This week: On the Dark Side Edited by: Kit  
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Do you prefer lighter stories, or do you prefer the dark? Why?
Everyone has a dark side. A lot of fiction does, too.
This week's Action/Adventure Newsletter is all about unpleasant themes in fiction.
Kit |
I admit it – I quite enjoy stories that are light and cute and fluffy. The invention of romantasy is right up my street, as are the cozy novels. The world can be a tough place, and curling up with something nice and easy with little to no violence and without an overdose of drama is just what I need – every now and then anyway. I do also like darker novels. From Stephen Kings to thrillers, I love getting caught up in an exciting story. That does make me wonder, though… why can it be so enjoyable to read about something I’d abhor in real life?
I would never want to meet a serial killer, but I love The Poet by Michael Connelly. I wouldn’t want for one of my cats to turn into a zombie, but Stephen King’s Pet Sematary sure is a memorable creepy novel. I love my action movies, especially the older style where there’s bullets everywhere yet little to no gore, but I would never want to get caught up in a plot like that. It’s exciting to watch the explosions and the car chases, people dangling from helicopters or doing battle on top of a speeding train… all from the comfort of my own home. And that’s it, isn’t it? Through fiction we can have all these experiences and ponder what they’d be like, without us actually being in danger. We can imagine ourselves in such a situation and think through how we’d respond, without having to run, and hide, or stand up against a genuine threat. It’s easy to mock the silly person on screen, who insisted on checking out that strange noise in the basement because, obviously, we know better – we put on the horror movie and know it’s not going to go down well for them. What would we do if we heard a strange noise in real life? Would we ignore it, or go and check it out after all?
But then, there’s a trend for books far darker than that. Dark romances, for example, with the kind of relationships one would seriously not want to find themselves in. Partners who abuse the other, wage psychological warfare on one another… there are some deeply unhealthy things going on. Yet, they’re really popular. I guess they, too, are a safe way to explore challenging and taboo themes and that can be cathartic. Except I do worry sometimes, because relationships like that are too often romanticized.
When we read about war, or serial killers, or zombie cats, we are well aware that these are bad things. Things to avoid. When it comes to romance, even regular romance stories often tread a fine line. It’s seen as romantic for a guy to keep on chasing a girl after she turns him down. A woman slapping a man is often portrayed as justified, nor no big deal, or even comedic, which is messed up when you think about it. In some stories outside of the dark romance novels stalking and control are depicted as signs of devotion. I can change him/her is the message, all too often, and that’s not realistic.
But it’s fiction, isn’t it? Fiction need not be realistic. If we can write about dragons and unicorns, space cowboys and gremlins, we can explore the dark side of human nature. And it doesn’t have to be something I am drawn to, just like I am not drawn to westerns (unless they are, indeed, in space and have Pedro Pascal in it and cute little Grogu).
Except, sometimes I do worry. Because the trend for quite a few years now is to make everything darker, grittier, gorier. And I don’t know why. If, in the past, it was fine to have action with bullets flying everywhere but little to no blood, why do we now need to see everything? Horror used to be super creepy without showing every slash and cut. And romance… well, as said, it has always been kind of problematic. Even Jane Austen’s Emma features a relationship between a young woman and a man old enough to be her dad who obviously knows everything so much better than Emma...
Maybe it’s people like me, then, who are the target audience for the cozy stories. No splattering brains, no stalking, no horror. That’s not to everyone’s tastes, either, so at least everyone’s catered to.
Kit
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The Action/Adventure Newsletter Team
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Action/Adventure: October 08, 2025 Issue [#13392]
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