History DarknessInducedAudienceApathy / Literature

* ''Literature/TheMazeRunner'' series is this to a great degree. While the first book is likeable enough for a 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.]]

* ''Literature/TheMazeRunner'' series is this to a great degree. While the first book is likeable enough for a young adult fiction, the second takes a sky dive 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 try to question why is this and that.]] Then the third book reveals that [[spoiler: all the predicament that the experimental subjects have to endure is useless at the very end because there is no cure for the Flare virus, which means that all humanity can do is to let the teenagers start anew in [[DeusExMachina a paradise that comes out of nowhere]], which means that ''the entire trilogy can be averted had the higher powers shed their smugness and actually tell said teenagers what's going on''. AdultsAreUseless, indeed.]]

* ''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.

* ''Literature/TheFoxAndTheHound'' is a MatureAnimalStory, right? Well, all the characters in the story are sickening {{Jerkass}}es, and both the fox and the dog are {{Villain Protagonist}}s [[EvilVsEvil who are hostile to each other]]. It was so dark that many readers couldn't try sympathize with the eponymous characters, and that's also the reason Creator/{{Disney}} decided to give [[WesternAnimation/TheFoxAndTheHound their film adaptation]] a complete overhaul for all characters.

** 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 he first book]]) was a JerkAss to the extreme made the book a chore to read, not even close to escape and entertainment. Making your story painful to read is no path to success, so it was a poor business move by George Martin. 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/NightWatch'' 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.]]

** 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 unable for even most diehard fans to read the novel.

** 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 he first book]]) was a JerkAss to the extreme made the book a chore to read, not even close to escape and entertainment. Making your story painful to read is no path to success, so it was a poor business move by George Martin.

** 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 he first book]]was a JerkAss to the extreme made the book a chore to read, not even close to escape and entertainment. Making your story painful to read doesn't seem like a path to success, but with today's younger generations (primarily Millennials and Gen Z, with some younger Gen X thrown in) craving {{CrapsackWorld}}s and "grim-dark", [[DownerEnding pessimistic]] fantasies of death, [[EvilVersusEvil suffering]], and [[BlackAndGreyMorality pain]], it was probably a brilliant business move by George Martin, in hindsight.

* In Creator/JRRTolkien's ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'', the seven sons of Fëanor, Túrin, Petty-Dwarves and later the Númenoreans suffer from this.

* A number of ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' series are falling into this trope. Starting with Literature/NewJediOrder, the books have become progressively {{darker|AndEdgier}} and everything just seems to be getting worse. Came to a head in Literature/LegacyOfTheForce, which ended [[spoiler: with Jacen dying after being hacked to pieces and left in an incinerator, the galaxy under control of [[GeneralRipper Daala]], and the galaxy wrecked by yet another pointless war]].
** The New Star Wars canon is also going in this direction. With the events of the sequel trilogy wiping out all gains from the original, shattering the new Republic, bringing back the Emperor, and a somehow even more powerful empire. The entire Sith/Jedi ForeverWar has shades of this as well.

* 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.

* Scott Smith's The Ruins 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.

* ''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 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. 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/{{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. The only characters that end up getting a HappyEnding are Marco and Cassie, with [[spoiler:Rachel ending up being dead]], [[spoiler:Jake having to live with the knowledge that he murderered thousands of defenseless Yeerks]], [[spoiler:Tobias having to live without Rachel]], and [[spoiler:Ax being consumed and absorbed prior to the BolivianArmyEnding]].

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': Though the series has its share of [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/YMMV/HomePage 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.]]

* ''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.]]

* ''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. As such, there's a good reason many people prefer [[Film/LogansRun the film's]] slightly more idealistic take on the premise.

* ''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.

* The Franchise/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 White Walkers, 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.]]

** 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. 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]].

** 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 unable for even most diehard fans to read.

** 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 [[Disproportionate retribution they forgot minor manners.]] It makes the villain far more unlikable than intended, and it makes the punishment the two main leads had received unable for even most diehard fans to read.