dietl Posted July 1, 2014 Share Posted July 1, 2014 It really depends how you define Darkness. And it can be done many ways, but I think what makes the most sense is, if you consider time. Let me explain:The more you grow up, the less you are scared, appalled ect. by something, because you already gathered enough experience to know what to expect in life. So the earliest experiences are always darker than the ones that come after. So BY DEFINITION you are not looking for the darkness that comes after but:The Darkness That Comes Before Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Fitzpatrick Posted July 1, 2014 Share Posted July 1, 2014 A Clock Work Orange when I was 15 felt pretty dark at the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Tyrion I Posted July 1, 2014 Share Posted July 1, 2014 Awakenings by Oliver Sacks. May I ask why? I really liked it. For me: "Island" by Aldous Huxley and "1984" by George Orwell. And "American Psycho" by Bret Easton Ellis. The manga "Battle Royale". "Les liaisions dangereuses" by Choderos de Laclos. "Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde. I might be missing some. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derfel Cadarn Posted July 1, 2014 Share Posted July 1, 2014 Off the top of my head, Dust of Dreams for the hobbling stuff. That was vile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Son of Blue Hills Posted July 1, 2014 Share Posted July 1, 2014 I'd probably say The Walking Dead as well in the form of it's comics, but I would also say Brother In The Land which is considered a Young Adult novel, but with so many people dead, dying and the pain people suffer it's really dark especially for teen readers. Anyone that has read it will know what I mean, no spoilers being given :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weeping Sore Posted July 1, 2014 Share Posted July 1, 2014 The Tunnel by William H Gass. A "professor of the Holocaust" digs a tunnel in his backyard to metaphorically escape his life. When it's not talking about the Holocaust we get an all-too-intimate look at a man full of self-loathing, from hating his own fat body and small penis, to being unable to cope with nearly everything else in the world. Astonishingly beautiful prose, and just absolutely the most depressing thing ever. Brutal. ETA: It took Gass 26 years to write this book. How did he not kill himself in the process? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suttree Posted July 1, 2014 Share Posted July 1, 2014 Just to toss some out there I'll go with Blood Meridian, American Pyshco, Requiem for a Dream, Child of God and Dorian Gray. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unworried well Posted July 1, 2014 Share Posted July 1, 2014 @ King Tyrion I The book is not that dark, I guess. Sacks is a compassionate doctor, and a very good author. It is evident in Awakenings, and in his other works. It was the disease that I found really disturbing. This wasn't a state of complete unconsciousness. The patients were (real people) trapped in their own bodies, fully aware of the world around them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Tyrion I Posted July 1, 2014 Share Posted July 1, 2014 @ King Tyrion I The book is not that dark, I guess. Sacks is a compassionate doctor, and a very good author. It is evident in Awakenings, and in his other works. It was the disease that I found really disturbing. This wasn't a state of complete unconsciousness. The patients were (real people) trapped in their own bodies, fully aware of the world around them. Thank you for your answer. Sacks is indeed awesome - and I like his books and his pov very much. I want to become a doctor (a radio-neurologist), I work as a male nurse atm, and I share his views. I found it very interesting to read about encephalitis lethargica. I read a couple of his other books because they are great to read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranger275 Posted July 1, 2014 Share Posted July 1, 2014 For me it is a touch darker yes I can see where you're coming from. I just feel that the ending to The Road leaves the possibility for a positive outcome, whereas the ending to Blood Meridian is...well, fuck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranger275 Posted July 1, 2014 Share Posted July 1, 2014 Just to toss some out there I'll go with Blood Meridian, American Pyshco, Requiem for a Dream, Child of God and Dorian Gray. Yeah, McCarthy doesn't write a lot of "pick me ups." Reckon I read about one or two a year, and spend several months afterwords thinking, "...the FUCK just happened?!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Antony Posted July 1, 2014 Share Posted July 1, 2014 the ending to The Road leaves the possibility for a positive outcome, whereas the ending to Blood Meridian is...well, fuck.Accurate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tears of Lys Posted July 1, 2014 Share Posted July 1, 2014 Well, the Second Apocalypse is probably the darkest fantasy I've ever read, followed by aSoIaF. Although, sometimes if a story's too "dark," it stumbles over the line into self-parody - where the reader becomes cynical. Personally, I kind of like this sort of story. The cold, harsh reality of some "dark" novels are sometimes too disturbing, but not as disturbing as the nonfiction brand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TempusFugit Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 The Road by Cormac McCarthy sprang immediately to mind. Blood Meridian is certainly bleak - as are most of his books - but I read The Road when my daughter was a toddler and it really hit home. It's one of the few books that has moved me to tears. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonCon's Red Beard Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 I didn't read it myself, but back in high school, we were supposed to read books that were "realistic". An older class than me was given a book about a fifteen years old girl who was raped and got pregnant, and the family was very desperate because they didn't know what to do. The class was of fourteen-fifteen years old teenage girls. Some parents complained, but it was in the syllabus. I'm lucky I didn't read that one: next year we got Verne... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kojiro Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 Spine of the World by R.A. Salvatore is the first thing that pops into my head. :huh: .... Anyway, I'll go with H.P. Lovecraft. There's such a splendid array of fatalism and bleakness in his works that hits the right spot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roose Seal Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 Come to think of it, the second half of Zola's L'Assommoir is some of the most depressing stuff I've read.Also, Germinal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HairGrowsBack Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 "Les liaisions dangereuses" by Choderos de Laclos. May I ask why ? Not that it isn't dark, but it never seemed "top-tier" dark to me. (been a while though, maybe I've forgotten some aspects of it) Come to think of it, the second half of Zola's L'Assommoir is some of the most depressing stuff I've read. Also, Germinal. Zola was one depressing fellow. That said, he's better at it than writing happy endings (ahem Au Bonheur des Dames) It's always hard for me to remember the books I've read when asked, but off the top of my head, I'd say : Lolita, Nabokov Le dernier jour d'un condamné and Les Misérables, Victor Hugo L'écume des jours, Boris Vian 1984, Orwell Journey to the End of Night, Céline Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theda Baratheon Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 The Handmaid's Tale, probably. I remember first reading it and it was so bleak and depressing and as a young woman, wholly terrifying and repulsive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stannis Eats No Peaches Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 Nineteen Eighty-Four was utterly grim, so I'm going with that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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