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refrejarator 's review for:
The Staircase in the Woods
by Chuck Wendig
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I have a book hangover after this one. God how horrific. How sad. How heartbreaking. I love and miss my own friends right now.
Each character was so fleshed out - they all had their own traumas, their own lives, and they felt so real that I wanted to reach out and hug them.
I really disliked Lore in the beginning because they are everything I dislike about myself as an autistic queer enby - loud and aggressive and selfish. Lore ended up growing on me as the story went on, and I found her to be a loveable character. I liked that the author was able to show more depth to Lore's character as the story went on, and gave them heaps of depth and things that sparked their need to be so self sufficient and aggressive! I wish the author used Lore's she/they pronouns more consistently - it felt like it was mentioned once and then then only she/her was used for the rest of the book.
It also felt like they were trying so hard not to say Donald Trump and had it replaced with some other guy with a different name (still with red hats, an insurrection, and hateful rhetoric) until the last part of the book where they used Trump's name.
Each character was so fleshed out - they all had their own traumas, their own lives, and they felt so real that I wanted to reach out and hug them.
I really disliked Lore in the beginning because they are everything I dislike about myself as an autistic queer enby - loud and aggressive and selfish. Lore ended up growing on me as the story went on, and I found her to be a loveable character. I liked that the author was able to show more depth to Lore's character as the story went on, and gave them heaps of depth and things that sparked their need to be so self sufficient and aggressive! I wish the author used Lore's she/they pronouns more consistently - it felt like it was mentioned once and then then only she/her was used for the rest of the book.
It also felt like they were trying so hard not to say Donald Trump and had it replaced with some other guy with a different name (still with red hats, an insurrection, and hateful rhetoric) until the last part of the book where they used Trump's name.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal cruelty
Minor: Cancer, Cursing, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Racism, Terminal illness, Transphobia, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Alcohol, War, Pandemic/Epidemic