House of Stairs

Possibly more than any other of Sleator's Books this one carries a very serious note with it. A note that after reading the final sentence in this book you find Completely Terrifying.
This books something that they should require in schools instead of Junk like Lord of the Flies they should give children a serious look into the human psyche. What motivates us, what makes us who we are, and what makes us what we we will become and forever be.
Once again sleator adresses scientific questions that have very scary answers. This book is always in a locked contest for favorite book, battling with my other favorite Sleator works that I think are #1, Intersteller Pig, Strange Attractors, and Singularity. DO NOT MISS THIS BOOK. IT WILL CHANGE THE WAY YOU LOOK AT OTHER PEOPLE AND YOURSELF.
This is Pure Genius. Please Please Please read this.

House of Stairs by William Sleator
Book Review by Geremy Brosmer
"'When are they going to take us out?' Blossom wailed as everybody came back to the landing." Peter, Lola, Blossom, Abigail, and Oliver are all orphans and all sixteen. All of them have suddenly been put into a big room full of nothing but stairs. They find a food machine that makes the kids do crazy stuff like stick out their tongues, dance, and lie to get the food machine to give them food.
I think Sleator could have made Blossom a little less easy to hate because he just makes her so mean and snobby and self centered. He also could have had a better concept because he just puts four orphaned teenagers in this big room full of stairs for no reason. I liked the way he always kept me on my toes. I was up till ten reading this book one night. He described everything so well I could almost see a picture in my head about what was happening.
William Sleator is mostly a science-fiction writer. He's only written one book that's not science-fiction. I would recommend this to anybody who likes sci-fi.
Find out more by reading House of Stairs by William Sleator.

Five orphans are brought to this place where only stairs, a red machine, and a toliet are present. The stairs go on forever and the whole place is white. The five orphans are split up at the starting then meet eachother at the red machine. They find out they are all the same age and are all orphans.
The red machine pops food out when something the teens do at random. This machine starts to take over their lives by making them turn against eachother. At times they do some pretty bad stuff to eachother. By this time they are all insane.
I really enjoyed this book. It really shows what people will do for what they. Just to survive will beat up others and play rotten tricks on them. I got into this book to where i hated some of the charecters beacause of what they did. I strongly think you should read this book.

This is not exactly so much science fiction as it is . . . a kick in the head. It's very psychological and examines the human condition in extreme circumstances, focusing on whether humans can be conditioned and what happens when they are.

The only science fiction-ish thing about it is that I don't really see the situation as possible in execution. But it was still quite a nice romp through "what-if" land.

I do think that this book, although not written with the expertise in language as Orwell, is just as, if not moreso, prophetic.

I'm 41. I read this book in Junior High, along with another, at this time, Very Important Book, called "The Wave".

Scary, and these books need to go into reprint. FOR ADULTS.

Most young teens today are in a similar place.

I'll leave it to those who have read it, to think about it. It is quite a scary book precisely because of it's prophetic nature. "Hair-raising" is a better approximation, at this point in the history of the world, for those who are even mildly aware of history. Would that we could make these two books travel back in time, and we may have avoided Night and Fog, and much, much more human atrocity since.

http://www.the store.com/Wave-Laurel-Leaf-contemporary-fiction/dp/0440993717

This book will, along with "House of Stairs", join "Animal Farm" and "1984", a few decades hence.

I think it's fascinating (Mr. Spock) that many of these reviews are from my peer group - mid-40s who read "House of Stairs" back in the 1970s. This book must have been on our 6th-grade summer reading list. Clearly it made an impression on us all, and continues to do so on our children (!) Re-reading it, "House of Stairs" still gives me the creeps, perhaps even more so now, with echoes of Guantanamo and the "black" prisons operated by the CIA. It's a fable for our times, but apparently the people in charge aren't listening.

House of Stairs chilled me to the very core. Sleator really made the reader feel as if they were trapped in the house of stairs with the characters, left to their natural instincts for survival. It was scary to discover how far our instincts will go, even to the point of harming others. The book could be a definite prequel for 1984, testing just how much the human spirit can plummet before death. The ending seemed a tad unrealistic, but it was a young adult novel, and happy endings are better anyways

Thank you, thank you New Yorker! I read this book well over 30 years ago. For some reason the story (at least the basic outline) stuck with me, and I think of it from time to time, but couldn't for the life of me remember what it was called. UNTIL the current issue of the New Yorker came out, with an article about the trend toward YA dystopia fiction (e.g., Hunger Games) and mentioned House of Stairs as an earlier excellent example! So while I can't (until I get my copy and re-read it) give a detailed review, I can say that this book had the power to haunt me for years.

Join Elizabeth, Cossette, Bell, Mark and the large troupe of hanger-ons as they maneuver The House of Stairs. A look back at the 1960's and early 70's of the London scene. Told in a "two story" manner where past and present mix to bring the reader a higher level of tension.

..This is a tight, fast-paced morality play about a group of five teenagers -- orphans, all -- thrown into a twisted experiment in conditioning.
I'd forgotten how little of this book is actually spent examining the gargantuan House of Stairs the characters find themselves in. Most of the book takes place on one landing in the labyrinth, near the food machine. It is here that the characters examine themselves and each other, and ultimately are faced with a choice between losing their lives and losing their souls. It's chilling...

This was an riveting book. Barbara Vine is a master at complex plots and multi dimensional characters. She takes her time developing the story; you are brought along the story slowly, revealing small amounts of detail, always leaving the reader anxious to read more.
This story is sad, it's impossible not to feel sorry for them, yet they create their own misery. I have only found Barbara Vine/Ruth Rendell relatively recently. I'm really enjoying theses stories...excellent author.

Easily the finest of Sleator's works, this book is about five 16-year olds who are then subjected to Pavlovian conditioning in order to . . . well I don't want to spoil the book completely. It is set against a background of a futuristic world gone bad though virtually all of the action takes place in the creepy house of stairs with only the five teenagers present. An excellent morality tale that will make people of any age think. I've read it loads of times over the years and still like it. It might not be appropriate for younger kids of high reading ability (or should at least be discussed with them afterward). On the other hand, it is a work to be recommended precisely because it doesn't shy away from tough issues that many adult works grapple with.

Wow, I finally figured out what the book was that I remember from one summer that I spent reading through the local library's science fiction section. I learned to read early and I put the skill to good use; I must have been 7 or 8 at the time. The reason why I remember the book so vividly is that it totally freaked me out in an odd way -- the book isn't really scary per se, but it kind of blew my mind at an early age with concepts I hadn't been exposed to yet... this is certainly a well-crafted story that can be used to awaken a taste for the more intellectual instead of action-oriented story, but strong yet young readers might get a few sleepless nights spent wondering at the implications of this regarding human nature; that we can be manipulated into not being so good and kind. I did in a sense lose a bit of my innocence because of this book.

This is one of my all-time favorite murder mysteries. I've read it twice, and I'd read it again -- and I never read mysteries twice. Rendell/Vine is a master of her craft, and it's a crime that this spell-binding book is out-of-print. I would rate this book higher than "A Dark-Adapted Eye" or "Gallowglass". The characters are so beautifully drawn, one feels they must be real people. Rendell/Vine's writing takes us through an intricate labyrinth human movitations and frailties. This book is a gem.

I read this book waaaaaay back in middle school, and it has stayed with me ever since. It is very disturbing, and is most suitable for children approximating the ages of the children in the book; perhaps 13 or 14 at the youngest. As my own children reach this age group, I think I'll pick up a copy, but will definitely still be available to discuss it with them. It was a riveting tale; one that is impossible to forget. It has been at least 30 years since I read it, and I still recalled the title easily. Well-written, and a quick read.

Imagine being blindfolded, placed on an elevator, and shipped to a strange place. When you got there, the place is filled with only stairs. There is no ceiling, no floor, and no walls. That is exactly the situation five 16-year-old orphans' find themselves in, in the book House of Stairs by William Sleator. The five teens must learn ways to survive and obtain food in a special way. Their only food source is a red machine, which will only supply them with food if they demonstrate a series of complex movements, like a dance, that pleases the machine. None of the teens know where they are, how they got there, or why they are there. This book deals with cooperation, strength, and teamwork. I would rate this book two and a half stars because it wasn't a very interesting book. It didn't hold my attention or keep me focused on the main point of the story. It also seemed to have a lot of repetition. However, the author showed a creative story plot with a surprising ending.

This is nothing less than an alarmingly good book. I've read it twice and it seemed twice as good the second time. I read it outloud with my son, and some scenes are actually jarring to me because of the way they reflect how adults really are, and things they really do. Part of me wanted to stop reading and explain to my son that people aren't really like this, but they are.
And the motivations for such action is no loftier for adults in real life than they are for the kids in this book. Perceived survival.
Go read it.

30 years later... I still remember how this book affected me as a 7th grader. I read it several times that year and the haunted feeling of it never really left. Having a discussion this evening with my 14 year old son about a book where kids are stranded and left to work it out for themselves, I immediately remembered the chilling feeling of this book. "1984" comes close, as does "The Giver" and "Lord of the Flies", but "House of Stairs" (as another reader stated) stole a little of my innocence that summer. I still hate it (as I do the others) and yet... it makes us think. This is definitely a book worth reading, yet a little more than I would read to my 6th grade students.

"Ancora Imparo" = "Always Learning"

I first read this book in 1978 when I volunteered in my local youth summer library program. It haunted me all these years, but I could never remember the title. I have searched and searched for the last 30 years and finally found it. To be honest, I had begun to wonder if I dreamed it all up. Great thought considering the books' psychological message. I am definitely adding this one to my collection! Cannot wait to enjoy this thriller again.

Peter, Lola, Blossom, Abigail, and Oliver are five, 16-year-old orphans, that find themselves placed in an unusual house. No other people are present, and as far as the eye can see, stairs surround them. These stairs lead nowhere except back to a small machine that sometimes gives them food. The orphans' main problem is to find out how they are supposed to receive food from the machine. Slowly they begin to realize that the machine rewards them with food whenever they are cruel to one another. When the orphans finally discover the deadly situation, which they are trapped in, will hunger and fear cause them to give into the strange will of the machine? With no doors, no windows, no water, no adults, and no hope: they examine themselves and each other. Ultimately, they are faced with a choice between losing their lives or losing their souls. Sleator has written a tight, fast-paced story with a twisted ending. Ages 11 & up.

I just finished reading this book a couple of days ago while I was reading "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding. This book was a great compaanion novel to "Lord of the Flies". Much of the character symbolism was very similar from each book and it helped in understanding some of the characters in both books while looking at them from two different points of veiw, one from the characters thoughts and actions in extereme isolation in "House of Stairs", and from the sole actions of each character in "Lord of the Flies." I strongly suggest this book to any reader

I read this book right after I finished Interstellar Pig. While Interstellar Pig was a very entertaining book, I wasn't expecting the House of Stairs. It is by far the best William Sleator book, and I would reccomend it to anyone who liked his other books. If you haven't read any of his books, you should, and this is a good one to start with.

Chris DiGrazia

"House of Stairs"

March 2, 2006

In the story "House of Stairs" by William Sleator five sixteen year old orphans wake up in a dark house of stairs. They remember being blind folded then being brought there. It first starts with Peter waking up then meeting up with Lola who is very tough and arrogant. She is also a trouble maker. When they go looking for a way to get out of there it doesn't take them long to meet up with Blossom, Abigail, and Oliver. There is a machine where if you stick your tongue out at it, it will give you food. They believe they are being punished for something but don't know what.

Lola is basically they leader of the group and she is very tough. She likes to pull pranks and get into trouble. She believes that is why she was sent there as punishment for that last prank she pulled which was a very big one. She also smokes and has a big ego. As well as thinking this is punishment she also thinks it's a game and one she believes she will win.

A lot of girls can relate to Lola because she is a natural leader and has many skills that a leader should have. She took it upon herself to go out in search of a bathroom since they have food but no place to use the bathroom. I don't think any of them would have gone searching for a bathroom alone but she was brave enough to go looking for one and didn't want everyone else is weak. She also knows that, that place is meant to drive them insane and she knows somebody has to be the leader and she even says so, "somebody's got to be the leader. If the is no leader we will never get anywhere (p.49).

While Lola came back from looking for a toilette she found everyone singing and laughing and this annoyed her when she came back and she started yelling at them. Oliver came in by saying "you act like you are pretty tough, but you're just as hysterical as any other girl. We don't have to listen to it (p.44)". He was her adversary now there could be problems with those to later in the story. Oliver is very easy going while she is very tough so they could have sever personality conflicts later in the novel which could cause the five of them to completely fall apart when they must work together to survive this dungeon.

Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine never fails to impress. Knowing that there are hundreds upon hundreds of readers who are amazed by her brilliance and literary magic, I won't say too much. But I wish to pay tribute to this masterly and literate suspense story. It is spellbinding and mesmerizing. Just imagine what the late great Alfred Hitchcock could have done with material such as this. Bravo a thousand times over !!!

Ruth Rendell Is one of my favorite authors but in this 1988 book she produced a clinker. It is a long book and absolutely nothing happens for the first 95% of it; just neverending and pointless character development. The end you can pretty much guess so there is little payoff for plodding your way through the whole thing. Two stars is probably more than it deserved.

I really enjoyed Sleator's "Singularity" and "Instellar Pig" when I was younger. Every year, I pick up a young adult book or two to read through. I chose this one because of the mostly glowing reviews and the premise sounded interesting. What I found instead was a page-turner that was boring. Nothing really happens in this book. Yes, it can lead to a good discussion about survival, almost Lord Of The Flies like. But the ending seemed forced and kind of cheap and predictable. None of the characters were likeable. And there was way too much language for a young adult book (ie. the GD word was used a lot), so buyer beware. Very disappointed, but I will survive.

Like sitting with someone who loves the sound of their own voice but hasn't really much to say. Overly descriptive barely begins to describe it. Paragraph after interminable paragraph of perception, inner life, conjecture. Meandering and mind-numbing.

I did not like this book and especially would not recommend it to young readers. It is full of profanity and bad language. If it were a movie, it would probably be rated R. There is also much repetition and very little information about the character's lives before they were put in the house of stairs. And there's hardly any information about the outside world which is supposed to be somewhat futuristic. Overall, it was NOT a good book.