Quote:
Originally Posted by Anke Wehner
I haven't read much like that, but I agree 100% with the principle. Some delicious snark can make most things enjoyable. 
It's the "this is so HARDCORE BRUTALLY DARK!!!" or the "Look how tragic! You must sympatise with him/her! Because their life was so TRAGIC and SAD" things that take themselves seriously that don't work for me. |
I think the perfect example of dark but really witty (in a black humour sort of way) is the comic Preacher by Garth Ennis. It's insanely crapsack, low-brow, and offensive, but also incredibly funny. I haven't found that many books that are as consistently dark and witty. I think what allows me to tolerate super crapsack worlds is whether the darkness feels like "life is crap, but we go on", instead of "my life is terrible, please pity me, I am an angst machine." Former is realistic, latter is melodrama. Authors have to manage the tone properly and not make it feel contrived.