids. Clay orchestrates a great story about loss, grief, and understanding that once our kids get older and have their own lives, we don’t know who they are.

We try to understand them as they grow older, and the best we can do is be there for them as they move through the world. Listening to them is essential.