kari’s Reviews > The Staircase in the Woods > Status Update

I think he couldn’t decide how to end it so he just didn’t write a final chapter

If Nick has been an agent of the house the whole time, why did he act so surprised/disgusted when they arrived? Why was he still kind here and there? He already had them in his clutches, so there’s no need to keep up the ruse. Maybe we’ll see! I hope love saves the day. My rating will be higher if love saves the day.

A lot of this is about middling no sleep quality. This is a lot less scary and intriguing than the no sleep story it was based off of. A lot of these rooms are just, this fucked up thing is happening!!!! And yes, it’s a very fucked up scenario. Just awful. But that doesn’t make for an enjoyably scary or engaging book

I like having fox imagery for Nick, but it’s very on the nose. He did this like a fox. He looked like a fox. He was like a fox. It’s the overexplaining again

The characters are flat and kinda caricatures (lore), but it’s sweet when they’re nice to each other. Very crude. A lot of swearing and sexual references when there doesn’t need to be. The dialogue isn’t very believable. Meme speak keeps being used in inappropriate times “you’re in your Diet Coke era” “chaotic neutral” “unalived”