Nachos Con Carne is set in a junior high school full of malicious students and mostly indifferent teachers, so it's pretty bleak to start with. Pair it off with the backstories of the main characters, and the world turns crapsack pretty quick.
I inject a lot of hope and humor and cute moments to balance it out, however, since I don't like really moody and angsty stories.
I'd probably rate it a 5, 6 tops.
Mine's a solid nine out of ten. The Devil's Colt saga takes place on modern-day Earth, only the entire world is secretly run by three factions. The forces of Heaven, the Noble Houses of Hell, and the Fallen Crime Families.
Each one has their own agenda, and none of them are terribly concerned with the overall safety and well being of mankind. With Heaven attempting to subjugate humanity by enforcing rigid dogma on them that benefits no one but themselves. Of the three factions, they could be considered the 'least' evil and manipulative simply because their plan does actually include humanity's overall well being in it. At least in the long run. But their influence over the world has begun to wane over the past century, making it difficult for them to keep up with the other two factions.
The Noble Houses of Hell are pragmatic to a fault and nothing gets done without a deal being struck in their world. They're about as Machiavellian as you can get and they favor power and control above all else. As of right now, they're the strongest of the three factions seeing as they currently dominate the global economy. Their attitude towards humanity as a whole is that of a means to and end, and while they're not outright cruel and vicious as the Fallen Ones are, they're still an incredibly callous and arrogant group. If you're ever watching the news and you hear about some rich corporate elite raising the price of a life-saving medication, chances are good they had something to do with it.
Finally, there's the Fallen Crime Families. And while you could argue that the other two factions have some redeeming qualities, nothing could be further from the truth with this bunch. As the head of the global black-market, the Fallen Ones dominate organized crime on planet earth. Drug smuggling, gun-running, human trafficking, they have a hand in all of it. Of the three factions, the Fallen Ones are by far the most brutal in their methods of dealing with humanity. They use Blood Magic and other dark rituals to twist normal humans into hideous creatures such as the wicked blood-sucking Vampire or the monstrous and beastial Werewolf.
So yeah, you have three powerful factions, each vying for control of the Earth. And none of them really care for humanity's being. The Earth is merely a stage for forces with power far beyond anything we can hope to comprehend, and we has humanity are simply the ones caught in the crossfire.
Devil's Triangle is probably a 7 out of 10. It's based on modern society but explores the dark side of technology and its impact on our lives. Plus, it's a murder mystery, so more bleakness!
Dark Bytes leans slightly on the darker side - so 8 out of 10. It's a scifi anthology that looks into how future technology (based on current advances) will cause society to change. And yes, I got some inspiration from Black Mirror for some of the stories.
Shackles is probably the least bleak, around 6 out of 10. It's a historical romance, so while the bleakness of the situation does weigh on the Empress Dowager and a lot of cruelty does happen, the romance and bonding does paint a more hopeful picture.
I think my novel is a 7/10.
Its cosmic horror so that's already bleak with the whole universe being hostile to humanity and God is dead but the Old Ones will destroy the world if they so much as blink. There's also themes of mental illness, impermanent death, insanity, isolation, and the knowledge that everything is not ok. Plus its set in the 1920 which people think of as a fun time but it was also post-WWI and flu pandemic both of which could be considered hell on earth. This was the lost generation now they are just lost in the void!
My short stories would be a 6/10 and that's due to the range the stories take. All are set before Prometheus Reanimated from the 1870's to 1922 and focus on the worst those decades have to offer. Mining accidents, the birth of the modern serial killer, and infamous home invasions to name the first three. I rate it lower because the fourth story has some humor in it but some are incredibly dark. Rating may change as more stories get added.
@Pony_wearing_a_hat I would love to be able to do straight horror but I'm tired of seeing people dying and I'm too keen on goofy stuff.
It's preeety dark, but not too dark. Maybe a 5? Like, the world is definitely dark and unforgiving, but there are very decent, good people inhabiting it. I mean, the story's main character is a man who was locked in prison for twelve years, so it's not gonna be all sunshine and rainbows. Not only that, but one of the core themes is fighting the evil genes that's inside him, so yeah. XD
Eh I'd give mine like a 3 or 4 because I try to make it a humorous and optimistic outlook, although there's dark stuff going on in the background. So it's not like...slice of life chill...but it's probably the lightest of any work I've written. I'm actually shocked I was the one who wrote it, I didn't know I could write something that didn't get bleak every other chapter.