U Want It Darker

by Murray Middleton

A true artist transforms suffering into beauty. But sometimes, all you've got is the suffering. . .

U Want It Darker is a bold and darkly humorous short story collection about artists struggling with their egos, facing their failures and redeeming their bad behaviour.

With each exhilarating tale, Murray Middleton draws us deeper into the absurdities of creative life, inhabiting dingy painters' studios, anarchic movie sets, depraved pizza restaurants and grimy comedy clubs, as he tries not to plunge into the abyss himself.

Daring, original and shot through with pathos, these stories are a gulp of fresh air from a Vogel Award-winning literary talent.


Praise for U Want it Darker

'Beautifully observed through an idiosyncratic and witty lens, these stories are beguilingly strange and deeply human adventures into the getting of wisdom.' - JOANNA MURRAY-SMITH

'The odds are so stacked against any creative work that it's a wonder this book exists at all. Middleton's portraits of struggling artists are uncomfortably familiar, bitterly funny, and cut with honest truth.' - JENNIFER MILLS

Genres: Short Stories

246 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 29, 2025

About the author

Murray Middleton was born with fractured hips in 1983. He spent the first three months of his life in plaster and has broken most bones since.

He won The Age Short Story Award in 2010 with ‘The Fields of Early Sorrow’. When There’s Nowhere Else to Run is his first published collection of short stories.

He currently lives in Melbourne and won’t publish a second collection of stories until the Saints win a second premiership.

Reviews

[Caleb · Rating 2 out of 5]

This collection has such a cool idea behind it, but the execution really fell flat for me despite moments where it shined. I think there should've been less stories so the best ones had time to actually expand their idea instead of it feeling like the author being like 'hmmmm this thing is kinda fucked right?' and the story basically ending there. To be fair, the longer ones in this collection, I didn't particularly like either because they felt drawn out, so,,, eh.

Epic ranking best to worst
1. Warm Love
A pretty grounded story about a failed relationship. I liked how bland the main character was and how it's mostly him trying to understand his past lover

2. Between the Wars
Super short but interesting. I like the main character stressing about being an artist larper for not caring about politics that was cool

3. Where We Come to Fall Apart - this story had some peak lines, but the text message format really does it a disservice still a good emotional way to end the collection

4. Soul Night
Again, a short and sweet character trying to make sense of someone. This protag was even less of a character, though

5. TARANTULA (by Holler Sayers)
A cool unravelling of the idea of meeting your idols but both the narrator and her interviewee feel undercooked which makes this a drag especially with this being on the longer side

6. U want it Darker
This middle-aged man needs to get over his situationship with a 21 year old 💀

7. Two Comedians - these characters were so nothing goddamn can the guy in Germany stop talking about shit 💔 I can see why you're a failed comedian bro

8. House with White Fence
If making a story in the format of google reviews interesting sounds difficult that's because it is

9. How Cannibals Exist
Gross no I don't want to hear about how this teenage boy wants to bang his best friends mum the amount of times seed and semen are mention should make this book a 0/10 tbh

[Lorraine · Rating 4 out of 5]

U Want It Darker is a short story collection by Murray Middleton, the author of the powerful novel No Church in the Wild. I found it entertaining and thought provoking, though perhaps not always as meaningful as Middleton might have hoped.

This is a single author collection of nine stories, all on the theme of artists of various kinds suffering for their art. These make sense together thematically, without being so similar that they become boring. Middleton considers a wide range of artists, including writers, actors, painters, and dancers.

All of the central characters appear to have some degree of talent and competence, but their degree of success is variable – and usually pretty low. Middleton explores what they have given up in service of their dream of a creative life.

You don’t have to be particularly creative yourself to appreciate these stories. They’re stories of striving, failure, and success, and most people will be able to empathise with them. They do tend to focus on some of the sacrifices that are particularly associated with struggling artists: lack of money, and lack of understanding from people not in their industry.

Most of the characters are quite “ordinary”, making their challenges and choices particularly relatable. We get an insight into their thoughts and feelings as well as their lifestyle. There’s a range of characters here, and all are strongly portrayed.

Middleton’s most recent novel was layered and very thought provoking, and often confronting. These stories are softer, and the compressed space means that there is a little less to explore. However, they still pack a punch, and most readers will find one or more which leaves them ruminating for some time after they’ve finished it.

With short story collections I often prefer to read them slowly, over a period of weeks, spacing the stories out, rather than reading them in one go. This particular collection lends itself to either style of reading: spreading them out gives you more time to think about and absorb them individually, but there’s enough variety in the stories that it’s not repetitive to read them all together.

I found these very digestible, but also worth thinking about. I appreciated the stories, without ever finding them compelling. They’re well written, carefully honed, and each has a clear point. It’s a solid collection, and well worth your time.

You may be interested in my review of a novel by Murray Middleton:
http://otherdreamsotherlives.home.blo...

[Aman Dhindsa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this up expecting darkness to reveal something to peel back the layers of creativity and show me why artists keep making beautiful things even when life is quietly falling apart. Instead, I spent most of the book feeling like I was standing outside a locked studio, hearing echoes of conversations I was never invited into.

There’s no denying the writing has intelligence. Some passages are hauntingly beautiful, and every now and then a sentence would stop me long enough to underline it. But beautiful sentences alone couldn’t make me care. I kept waiting for one story to reach through the page and grab me by the heart, and it never quite happened.

Maybe the problem wasn’t the despair it was the distance. The artists often felt more like ideas than people. I wanted cracked paint under their fingernails, unfinished canvases leaning against walls, the kind of grief that lingers in ordinary moments. Instead, much of the sadness felt observed rather than lived. I admired it far more than I experienced it.

Ironically, for a book that promises darkness, I found myself emotionally untouched. It was heavy without being heartbreaking, melancholic without leaving a bruise. I never felt compelled to keep reading; I simply kept turning pages because I was hoping the next story would be the one. It never arrived.

I don’t regret reading it because every book teaches me something even if it’s simply what doesn’t resonate with me. In this case, it reminded me that I don’t just want stories about despair. I want stories that let me feel it, survive it, and understand why it’s worth making art in spite of it.

This book gave me shadows. I was hoping for humanity.

[Ariel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this collection, particularly the character writing and natural tone of the stories. I also appreciated the variations in form, which kept things fresh. I think the first half is stronger than the second - the opening story 'Warm Love' is probably my favourite - but there aren't any 'bad' stories.

I wouldn't call this collection 'comedic' or 'exhilarating' - more quiet, grounded and contemplative. Middleton explores the themes of disappointment and failure, of artistic urges never fulfilled and dreams never reached, with empathy and pathos. Would recommend.

[Simon Bate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two and a half stars.I heard MM spruiking this on the radio and thought this was something for me, having known quite a few artist friends in such despair that it lead to suicide and mental institutions...so I was rather disappointed...most of these stories are more about basic failure and perceived underachievement .. I quite liked the clipped form of some of the stories; a bit prose poemish...but artists in real despair?...really?..meh.
PS Hate the cover

[Jodie · Rating 3 out of 5]

In u want it darker, struggling artists are let loose in an interesting compilation of short stories.

I really enjoyed the variety of stories and the characters within them. The realness came through strongly.

The book cover definitely raised some eyebrows when reading it in the train. In my opinion it didn’t do the stories any favours.

[Chelsea Roles · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciated the different forms of storytelling that this collection presented. 'How Cannibals Exist' was by far my favourite. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed 'House with White Fence' as I have never read a short story in the form of restaurant reviews before! A few of the stories fell flat for me unfortunately, and left me wanting a more thoughtful conclusion.

[Felicity · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF

[Bon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Struggled to read this being from Melbourne and living here - something felt very try hard about it all

[Mellisa Sharrad · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful journey of memory and love