More Words, Deeper Hole

That's part of my dismay -- they were already a little dark! I read a lot of kid's books from the 1960s (they were cheap at garage sales in the 1970s) that had some dark themes. Books like Jessamy and The Ghost Belonged to Me were somewhat dark in overall themes, too, as did one I can't recall the title of, about a teen girl who hits and critically injures a cyclist then tries to run off instead of going to the cops.

Make these books any more bleak and we'll cause an entire generation to grow up with permanent sads.

(Edited to add titles and remove spoilers.)