I just started Dungeon Crawler Carl. In it he fights a Spanish speaking boss. The Spanish is not translated (so far) and if you can read it, it really changes the mood and impact of the entire scene.
Are there any other books that hide significant plot points behind the use of foreign language?
One of the later books is pretty dark throughout
Hell, I’m still in book 3 and the whole thing is dark but approached with levity by the absurdity and the degree to which the system AI is keeping it showy.
I’m not one for spoilers so I’ll just say that the seriousness of the situation comes into focus during The Inevitable Ruin. It’s still silly but bad things happen and characters respond appropriately!
Bedlam Bride (6)? I’m finding it to be pretty dark. Butcher’s Masquerade (5) had its moments, too.
Bedlam Bride, too, but I meant Inevitable Ruin. Maybe “heavy” would be more accurate than dark
Okay, I haven’t gotten that far yet. This Inevitable Ruin is the seventh book. I’ll be there soon enough. :)
I think a lot of them go dark (I’m mid way through This Inevitable Ruin) but that scene with the hoarder, I dunno, for me, it hit much harder than anything else. I expect tragedy and sadness but that poor lady begging… It just got me.
I think it’s the innocent impotence. The crawlers all have agency. The former crawlers are stuck in bad contracts, but they’re contracts they signed. The system npcs think they have agency. But the monsters made from the people of the planets? They were just inside and are now experiencing disgusting body horror where they’re being forced to kill until they’re killed.