It wasn’t the focus on darkness it was the gore, something I’ve disliked in any form of entertainment since I was a child. Overly graphic violence feels like the easy way out.

As for darkness moving me? It moves me far more than light. Too many to list them all, but here’s a few: The Road, All the Ugly and Wonderful Things, The Innocents, The First Day of Spring, Shuggie Bain, and Too Bright to Hear Too Loud to See.

Just wanted to point out that escapism and/or moral uplift aren’t the only reasons people write or read novels.

It almost seems you are offended by Markley’s obvious focus on darkness and suffering; I actually really respected how Markley’s focus on darkness did not end in despair, in fact, one of the closing sentences reads:

“She understood, vividly, that the most astonishing gift of consciousness was also our tragedy, our cliché, our great curse: Love’s absolute refusal to ever surrender”.

Like Leonard Cohen, another poet of the darkness, once sang;

OUR LOVE IS NOT A VICTORY MARCH;
IT’S A COLD AND BROKEN HALLELUJAH.

I would be interested to hear what books or movies moved you despite their darkness?

I guess in the end, all of our opinions about art are just that; at the end of the day, you are not wrong and I am not right. Different strokes for different folks?

On a somewhat related note, let me end by sharing the words on the tombstone of the Christian author C.S. Lewis;

THE NIGHT HAS ENDED; THIS IS THE MORNING.

I know! Sometimes I wish I could be the light, cheery optimist, but I don’t see it happening. Not in this country right now. I can’t build a bubble big enough to not know/care what’s happening.

Well, you know that’s one reason it appealed to me.

Thanks. I got a bit cranky.

You don’t need this one at all. The plot reminded me of Girls Burn Brighter- the violence and degradation felt gratuitous. And the length was unnecessary.