62 pages • 2 hours read
The Staircase in the Woods
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Chapters 71-85Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of graphic violence, death, child death, child sexual abuse, suicidal ideation, self-harm, mental illness, and substance use.
Chapter 71 Summary: “Not Dead Yet”
Lore, Hamish, and Owen drag the unconscious Nick into the crawlspace. Immediately, their anger melts away. Lore asks Owen about Matty, and Owen explains that when the house got inside him, he suddenly understood its nature. It showed Nick Matty’s death just to break him, but Owen believes that Matty escaped. However, Owen fears that Matty might now be like the house himself, just as the compromised Nick has been trying to inflict more pain on the world in order to make the house bigger.
Chapter 72 Summary: “The Possession of Nicholas Lobell”
Nick screams and thrashes, and when the others attempt to hold him, he bites Owen and head-butts Hamish before Lore can wrap some electrical tape over his mouth. They don’t know if it is possible to wrench Nick free of the house’s apparent possession of him. They can see bits of the house in Nick’s eyes, and his skin “rippl[es] like living wallpaper” in Lore’s peripheral vision (328). They all tell Nick that they love him, and they beg him to resist the house’s power. Owen feels the pain of memory radiating from him, so he confronts Nick with his knowledge of Nick’s father’s sexual abuse. Owen says that the abuse was never Nick’s fault, and he apologizes for never realizing the truth of what was happening.
