History DarknessInducedAudienceApathy / Literature

[[redirect:TooBleakStoppedCaring/Literature]]

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* ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' doesn't start off this way, but it eventually hits this, being a series that's filled with shade of grey, with both Jake and Rachel committing horrific acts.
* ''Literature/AtlasShrugged'' is this, [[ValuesDissonance at least to non-Objectivists]], for the same reasons as ''Film/TheBirthOfANation1915''. You don’t want either side to win because the conflict is between corrupt government shills hoping to set up a Soviet-style communist dictatorship, and equally {{Corrupt Corporate Executive}}s who lionize their own selfishness, [[IRejectYourReality refuse to understand]] how democracy and rule of law actually work, and set up ''the collapse of civilization'' just to increase their profit margin.
* ''The Literature/BasLagCycle'' by China Miéville may induce this. The first book's DownerEnding may be tolerable because the main characters are, at least, somewhat decent people and thus inspire some pathos, but by the end of the series, the repeated evils InherentInTheSystem never improve or get foiled. The fact that the only people who are ever seen suffering are the protagonists, and thus the stakes becoming '[[TheBadGuyWins all this nameless, faceless evil and injustice is allowed to continue]] to oppress what few decent people we ''do'' meet' may make you wish [[spoiler:Spiral Jacobs]] succeeded in wiping the whole thing off the map in the last book.
* ''Literature/BloodAndChocolate'' suffers from this twice over. On a larger scale, HumansAreTheRealMonsters who hate and fear werewolves, while werewolves sometimes provide ''very good reason'' why humans hate and fear them. On a smaller scale, any of seven or eight different characters, including the main character and both love interests, could be argued to be the most repulsive character in the book for one reason or another, and of the two characters who are most likeable one's a StrawFeminist who's not treated very seriously and the other gets eviscerated by a supposed friend. The silver lining is that the werewolf female lead and human primary love interest could balance each other out--[[spoiler:except that humans really ''can't'' trust werewolves, so he winds up trying to kill her.]]
* Aldous Huxley's ''Literature/BraveNewWorld'' can induce similar reactions to ''Ethan Frome'' or ''Wuthering Heights''. The sheer soul-crushing hopelessness of the story combined with the utter depravity of the CrapsackWorld it portrays has been known to cause severe bouts of depression in readers. In fact, the novel was chastised by critics for precisely this reason upon its initial publication in 1932, and Huxley himself later regretted not [[TakeAThirdOption offering John the Savage a way out of his dilemma]].
* In "The Merchant's Tale" of Chaucer's ''Literature/TheCanterburyTales'', the merchant's tale of a wife's adultery is supposed to show women as dishonest, but the poisonous way all characters, including the wronged husband, are portrayed makes it difficult to sympathize with any of them. This is almost certainly deliberate, as several of Chaucer's characters let their view color their stories and how they tell them.
* ''The Castle'' by Creator/FranzKafka is about a character, K., who arrives at a village operated by a bureaucracy which is centered in the titular castle, and his endless attempts to find out exactly what the castle does and how to gain influence there and...it gradually turns into a series of interminable, roundabout discussions about the castle and bureaucracy and what K. has to do in order to get anything done, to the point that Kafka himself was unable to finish writing it, making this a case of Darkness-Induced CreatorsApathy.
* ''Literature/TheCasualVacancy'' has a rather mundane premise and characters that, as one reviewer put it, are "fairly horrible or suicidally miserable or dead." Thus, some found it hard to care about the conclusion.
* ''Literature/TheChildThief'' falls into this at the beginning, and for some readers, until its end. The story is billed as a darker retelling of Peter Pan, and it shows--rooting for Peter is all but impossible given his bloodthirsty and careless ways. The real world is not much better in the book--because it focuses on ''Lost'' boys and girls, everyone has horrible stories in their past. Although there are a few characters the reader can identify with, they pale in comparison to the horrible people around them rather than providing a real contrast.
* ''Literature/TheClique''. The protagonists are an AlphaBitch and her GirlPosse, but the series does ''very little'' to make them seem likable or sympathetic, there's ''loads'' of ChronicBackstabbingDisorder, and it's heavily implied the main character is a sociopath. [[spoiler: And the series ends with ''[[KarmaHoudini absolutely none of them]]'' [[KarmaHoudini getting what they deserve]]]]. Plus the series is an IndecisiveParody, so it's never really clear what we're supposed to think of the characters. Later books added some {{deconstruction}} elements but for many, it was too late.
* The works of Creator/CormacMcCarthy (for example ''Literature/TheRoad'', ''Film/TheSunsetLimited'' and ''Film/NoCountryForOldMen'') can definitely bring this up -- good people are powerless and die senselessly (or are pile-driven past the DespairEventHorizon [[FateWorseThanDeath and may as well be dead]]), the bad guys (when there are any) are [[ImplacableMan like forces of nature]], the world itself is hard-core crap-sack (and on ''The Road'', it is flat-out DeathWorld crap-sack), and it is impossible InUniverse and out for people to find a reason to live on a daily basis. What few good things are there are ''very'' small lights in a really big field of darkness.
* ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKid'': While it's a stretch to call it outright darkness, the sheer amount of unlikable characters (for instance, the main character Greg already suffers from an unrealistic number of glaring flaws he hardly notices) and sheer amounts of WhatAnIdiot from all characters moments can really be a bother when trying to find something to root for and keep going. Despite being sold as realistic fiction, the story is set in a world of incompetence where bad things happen to bad people, although this world is interpreted from Greg's obvious ProtagonistCenteredMorality.
* ''Literature/{{Dubliners}}'' by Creator/JamesJoyce is a book of short stories where every single one (except, perhaps, the last one) is about a disappointing, half-lived life that will probably end in isolation and ignominy. Hope spots are few and far between, and usually swiftly replaced by misery. The only (arguable) exception is the final story, "The Dead", where the private sadness of the protagonist, Gabriel Conroy, is set against the genuine hospitality and generosity of his aunts Kate and Julia and his cousin Mary Jane, whose Christmas party takes up most of the narrative.[[note]]The story wasn't written when Joyce was first trying and failing to get the book published, and after being turned down several times he realized with hindsight that he'd been too ungenerous towards his countrymen. "The Dead" was written to redress the balance, and it's less unrelievedly dark than the other stories in the book, only because it's more ambiguous.[[/note]]
* People who are only familiar with ''Literature/{{Dune}}''[='=]s film or video game adaptations are very likely to suffer this when they start to read the novels, as, unlike the films and the video games, the novels have very few, if any, genuinely likeable characters, with the Atreides family becoming more and more ruthless as the series goes on.
* Creator/GregEgan has a couple of stories that play with this trope in an unusual way. In ''The Planck Dive'' and in ''Oceanic'', the world is not a CrapsackWorld or {{Dystopia}}, however, society exists in the aftermath of the discovery of the AwfulTruth that [[spoiler:the heat death of the universe cannot be evaded by any means even in theory, and so society is doomed to collapse, killing everybody (without any hope of an afterlife or of reincarnation) and making the entire pursuit of knowledge completely pointless]]. This is ultimately so soul-crushingly depressing and nihilistic that it threatened to undermine the entire {{Aesop}} he sought to promulgate, and so he eventually dialed back from this in later stories which casually mention [[spoiler:travel to other universes with different physics]], theoretically letting his characters escape this fate.
* ''Literature/TheElricSaga'': It's maybe hard to go through all the books with Elric's constant misery and casual cruelty, not to mention that [[spoiler: all of his friends and loved ones are either killed by Stormbringer or by the villains in the sixth book]]. Certainly evoked by Moorcock, who wanted to deconstruct the popular epic fantasy stories of the time such as ''Lord of the Rings'' and ''Conan the Barbarian'' by dialing the brooding UpToEleven and giving an air of hopelessness and nihilism in Elric's ultimately vain quest to fight his fate.
* ''Literature/EthanFrome'' can induce similar reactions as ''Wuthering Heights''. The utter hopelessness of the story has driven many an English Major to the bottle.
* ''Literature/FireAndBlood'' can seem this way during the Dance of the Dragons. While the broader work of ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' is excellent at making you more sympathetic towards most sides of a conflict, the parts about the Dance of the Dragons in this novel can make a reader lean towards KillThemAll not only for the members of the two factions but even for the smallfolk affected by them as well.
* ''Literature/TheFoxAndTheHound'' is a MatureAnimalStory, right? Well, for some readers the best they can say is that the two title characters come across as [[BlueAndOrangeMorality intentionally written as very alien in their thinking]] since they're animals that don't have human morals, and at worst they come across as a pair of {{Villain Protagonist}}s [[EvilVsEvil who are hostile to each other]]. The other characters are either, again, animals without human morals, or humans [[HumansAreCthulhu seen through animal eyes:]] mysterious, unpredictable, and seemingly all-powerful. The final chapters rail against urbanization to the point of AuthorTract and careen headlong into a massive DownerEnding. It was so dark that some readers couldn't sympathize with even the eponymous characters, and that's one reason Creator/{{Disney}} decided to give [[WesternAnimation/TheFoxAndTheHound their film adaptation]] a complete overhaul for all characters.
* Some ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' novels can fall towards this.
** The ''Monster Blood'' series, in particular, hardly has any likable characters. Evan Ross, the main character of all four books, is an unlikably whiny kid and [[WhatAnIdiot makes a bunch of dumb decisions]] that cause him to waste away any sympathetic points any reader will ever give him. It doesn't help that he doesn't get better in any of the books following the first book, as he gets even whinier [[TookALevelInDumbass and dumber]] in each and every one of them. There's also the other characters of the series that aren't much better, such as [[ParentalNeglect Evan's parents]], [[JerkJock Conan Barber]], [[SadistTeacher Mr. Murphy]], and [[InsufferableGenius Evan's cousin Kermit]]. And we don't even need to get into the NegativeContinuity and poor plotting.
** Another particular novel that falls towards this trope is ''You Can't Scare Me'', which features protagonist Eddie and his friends trying to scare Courtney. Problem is Courtney isn't really particularly nasty and hasn't really done anything cruel to deserve such retribution, which makes Eddie and his pals come off as [[DesignatedHero Designated Heroes]]. On the other hand, Courtney is also [[MarySue seemingly too perfect]], which is the InUniverse reason Eddie and his friends are obsessed with taking her down a peg any way they can and gives an equally good reason to not root for her either. The whole book has readers questioning whose side are we exactly supposed to take here.
** Arguably the worst of them all is ''Chicken Chicken'', which, unlike most Goosebumps books of the series, has no character portrayed positively. The two main characters are put in hell through [[BodyHorror horrifying transformation]] thanks to the magical powers inflicted on them by the novel's main villain, and not only do their parents [[FailedASpotCheck fail to even recognize the blatant signs of transformation right in front of their eyes]], they even ''laugh at their humiliation along with everyone else at the barbeque!'' To add insult to injury, the main characters got transformed by the main villain because [[DisproportionateRetribution they forgot minor manners.]] It makes the villain far more unlikable than intended, and it makes the punishment the two main leads had received unbearable for even most diehard fans to read the novel.
* ''Literature/HammersSlammers'' falls heavily into this. The series is David Drake's personal attempts to deal with PTSD from serving in the Vietnam War, and it shows. The Slammers are a bunch of war criminals who burn villages, kill civilians, and use nukes with great abandon, while off duty they're drug-abusing assholes. The people they fight are just as bad. It's very difficult to come up with a reason to want any side to win.
* ''Franchise/HannibalLecter'' novels ''Literature/{{Hannibal}}'' and ''Literature/HannibalRising'' both suffer from this. Almost none of the main characters have any redeeming attributes (sans Clarice, but she's basically a pawn half the time, and in the novel ends up ''falling for Lecter'')--and those who do are mercilessly picked on or forced out of the action. Meanwhile, [[ImAHumanitarian Hannibal Lecter]] himself, the murderous psychopath, is practically presented as the hero. Hannibal himself is part of why ''Hannibal'' falls into the trope. Even though he is a psychopathic murderer, the vital heart of ''Silence'' was the dynamic between Lecter and Clarice; Lecter comes to admire the doggedness and pure, honest nature of her and treats her as kindly as anyone in a CrapsackWorld where seemingly every male treats her horribly. By turning him back into more or less a standard murderer on the loose and severing that mutual respect, it throws ''Hannibal'' into this trope, as discussed in great detail by Creator/RogerEbert [[http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/hannibal-2001 in his review]]:
-->"It misplaces the reason why we liked Hannibal Lecter so much. He was, in the 1991 classic, a good man to the degree that his nature allowed him to be. He was hard-wired as a cannibal and mass murderer, true, but that was his nature, not his fault, and in his relationship with the heroine, FBI trainee Clarice Starling, he was civil and even kind. He did the best he could."
%%* ''Literature/HellsChildren'' by Andrew Boland, is this for most people.
%%Explain WHY Hell's Children is this.
* ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' has an initial premise that is dark enough (children forced to kill one another on national television), but for the first couple of books they're still plenty engaging, with human kindness even in the midst of brutality, and hopes of rebellion and change. The third book goes into a swan-dive down the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism. Katniss' PTSD and emotional disconnect from the world increases (and she's our narrator, which makes for tough reading) and the factions come to seem [[HeWHoFightsMonsters more and more alike]], both of them horrible. Throw in [[AnyoneCanDie arbitrary and senseless deaths]] and an ending that seems built to deny any meaningful closure... well, some fans applaud the "realism" of ''Mockingjay,'' and others just found it a slog.
** Most readers can pinpoint the time when ''Mockingjay'' hits its point of no return of ultimate depression: [[spoiler: the death of Prim]]. Why is that? [[spoiler: Katniss participates in all of this hellhole of a tournament and rebellion ''in the first place'' because she hopes to save Prim, her little sister and the only person whom she's certain she loves. All the sacrifice she does, all trauma that she has to endure because of the games, are annulled abruptly when "[[WhamLine The second round of parachutes goes off]]". The next chapter, Prim is dead and Katniss (and the readers) permanently shuts off for the rest of the book.]]
* ''Literature/IronDruidChronicles'' can invoke this reaction in some people. The main character is an often jerkish NominalHero who only gets involved if he is forced to, who is willing to let lesser crimes fall by the wayside in service to what he considers more significant goals, and who is willing to commit any number of those crimes himself if he deems it necessary. His "allies" include an (if {{Affabl|yEvil}}e) largely amoral vampire (who sells Atticus down the river as soon as it becomes clear that Atticus isn't backing his corner), a pack of werewolves (themselves guilty of a number of more mundane crimes, typically in service of keeping up the {{Masquerade}}), and a coven of witches who are of a similar mindset to Atticus, if not worse. Their enemies tend to be JerkassGods at best, if not outright {{Omnicidal Maniac}}s.
* This was something Creator/StevenSpielberg took great measures to avoid when adapting ''Literature/{{Jaws}}'' because the original book suffered from this: the protagonists in the novel are so unlikable, selfish, and hypocritical that they make the ''shark'' look decent by comparison.
* ''Literature/TheKid'', the sequel to ''Literature/{{Push}}'', got hit with this ''hard''. The first book was very dark too, but it at least had some moments of hope and a (somewhat) happy ending. ''The Kid'' [[HappyEndingOverride starts with Precious dying of AIDS]] and goes on to focus on her son Abdul, [[CrapsackWorld who himself is abused, beaten, and raped]] to the point that he becomes an abuser himself, murders his girlfriend's parents, and winds up in a mental institution. Suffice to say that many readers who enjoyed ''Push'' and rooted for Precious found it very hard to slog through ''The Kid''.
* Both 'sides' in ''Literature/LeftBehind'' have exactly the same goals and use pretty much the same methods, [[BecauseDestinySaysSo everything that happens is part of God's plan]] and, as such, the characters have no free will and [[YouCantFightFate nothing they do at any point in the series makes any difference whatsoever]], so it's really rather difficult to root for them. Both sides of the conflict are more or less interchangeable morally and the only real difference between them is their power levels, with God's side absurdly powerful and Satan's side downright ineffectual. The only concrete reason why one side is specifically good and the other is bad is because the writers say they are.
* ''Literature/TheLegendOfDrizzt'' is mostly a solid tale of a renegade dark elf who develops morals and principles and fights for them while struggling to keep himself honest and in the light (compared to his irredeemably evil kin). Where the DarknessInducedAudienceApathy comes in is after "The Ghost King", after [[spoiler: Cattie Brie and Regis die]]. These two deaths haunt Drizzt so much, he becomes something of an AntiHero, and the advent of the Nether, and the Ghost King's rampage, and the CrapsackWorld ending to "The Pirate King" which showed [[spoiler: the death of Deudermont]] and the downfall of any goodness in [[PirateTropes Luskan]], really cranked up the "grimdark" to [[UpToEleven max levels]]. This was so off-putting to so many readers, that they more or less rejected [[LoveInterestTraitor Dhalia]] as a partner for Drizzt, as she was a terrible JerkAss and basically evil. The fact that Drizzt would sink so low just to get some elf-lovin' was repugnant to many. Then, you have [[spoiler: Bruenor's]] death, the evil of the Netherese, and the resurgence of the drow, and the world is just such [[CrapsackWorld crap]] that no one cares to read what was once a light-hearted, fun fantasy about good characters fighting and kicking the butts of evil. Now the "heroes" are mostly evil. It's telling that in response to this, the "Companions Codex" came out with "Companions" (book 0) that basically reintroduces the heroes of yore: Cattie Brie, Regis, Wulfgar, and Bruenor, only now more heroic. Regis is braver, Wulfgar a little less a cardboard cutout stoic, and then moves into the next series. [[spoiler: Dhalia]] is killed off (and brought back as an evil zombie), Effron kind of becomes neutral/good-ish, Afafrenfere returns to ask forgiveness from his order, and Ambergris fights to honor her dwarven heritage by fighting for Bruenor and on the side of good (along with Jarlaxle, another interesting character who turned into a pretty grimdark type and then recovered back to the humorous AntiHero ish figure we all know and love. The world of more heroic protagonists fighting evil really resonated with readers, and the apathy was replaced by interest once more.
* ''Literature/LikeWaterForChocolate'' piles so many disgraces on the protagonist Tita, makes her LoveInterest Pedro so spineless and selfish, and reduces the other characters (specially Tita's big sister/Pedro´s wife Rosaura) to such unlikeable assholes... that many readers have given up mid-reading since it's a chore to read and wonder "what's gonna happen to her '''now'''?!"
* ''Literature/LogansRun'': The lead character is a borderline sociopath. Jess is something of a SatelliteLoveInterest. None of the side characters have much for redeeming qualities as they're shallow, oversexed, ultra-violent, casually doped up, or some combination of all the above. Pedophilia, anonymous sex, heavy drug use? Check, check, check. The apocalyptic setting of the sequels makes the world's setting an even bigger dump, but not by much. There's a good reason many people prefer [[Film/LogansRun the film's]] slightly more idealistic take on the premise.
* The ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'' doesn't always do this, but it ''did'' creep up during ''Literature/MidnightTides''. That novel depicts a war between the Tiste Edur (a nation that keeps humans as slaves and is ruled [[TheCaligula by an insane emperor]] who works for an EldritchAbomination) and Letharas (a [[TheEmpire brutal, expansionist empire]] that [[StrawCharacter takes the flaws of capitalism as far as it can]] without being PlayedForLaughs). You can't even blame one side for being the ones to initiate the war, since they're both pretty eager for it even before the first blow is struck. Sure, individual characters on both sides of the conflict can be quite sympathetic, but the outcome of the war isn't that suspenseful, 'cause you know you're gonna wind up with a regime of violent, oppressive conquerors either way.\\
The continuation of this plot after the war ends only makes it ''worse'' because the victors lack the finesse to control their new subjects, resulting in them slowly being undermined and torn apart by their supposed subjects. Things only improve after a lot of important character deaths when [[spoiler:the Tiste Edur give up and leave while Letharas gets a decent ruler]].
* ''Literature/TheMazeRunner'' series is this to a great degree. While the first book is likeable enough for young adult fiction, the second takes a nosedive as [[spoiler: the protagonist is betrayed by almost all of his friends, who reason that they work ForTheGreaterGood and actually blame ''him'' for acting sensible and trying to question things.]] Then the third book reveals that [[spoiler: all the ordeals that the experimental subjects had to endure was pointless because there is no cure for the Flare virus, which means that the only thing humanity can do is let the teenagers start again in [[DeusExMachina a new paradise which comes out of nowhere]], which means that ''the entire trilogy'' could have been avoided had the higher powers shed their smugness and actually told the teenagers what was going on.]] AdultsAreUseless, indeed.
** The degree of hopelessness in TMR universe is all the more highlighted when a companion book [[WhamEpisode reveals the origin of the Flare virus]]: [[spoiler: it's [[HumansAreBastards man-made]]. No, really. A certain scientist devised the virus as a way to reduce overpopulation due to the shrinking resources caused by the Sun Flare, [[TooDumbToLive without thinking that, sometimes, viruses mutate]].]]
* ''Literature/NightWatchSeries'' is a debatable case. The eponymous Night Watch claims it wants to improve the world, but in practice, this means [[TheEvilsOfFreeWill making everyone else think like they do]], and their actions include [[WeDidntStartTheFuhrer putting Hitler in power]]. The Day Watch talks of freedom of choice, but they're [[ItsAllAboutMe selfish]], [[TheHedonist hedonistic]], and frequently {{hypocrit|e}}ical. {{Muggles}} are [[ImAHumanitarian snacks]], and [[PunyEarthlings there's nothing they could conceivably do to influence the situation]]. On the other hand, it's only the upper ranks that are rotten--both the Night Watch and the Day Watch have good and honorable members in the field. This comes full circle when it is revealed that [[spoiler: at the highest levels, the Watches are actually working together; the conflict between them is mostly for the sake of keeping the Others away from normal people, and the Watches often deliberately sabotage their own efforts to overtly influence human society. Their ''real'' plans to improve the world are much more subtle and cooperative.]]
* George Orwell's ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour''. Winston and Julia are both suspicious, bitter, cowardly, and (initially at least) demonstrate few desires beyond basic gratification. They're willing to commit unspeakable atrocities to overthrow one of the most horrific and utterly evil totalitarian governments ever conceived. The story ends with [[spoiler:Winston and Julia as lobotomized, dehumanized robots with all their old personalities gone, replaced with soulless nihilism and love of the Party, and they're probably both going to be shot anyway. The Ingsoc government continues to exist to spew propaganda and control, torture, and humiliate their own citizens for amusement. Oh, and it's implied that Eurasia and Eastasia are exactly the same as Oceania, so there's nowhere in the world to escape from it.]] Entirely intentional on Orwell's part, as he volunteered in the UsefulNotes/SpanishCivilWar on the Republican side and quickly learned how authoritarian regimes horribly distort the truth to their own ends, and how often the methods of one's own government can be [[HeWhoFightsMonsters no different]] from those of your enemies.[[note]]To be precise, when Orwell joined the Republican side, he joined a left-anarchist faction that was genuinely well-intentioned and committed to improving the lives of ordinary Spaniards, but which had the misfortune to be the losers in an intra-factional dispute with the much bigger communist faction, which was essentially controlled by the Soviets and which didn't want any undisciplined anarchists not toeing the line from Moscow.[[/note]]
* ''Literature/TheProgram'' and its sequels fall into this for a lot of people. The protagonists are generally sympathetic enough, but the atmosphere is so bleak that it almost doesn't matter. The story is set in a world where one in three teens are DrivenToSuicide, and the titular Program, designed to prevent this, is arguably a FateWorseThanDeath. Nearly all the adults are either compliant with the Program, or actively working with it, and all the teenage characters are [[BreakTheCutie broken]], {{Mind Rape}}d, and then [[TraumaCongaLine broken some more]]. ''Fun''.
* ''Literature/TheReckoning'' seems like just another Creator/JohnGrisham thriller during its first act, but the second and third acts really step into this territory, eventually culminating in a whammy of a DownerEnding that sees the Banning children left holding the bag after a wrongful death lawsuit [[SinsOfOurFathers for a crime their father committed]] ''and'' the revelation that [[spoiler:all this happened because their mother banged a black man while he was at war]].
* Scott Smith's book ''Film/TheRuins'' is made of this trope. Some college students are vacationing in Mexico and after finding their way onto some Mayan ruins, are trapped there at arrow-point by local natives. Meanwhile, some vines on the ruins are not only carnivorous but also intelligent. The first third of the book somewhat averts this trope as the protagonists try a few different things to make the best of the situation. The second third of the book is essentially them giving up, bickering with each other constantly, and constantly suffering. In the final third, they all die. Bonus points are when it's revealed that the vines are basically godlike in power and knowledge, and could have easily killed them at any time, but preferred to torture them ForTheEvulz. The film was ''slightly'' less dark and edgy than the book.
* Donna Tartt's ''Literature/TheSecretHistory'' sometimes inspires this--it's not uncommon for readers to respond to the revelation that one of these unsympathetic characters will be murdered by thinking "Only one?"
* Gillian Flynn's ''Literature/SharpObjects'' falls into this at times. Readers are presented with a heavily unlikeable narrator and a whole cast of unlikeable supporting characters. The narrative's overall tone tends towards despair, and in spite of [[spoiler:the fact that narrator Camille's story seemingly ends hopefully, with her finally finding a nurturing surrogate family and working towards undoing the damage of her toxic upbringing, it's made very clear that none of the characters will ever truly be happy and that dozens of lives were destroyed beyond repair.]] Flynn's other books flirt with this, but are generally redeemed with moments of hope, levity, humor, etc.
* Robin Wasserman's novel ''Literature/{{Skinned}}'' has a similar problem to ''Blood and Chocolate'', since it initially discusses FantasticRacism against cyborgs, then applies CyberneticsEatYourSoul. Do you support genocide, or do you root for inhuman freaks?
* The Literature/StarTrekNovelVerse is starting to have this effect after the two-part novels ''Plagues of the Night'' and ''Raise the Dawn.'' The series had already gone through a completely legitimate rough patch with the Borg war of ''Literature/StarTrekDestiny'', only for a new cold war with the Typhon Pact to occur. Which was fine until these two books: [[spoiler: which destroyed Deep Space Nine, the Bajoran Wormhole and KilledOffForReal about five really popular characters from the TV shows.]] The books following have increased the canon character body count, [[spoiler: and the Federation is starting to collapse]]. The story has already written itself into OnlyTheAuthorCanSaveThemNow but the stories like the authors just want [[CrapsackWorld everyone dead or completely miserable.]] It's probably one reason why ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' cherry-picks from the novelverse.
* ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'': AdultsAreUseless ''all the time'' (and this only gets ''worse'' as the series goes on), PoorCommunicationKills (and, again, this only gets worse), the Baudelaires do ''not'' get anything resembling happiness ''ever'' within the books themselves (the last book ends with them taking their chances going into the unknown, but there is a big InferredHolocaust and whatever clues are of them getting a bright future once everything is done are ''deeply'' buried amongst endless misery and the LemonyNarrator's ramblings). A similar feeling may come of the enormous barrage of mysteries the series has-the author deliberately [[InvokedTrope invokes]] TheChrisCarterEffect at its absolute worst (refusing to solve almost all of them), which may drive people into frustration.
* ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' is a DarkFantasy CreationMyth that goes continuously FromBadToWorse and is pretty close to being both a ShaggyDogStory and [[ShootTheShaggyDog shooting that dog]]. Then why bother writing it, let alone read it? Because there are wonderful and [[AWorldHalfFull great things amid all the desolation]]. Author Creator/JRRTolkien would probably argue that the beautiful is made even more beautiful and valuable precisely because it doesn't last.
** Moreover, since the setting is supposed to be Earth in the very distant past, all the fantasy elements must slowly and surely disappear, even though this requires deities and superhumans to act in idiotic ways.
* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': Though the series has its share of likable characters, it's also full of death. While initially the death of the "main" character was a refreshing twist, by the end of ''A Storm Of Swords'' so many of the characters had been killed off [[FateWorseThanDeath or worse]] that some readers found it hard to care about the rest of them. Also all the endless, gratuitous war crimes perpetrated by all factions -- rapes, skinned children crucified for miles, burning women alive after raping them -- not only began to lose their shock value but made it hard to care about who wins in the end. Some are even convinced that the BigBad of the series, the Others, are practically saints by comparison, making it difficult to consider them a dire threat. Of course, this is still averted occasionally, since many of the people who end up dying are very loathsome villains (a giant rapist and war criminal spending weeks dying due to a man he killed having poisoned him, a psychotic mercenary who loves maiming being gradually cut to pieces, a sadistic RoyalBrat being poisoned and choking to death...). It's frequently shown that just being evil isn't helpful in the long-term. Additionally, and perhaps most importantly, [[spoiler: it appears that the Northern Houses are planning to restore the Starks, the de facto good guys, and kill the Boltons, their arch enemies. House Manderly even bakes Bolton allies in pies and state that 'the North remembers' the hideous crimes committed on their kin, allies, and the Starks. It's enough to make many fans cry tears of happiness. Simply, hope has returned, which averts this trope a bit.]]
** Played straight, however, with its rather cynical view of [[TheMiddleAges medieval life]] and of human nature in general. Knights are depicted as little more than glorified thugs, the rulers use underhanded tactics in an attempt to keep their power, and NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished. The fact that it was (ostensibly) based on UsefulNotes/TheWarsOfTheRoses doesn't help.
** Tellingly, Creator/VoxDay, author of ''A Throne of Bones'' [[https://speculativefaith.lorehaven.com/on-the-throne-of-bones-a-q-and-a-with-vox-day/ pointed out]] that his ''real'' issue with the stories was not so much the [[CrapsackWorld ugliness]], [[BlackAndGreyMorality hatred]], and [[PerverseSexualLust perversion]] within the narrative as the [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism near-complete absence of beauty, love, and normalcy to counter them]].
* Deliberately used in ''Literature/TheSoundAndTheFury'': the first brother is severely mentally handicapped, and although hard to hate, his section of the book (written from his perspective) is so confusing that it's hard for many people to identify with him. The second brother is completely insane and [[BrotherSisterIncest lusts after his own sister]] [[spoiler:which turns out to be a lie to protect her, but we don't find this out until later]], so you really want to turn away from him. The third brother already ''has'' turned away from him, and narrates in a completely comprehensible style, so at first you like him, but then he's a total JerkAss who hates everyone around him.
* ''Literature/TheTerror'' by Creator/DanSimmons falls into this. Already you know a vast majority of the characters are doomed, due to the book being based on a real-life failed Arctic expedition and [[SpoiledByTheFormat the graves of main characters being marked on the book's map.]] Add to that the sheer number of unlikable characters (and good characters making stupid decisions and/or [[DroppedABridgeOnHim getting bridges dropped on them right and left]]), the AnyoneCanDie attitude, the countless [[HopeSpot hope spots]] that always turn out to be for naught, and the fact that the majority of the book follows a crew of starving, freezing, scurvy-afflicted sailors and Marines being stalked by a murderous EldritchAbomination, and by the book's halfway point, you're wondering why the [[EightDeadlyWords the titular Terror doesn't just put everybody out of their misery already]].
* Brought up in ''[[Literature/AliceInWonderland Through the Looking-Glass]]''. Tweedledum and Tweedledee recite the poem about The Walrus and the Carpenter. After hearing the poem, Alice wonders about who is the more sympathetic of the two. But the twins point out that both of the duo ate as many of the oysters as they could. After much thought, Alice concludes that '''both''' of them were very unpleasant characters.
* ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'':
** Many of the critics and even some of the fans claim that the series suffers this badly in the LoveTriangle the third book ''Eclipse'' is built around. Edward, Bella, and Jacob all come off as extremely possessive, selfish, and emotionally manipulative {{Jerkass}}es to the point that some found all possible resolutions to the triangle equally repugnant.
** There's also the issue of the Volturi. They are built up as a corrupt government who ruthlessly murder vampires over any slight, forcibly "collect" powerful vampires, and look for excuses to destroy the Cullen family. The problem is, vampires as a whole are a bunch of murderous animals who do nothing but think about their next meal and who to kill to get it. Thus, not only are the Volturi the only ones trying to instill any sense of order into the vampire world, but they're the few actually ''keeping'' the vampires from slaughtering humans without restraint. Even the Cullens in no way condemn or try to stop this behavior, which makes their declarations that human lives are valuable come across as rather hollow. Meanwhile, in spite of the fact that they're supposed to be defending humanity, the werewolves apparently slack off a good bit (they do nothing to stop Peter and Charlotte in ''Midnight Sun'', even though there were werewolves transforming at that time), and actively go ''against'' their duties when Jacob imprints on Renesmee and puts her before his job as Alpha. This is all best summed up by their actions in ''Breaking Dawn''. The Volturi try to use Renesmee as an excuse to kill the Cullens and their allies, the allies are so kind as to go outside the city limits to slaughter people during their stay, the werewolves do nothing to stop this because the allies are needed to protect Renesmee, and the Cullens loan cars so the allies can find victims more easily.
** One problem ''Twilight'' has is that all of the characters that are jerks are pushed to the front of the story, often having incredibly fucked up backstories despite being portrayed rather positively (Jasper, Sam), while the ones that aren't are either pushed to the background as fast as possible (Bella's school friends), portrayed negatively despite not really showing any negative traits (Bella's school friends again, Charlie in the early books, and Leah, although her case is more that her negative traits exist but aren't really her fault so much), or made worse in an apparent attempt to make them less sympathetic (Jacob, Charlie again). About the only character in the book that isn't either a massive jerk or made one, but still stays roughly important in the story is Carlisle. And even his morals and motives are somewhat questionable.
* ''Literature/TheWitcher'': [[CrapsackWorld The world]] is filled with monsters, FantasticRacism at its absolute worst, and a total lack of any sign of change that it makes it hard to get invested in what happens. Really, who do you want to root for? A bunch of back-stabbing racists? [[TheEmpire The evil empire]] conquering the known world? Mages and sorceresses playing their own game of world domination? Cruel elven supremacists? Or maybe an ignorant hunter, who kills everyone in his way? Oh, and you know from the start how meaningless everything is since you are informed before the ''title page'' of the first book about the incoming ice age destined to destroy '''everything.''' It kinda makes you wonder what the point is of even having a story.
* ''Literature/WutheringHeights'' can induce this reaction, in the 'too bleak and angsty and without hope' subcategory. (Creator/JasperFforde's ''Literature/ThursdayNext'' books parody this with an anger management class for the characters, who are warned that their drama has made the story more angsty and angry as time goes by, and they risk going the same way as ''Theatre/TitusAndronicus'': "Once a gentle comedy of manners, it's now the daftest, bloodiest tale in all of [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Shakespeare]]!")
* The works of Creator/BretEastonEllis can have that effect, as pretty much everyone in them is completely shallow, self-absorbed, and stupid. Given that this is deliberate, you probably know what you're in for when you start one of his books. Clay in ''Literature/LessThanZero'' may be an in-universe example, as eventually he finds himself passively watching horrible things (like his friends [[spoiler: face-raping a drugged 12-year-old girl]]) while saying he just wanted "to see the worst".
* Creator/ChuckPalahniuk's works definitely fall under this, which causes some to think of him as a nihilist and a shock writer. As an example, ''Film/FightClub'': it's the road of a man becoming a nihilistic ''terrorist'' ([[spoiler:via the development of a SplitPersonality who embodies everything he wants to be]]) who wants to ''destroy all of society, casualties barely be damned, because he's sick of people's consumerism'', and who manages to raise a secret army [[WeAreEverywhere who is literally everywhere]], ''even inside the police''. Although in the text/movie's defense, it came out ''long'' before 9/11 (which made having a character with this kind of mentality and who [[spoiler:somewhat]] successfully manages to carry it out a ''gigantic'' no-no), but the comic-book continuation by Creator/DarkHorseComics shows the narrator as being on the fast track to try to fulfill his "urge" again... whether he wants to or not.
* Robert Cormier wrote a lot of books that fit easily into this, and a few books that would have avoided this if the likeable characters hadn't died (such as [[spoiler: Kate in ''After The First Death'']]) or been beaten into submission. The best chance his characters are ever given is that the next life might be better than this one (and his later works [[CessationOfExistence deny even that]].)
* ''Literature/TheMayorOfCasterbridge''. Everyone is, without exception, demonically evil or flat. This is a common complaint about Creator/ThomasHardy. A contemporary reviewer of his work stated that, "[His work] is depressing because he himself is somewhat depressed" and boy does it ever show. ''Literature/JudeTheObscure'' and ''Literature/TessOfTheDUrbervilles'' are both unrelentingly depressing ShootTheShaggyDog stories. Hardy was to some extent trying to skewer the Victorian values of the day and make the point that it was impossible for good people to survive in such a system, but as the audience, it's difficult to not just stop caring about these characters once it's obvious that any HopeSpot will only lead to another horrible disappointment.
* Many Creator/TomHolt books suffer from this. The protagonists are sometimes just as cynical, ruthless, selfish, vapid, cowardly, and/or nasty as the erstwhile antagonists. ''Valhalla'' and ''Little People'' are particularly memorable in this regard.
* With a title like ''[[Literature/WorstPersonEver Worst. Person. Ever.]]'', you'd expect this trope to rear its ugly head. [[VillainProtagonist Raymond Gunt]] is an unrepentant misogynist who brings so much misfortune onto himself, while everyone else around him is just as corrupt and assholish, but evades karma. The novel's relentless heaping of bad luck onto Ray makes it rather difficult to get through. However, judging by Coupland saying he wanted to "damage the reader" with ''Worst. Person. Ever.'', it seems this trope was indeed intended.
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* George Orwell's ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour''. Winston and Julia are both suspicious, bitter, cowardly, and (initially at least) demonstrate few desires beyond basic gratification. They're willing to commit unspeakable atrocities to overthrow one of the most horrific and utterly evil totalitarian governments ever conceived. The story ends with [[spoiler:Winston and Julia as lobotomized, dehumanized robots with all their old personalities gone, replaced with soulless nihilism and love of the Party, and they're probably both going to be shot anyway. The Ingsoc government continues to exist to spew propaganda and control, torture, and humiliate their own citizens for amusement. Oh, and it's implied that Eurasia and Eastasia are exactly the same as Oceania, so there's nowhere in the world to escape from it.]] Entirely intentional on Orwell's part, as he volunteered in the UsefulNotes/SpanishCivilWar on the Republican side and quickly learned how authoritarian regimes horribly distort the truth to their own ends, and how often the methods of one's own government can be NotSoDifferent from those of your enemies.[[note]]To be precise, when Orwell joined the Republican side, he joined a left-anarchist faction that was genuinely well-intentioned and committed to improving the lives of ordinary Spaniards, but which had the misfortune to be the losers in an intra-factional dispute with the much bigger communist faction, which was essentially controlled by the Soviets and which didn't want any undisciplined anarchists not toeing the line from Moscow.[[/note]]

* ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' has an initial premise that is dark enough (children forced to kill one another on national television), but for the first couple of books they're still plenty engaging, with human kindness even in the midst of brutality, and hopes of rebellion and change. The third book goes into a swan-dive down the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism. Katniss' PTSD and emotional disconnect from the world increases (and she's our narrator, which makes for tough reading) and the factions come to seem [[NotSoDifferent more and more alike]], both of them horrible. Throw in [[AnyoneCanDie arbitrary and senseless deaths]] and an ending that seems built to deny any meaningful closure... well, some fans applaud the "realism" of ''Mockingjay,'' and others just found it a slog.

* ''Franchise/HannibalLecter'' novels ''Literature/{{Hannibal}}'' and ''Literature/HannibalRising'' both suffer from this. Almost none of the main characters have any redeeming attributes (sans Clarice, but she's basically a pawn half the time, and in the novel ends up ''falling for Lecter'')--and those who do are mercilessly picked on or forced out of the action. Meanwhile, [[ImAHumanitarian Hannibal Lecter]] himself, the murderous psychopath, is practically presented as the hero. Hannibal himself is part of why ''Hannibal'' falls into the trope. Even though he is a psychopathic murderer, the vital heart of ''Silence'' was the dynamic between Lecter and Clarice; Lecter comes to admire the doggedness and pure, honest nature of her and treats her as kindly as anyone in a crapsack world where seemingly every male treats her horribly. By turning him back into more or less a standard murderer on the loose and severing that mutual respect, it throws ''Hannibal'' into this trope, as discussed in great detail by Creator/RogerEbert [[http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/hannibal-2001 in his review]]:

** The ''Monster Blood'' series, in particular, hardly has any likable characters. Evan Ross, the main character of all four books, is an unlikably whiny kid and makes a bunch of dumb decisions that cause him to waste away any sympathetic points any reader will ever give him. It doesn't help that he doesn't get better in any of the books following the first book, as he gets even whinier and dumber in each and every one of them. There's also the other characters of the series that aren't much better, such as [[ParentalNeglect Evan's parents]], [[JerkJock Conan Barber]], [[SadistTeacher Mr. Murphy]], and [[InsufferableGenius Evan's cousin Kermit]]. And we don't even need to get into the NegativeContinuity and poor plotting.

* ''The Literature/BasLagCycle'' by China Miéville may induce this. The first book's DownerEnding may be tolerable because the main characters are, at least, somewhat decent people and thus inspire some pathos, but by the end of the series the repeated evils InherentInTheSystem never improve or get foiled. The fact that the only people who are ever seen suffering are the protagonists, and thus the stakes becoming '[[TheBadGuyWins all this nameless, faceless evil and injustice is allowed to continue]] to oppress what few decent people we ''do'' meet' may make you wish [[spoiler:Spiral Jacobs]] succeeded in wiping the whole thing off the map in the last book.

* In "The Merchant's Tale" of Chaucer's ''Literature/TheCanterburyTales'', the merchant's tale of a wife's adultery is supposed to show women as dishonest, but the poisonous way all characters, including the wronged husband are portrayed makes it difficult to sympathize with any of them. This is almost certainly deliberate, as several of Chaucer's characters let their view color their stories and how they tell them.

* ''Literature/TheClique''. The protagonists are an AlphaBitch and her GirlPosse, but the series does ''very little'' to make them seem likable or sympathetic, there's ''loads'' of ChronicBackstabbingDisorder, and it's heavily implied the main character is a sociopath. [[spoiler: And the series ends with ''[[KarmaHoudini absolutely none of them]]'' [[KarmaHoudini getting what they deserve]]]]. Plus the series is an IndecisiveParody, so it's never really clear what we're supposed to think of the characters. Later books added some {{deconstruction}} elements, but for many it was too late.
* The works of Creator/CormacMcCarthy (for example ''Literature/TheRoad'', ''Film/TheSunsetLimited'' and ''Film/NoCountryForOldMen'') can definitely bring this up--good people are powerless and die senselessly (or are pile-driven past the DespairEventHorizon [[FateWorseThanDeath and may as well be dead]]), the bad guys (when there are any) are [[ImplacableMan like forces of nature]], the world itself is hard-core crap-sack (and on ''The Road'', it is flat-out DeathWorld crap-sack), and it is impossible InUniverse and out for people to find a reason to live on a daily basis. What few good things are there are ''very'' small lights in a really big field of darkness.

* ''Literature/TheElricSaga'': It's maybe hard to go through all the books with Elric's constant misery and casual cruelty, not to mention that [[spoiler: all of his friends and loved ones are either killed by Stormbringer or by the villains in the sixth book]]. Certainly evoked by Moorcock, who wanted to deconstruct the popular epic fantasy stories of the time such as ''Lord of the Rings'' and ''Conan the Barbarian'' by dialing the brooding UpToEleven and giving an air of hopelessness and nihlism in Elric's ultimately vain quest to fight his fate.

* ''Literature/FireAndBlood'' can seem this way during the Dance of the Dragons. While the broader work of ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' is excellent at making you more sympathetic towards most sides of a conflict, the parts about the Dance of the Dragons in this novel can make a reader lean towards KillThemAll not only for the members of the two factions, but even for the smallfolk affected by them as well.

** The ''Monster Blood'' series, in particular, hardly has any likable characters. Evan Ross, the main character of all four books, is an unlikably whiny kid and makes a bunch of dumb decisions that causes him to waste away any sympathetic points any reader will ever give him. It doesn't help he gets no better in any of the books following the first book, as he gets even whinier and dumber in each and every one of them. There's also the other characters of the series that aren't much better, such as [[ParentalNeglect Evan's parents]], [[JerkJock Conan Barber]], [[SadistTeacher Mr. Murphy]], and [[InsufferableGenius Evan's cousin Kermit]]. And we don't even need to get into the NegativeContinuity and poor plotting.

* This was something Creator/StevenSpielberg took great measures to avoid when adapting ''Literature/{{Jaws}}'', because the original book suffered from this: the protagonists in the novel are so unlikable, selfish, and hypocritical that they make the ''shark'' look decent by comparison.

* ''Literature/LikeWaterForChocolate'' piles so many disgraces on the protagonist Tita, makes her LoveInterest Pedro so spineless and selfish, and reduces the other characters (specially Tita's big sister/Pedro´s wife Rosaura) to such unlikeable assholes... that many readers have given up mid-reading, since it's a chore to read and wonder "what's gonna happen to her '''now'''?!"

* ''Literature/NightWatchSeries'' is a debatable case. The eponymous Night Watch claims it wants to improve the world, but in practice this means [[TheEvilsOfFreeWill making everyone else think like they do]], and their actions include [[WeDidntStartTheFuhrer putting Hitler in power]]. The Day Watch talks of freedom of choice, but they're [[ItsAllAboutMe selfish]], [[TheHedonist hedonistic]], and frequently {{hypocrit|e}}ical. {{Muggles}} are [[ImAHumanitarian snacks]], and [[PunyEarthlings there's nothing they could conceivably do to influence the situation]]. On the other hand, it's only the upper ranks that are rotten--both the Night Watch and the Day Watch have good and honorable members in the field. This comes full circle when it is revealed that [[spoiler: at the highest levels, the Watches are actually working together; the conflict between them is mostly for the sake of keeping the Others away from normal people, and the Watches often deliberately sabotage their own efforts to overtly influence human society. Their ''real'' plans to improve the world are much more subtle and cooperative.]]
* George Orwell's ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour''. Winston and Julia are both suspicious, bitter, cowardly and (initially at least) demonstrate few desires beyond basic gratification. They're willing to commit unspeakable atrocities to overthrow one of the most horrific and utterly evil totalitarian governments ever conceived. The story ends with [[spoiler:Winston and Julia as lobotomized, dehumanized robots with all their old personalities gone, replaced with soulless nihilism and love of the Party, and they're probably both going to be shot anyway. The Ingsoc government continues to exist to spew propaganda and control, torture and humiliate their own citizens for amusement. Oh, and it's implied that Eurasia and Eastasia are exactly the same as Oceania, so there's nowhere in the world to escape from it.]] Entirely intentional on Orwell's part, as he volunteered in the UsefulNotes/SpanishCivilWar on the Republican side and quickly learned how authoritarian regimes horribly distort the truth to their own ends, and how often the methods of one's own government can be NotSoDifferent from those of your enemies.[[note]]To be precise, when Orwell joined the Republican side, he joined a left-anarchist faction that was genuinely well-intentioned and committed to improving the lives of ordinary Spaniards, but which had the misfortune to be the losers in an intra-factional dispute with the much bigger communist faction, which was essentially controlled by the Soviets and which didn't want any undisciplined anarchists not toeing the line from Moscow.[[/note]]

* Scott Smith's book ''Film/TheRuins'' is made of this trope. Some college students are vacationing in Mexico and after finding their way onto some Mayan ruins, are trapped there at arrow-point by local natives. Meanwhile, some vines on the ruins are not only carnivorous, but also intelligent. The first third of the book somewhat averts this trope as the protagonists try a few different things to make the best of the situation. The second third of the book is essentially them giving up, bickering with each other constantly, and constantly suffering. In the final third, they all die. Bonus points are when it's revealed that the vines are basically godlike in power and knowledge, and could have easily killed them at any time, but preferred to torture them ForTheEvulz. The film was ''slightly'' less dark and edgy than the book.

* The Literature/StarTrekNovelVerse is starting to have this effect after the two part novels ''Plagues of the Night'' and ''Raise the Dawn.'' The series had already gone through a completely legitimate rough patch with the Borg war of ''Literature/StarTrekDestiny'', only for a new cold war with the Typhon Pact to occur. Which was fine until these two books: [[spoiler: which destroyed Deep Space Nine, the Bajoran Wormhole and KilledOffForReal about five really popular characters from the TV shows.]] The books following have increased the canon character body count, [[spoiler: and the Federation is starting to collapse]]. The story has already written itself into OnlyTheAuthorCanSaveThemNow but the stories like the authors just want [[CrapsackWorld everyone dead or completely miserable.]] It's probably one reason why ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' cherry picks from the novelverse.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': Though the series has its share of likable characters, it's also full of death. While initially the death of the "main" character was a refreshing twist, by the end of ''A Storm Of Swords'' so many of the characters had been killed off [[FateWorseThanDeath or worse]] that some readers found it hard to care about the rest of them. Also all the endless, gratuitous war crimes perpetrated by all factions--rapes, skinned children crucified for miles, burning women alive after raping them--not only began to lose their shock value, but made it hard to care about who wins in the end. Some are even convinced that the BigBad of the series, the Others, are practically saints by comparison, making it difficult to consider them a dire threat. Of course, this is still averted occasionally, since many of the people who end up dying are very loathsome villains (a giant rapist and war criminal spending weeks dying due to a man he killed having poisoned him, a psychotic mercenary who loves maiming being gradually cut to pieces, a sadistic RoyalBrat being poisoned and choking to death...). It's frequently shown that just being evil isn't helpful in the long-term. Additionally, and perhaps most importantly, [[spoiler: it appears that the Northern Houses are planning to restore the Starks, the de facto good guys, and kill the Boltons, their arch enemies. House Manderly even bakes Bolton allies in pies and state that 'the North remembers' the hideous crimes committed on their kin, allies and the Starks. It's enough to make many fans cry tears of happiness. Simply, hope has returned, which averts this trope a bit.]]
** Played straight however, with its rather cynical view of [[TheMiddleAges medieval life]] and of human nature in general. Knights are depicted as little more than glorified thugs, the rulers use underhanded tactics in an attempt to keep their power, and NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished. The fact that it was (ostensibly) based on UsefulNotes/TheWarsOfTheRoses doesn't help.

* ''Literature/TheTerror'' by Creator/DanSimmons falls into this. Already you know a vast majority of the characters are doomed, due to the book being based on a real-life failed Arctic expedition and [[SpoiledByTheFormat the graves of main characters being marked on the book's map.]] Add to that the sheer number of unlikable characters (and good characters making stupid decisions and/or [[DroppedABridgeOnHim getting bridges dropped on them right and left]]), the AnyoneCanDie attitude, the countless [[HopeSpot hope spots]] that always turn out to be for naught, and the fact that the majority of the book follows a crew of starving, freezing, scurvy-afflicted sailors and Marines being stalked by a murderous EldritchAbomination, and by the book's halfway point you're wondering why the [[EightDeadlyWords the titular Terror doesn't just put everybody out of their misery already]].
* Brought up in ''[[Literature/AliceInWonderland Through the Looking-Glass]]''. Tweedledum and Tweedledee recite the poem about The Walrus and the Carpenter. After hearing the poem, Alice wonders about who is the more sympathetic of the two. But the twins points it out that both of the duo ate as many of the oysters as they could. After much thought, Alice concludes that '''both''' of them were very unpleasant characters.

** Many of the critics and even some of the fans claim that the series suffers this badly in the LoveTriangle the third book ''Eclipse'' is built around. Edward, Bella, and Jacob all come off as extremely possessive, selfish and emotionally manipulative {{Jerkass}}es to the point that some found all possible resolutions to the triangle equally repugnant.

* ''Literature/TheWitcher'': [[CrapsackWorld The world]] is filled with monsters, FantasticRacism at its absolute worst, and a total lack of any sign of change that it makes it hard to get invested in what happens. Really, who do you want to root for? A bunch of back-stabbing racists? [[TheEmpire The evil empire]] conquering the known world? Mages and sorceresses playing their own game of world domination? Cruel elven supremacists? Or maybe an ignorant hunter, who kills everyone in his way? Oh, and you know from the start how meaningless everything is, since you are informed before the ''title page'' of the first book about the incoming ice age destined to destroy '''everything.''' It kinda makes you wonder what the point is of even having a story.

* The works of Creator/BretEastonEllis can have that effect, as pretty much everyone in them is completely shallow, self-absorbed and stupid. Given that this is deliberate, you probably know what you're in for when you start one of his books. Clay in ''Literature/LessThanZero'' may be an in-universe example, as eventually he finds himself passively watching horrible things (like his friends [[spoiler: face-raping a drugged 12-year-old girl]]) while saying he just wanted "to see the worst".

* ''Literature/TheMayorOfCasterbridge''. Everyone is, without exception, demonically evil or flat. This is a common complaint about Creator/ThomasHardy. A contemporary reviewer of his work stated that, "[His work] is depressing because he himself is somewhat depressed" and boy does it ever show. ''Literature/JudeTheObscure'' and ''Literature/TessOfTheDUrbervilles'' are both unrelentingly depressing ShootTheShaggyDog stories. Hardy was to some extent trying to skewer the Victorian values of the day and make the point that it was impossible for good people to survive in such a system, but as the audience it's difficult to not just stop caring about these characters once it's obvious that any HopeSpot will only lead to another horrible disappointment.

* ''Literature/AtlasShrugged'' is this, [[ValuesDissonance at least to non-Objectivists]], for the same reasons as ''Film/TheBirthOfANation1915''. You don’t want either side to win because the conflict is between corrupt government shills hoping to set up a Soviet-style communist dictatorship, and equally {{Corrupt Corporate Executive}}s who lionize their own selfishness and set up ''the collapse of civilization'' just to increase their profit margin.

** For some readers, this apathy occurred in the first book, and they've never looked back when they [[IncrediblyLamePun threw the book on a fire]]. The fact that every character except Ned Stark (who [[ItWasHisSled dies halfway throught the first book]]) was a JerkAss to the extreme made the book a chore to read, not even close to escapism and entertainment. Tellingly, Creator/VoxDay, author of ''A Throne of Bones'' [[https://speculativefaith.lorehaven.com/on-the-throne-of-bones-a-q-and-a-with-vox-day/ pointed out]] that his ''real'' issue with the stories was not so much the [[CrapsackWorld ugliness]], [[BlackAndGreyMorality hatred]], and [[PerverseSexualLust perversion]] within the narrative as the [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism near-complete absence of beauty, love, and normalcy to counter them]].

* ''Literature/TheFoxAndTheHound'' is a MatureAnimalStory, right? Well, for some readers the best they can say is that the two title characters come across as [[BlueAndOrangeMorality intentionally written as very alien in their thinking]] since they're animals that don't have human morals, and at worst they come across as a pair of {{Villain Protagonist}}s [[EvilVsEvil who are hostile to each other]]. The other characters are either, again, animals without human morals, or humans [[HumansAreCthulhu seen through animal eyes:]] mysterious, unpredictable, and seemingly all-powerful. The final chapters rail against urbanization to the point of AuthorTract and careen headlong into a massive DownerEnding. It was so dark that some readers couldn't sympathize with even the eponymous characters, and that's one the reason Creator/{{Disney}} decided to give [[WesternAnimation/TheFoxAndTheHound their film adaptation]] a complete overhaul for all characters.

** Another particular novel that falls towards this trope is ''You Can't Scare Me'', which features protagonist Eddie and his friends trying to scare Courtney. Problem is Courtney isn't really particularly nasty and hasn't really done anything cruel to deserve such retribution, which makes Eddie and his pals come off as [[DesignatedHero Designated Heroes]]. One the other hand, Courtney is also [[MarySue seemingly too perfect]], which is the InUniverse reason Eddie and his friends are obsessed with taking her down a peg any way they can and gives an equally good reason to not root for her either. The whole book has readers questioning whose side are we exactly supposed to take here.

* ''Literature/TheMazeRunner'' series is this to a great degree. While the first book is likeable enough for young adult fiction, the second takes a nosedive as [[spoiler: the protagonist is betrayed by almost all of his friends, who reason that they work ForTheGreaterGood and actually blame ''him'' for acting sensible and trying to question things.]] Then the third book reveals that [[spoiler: all the ordeals that the experimental subjects had to endure was pointless because there is no cure for the Flare virus, which means that the only thing humanity can do is let the teenagers start again in [[DeusExMachina a new paradise which comes out of nowhere]], which means that ''the entire'' trilogy could have been avoided had the higher powers shed their smugness and actually told the teenagers what was going on.]] AdultsAreUseless, indeed.

** The degree of hopelessness in TMR universe is all the more highlighted when a companion book [[WhamEpisode reveals the origin of the Flare virus]]: [[spoiler: it's [[HumansAreBastards man-made]]]]. No, really. A certain scientist devised the virus as a way to reduce overpopulation due to the shrinking resources caused by the Sun Flare, [[TooDumbToLive without thinking that, sometimes, viruses mutate]].

* ''Literature/TheMazeRunner'' series is this to a great degree. While the first book is likeable enough for young adult fiction, the second takes a nosedive as [[spoiler: the protagonist is betrayed by almost all of his friends, who reason that they work ForTheGreaterGood and actually blame ''him'' for acting sensible and trying to question things.]] Then the third book reveals that [[spoiler: all the ordeals that the experimental subjects had to endure was pointless because there is no cure for the Flare virus, which means that the only thing humanity can do is let the teenagers start again in [[DeusExMachina a new paradise which comes out of nowhere]], which means that ''the entire trilogy could have been avoided had the higher powers shed their smugness and actually told the teenagers what was going on''.]] AdultsAreUseless, indeed.
** The degree of hopelessness in TMR universe is all the more highlighted when a companion book [[WhamEpisode reveals the origin of the Flare virus]]: [[spoiler: it's [[HumansAreBastards man-made]]. No, really. A certain scientist devised the virus as a way to reduce overpopulation due to the shrinking resources caused by the Sun Flare, [[TooDumbToLive without thinking that, sometimes, viruses mutate]].

* ''Literature/TheMazeRunner'' series is this to a great degree. While the first book is likeable enough for young adult fiction, the second takes a nosedive as [[spoiler: the protagonist is betrayed by almost all of his friends, who reason that they work ForTheGreaterGood and actually blame ''him'' for acting sensible and trying to question things.]] Then the third book reveals that [[spoiler: all the ordeals that the experimental subjects had to endure was pointless because there is no cure for the Flare virus, which means that the only thing humanity can do is let the teenagers start anew in [[DeusExMachina a new paradise which comes out of nowhere]], which means that ''the entire trilogy could have been avoided had the higher powers shed their smugness and actually told the teenagers what was going on''.]] AdultsAreUseless, indeed.

** The degree of hopelessness in TMR universe is all the more highlighted when a companion book [[WhamEpisode reveals the origin of the Flare virus]]: [[spoiler: it's [[HumansAreBastards man-made]]. No, really. A certain scientist advised the virus as a way to reduce overpopulation due to the shrinking resources caused by the Sun Flare, [[TooDumbToLive without thinking that, sometimes, virus mutates]]. [[IdiotBall For no reason at all]].]]