This is not a story about a staircase in the woods, it’s a story about friendship, trauma and how much (or little?) you know about the people you share your life with. I enjoyed every minute of this book. It had me hooked from the beginning and never let go. I instantly fell in love with the characters and the way they interacted with each other.

The characters friendship remind me of those in Stranger Things and It and I laughed out loud several times. The way the author used gaming to tell the story felt unique and was a reasonable explanation to the happenings in the story. The story was both mysterious, frightening and sometimes disgusting. The gore was just enough and not too hard to handle, it made the story even more compelling.

The only negative I have to say about the book is that I found the (story told in parentheses) was somewhat annoying and took me out of the magic of the story. I would definitely recommend this book and could probably even re-read it in the future.

3.75/5

this has a pretty cool concept that i was excited to read about. a group of friends finds a staircase in the woods one of them disappears and twenty years later another staircase appears and the group returns to find out what has happened to their lost friend.

once we really get going the spookiness really does start to creep in and the main setting really kept me interested in the book.
i’m usually all for complex and not completely likeable characters, but i had trouble meshing these ones in particular and with and wanting to keep following them on their journey, especially further in when as a whole things start to get a little repetitive.
overall enjoyed this and always appreciate the type of ending this had.

thank you to netgalley and the publisher for access to this arc. all opinions are my own.