At what point disappointment and frustration within the story makes the reader abandon it?
Does Game of Thrones get any unpleasant when a whole bunch of characters die every season, for example?
Leaving hooking elements aside, at what point does exploration of uncomfortable aspects from the reader within the story (yes), beloved characters suffering and dying, and unthinkable plots make the reader just put something like that aside?
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When hope that the protagonist(s) will win is snuffed out.
I came very close to this with Person of Interest in the middle of the most recent season. There are a number of Good Folks and several groups of Bad Folks. About mid-season the Bad Folks had racked up so many successes and the Good Folks were getting boxed into such a corner that I was struggling to see how the writers were going get the Good Folks past the obstacles.
The story, particularly a long-running serialized TV show, doesn't have to have a happy ending for every episode, or even every season, but the audience needs to have some hope that the protagonist(s) for whom we are rooting will have some measure of success at the end. If every protagonist is killed off or removed from play by the antagonist, what the hell are we still watching for?
Ultimately the Good Folks were able to score some wins on the Bad Folks, and while they didn't defeat the Bad Folks overall, they are in a better place than they were mid-season. That's all I ask for: some hope.
In the case of Game of Thrones, it depends on whether you hope that any of the surviving characters will eventually defeat their adversaries, or at least will live long enough to team up against the White Walkers and the wights. Separately, if there are so many rapes and humiliations that you give up hope that the women will ever have agency in their own lives or will ever defeat their personal nemeses, that might be enough to tip the scales.
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When there's no one likeable left alive. Or if there is anyone, you just know they're either faking it or doomed.
TV Tropes calls it Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy.
I lasted until somewhere in the third Game of Thrones book. Or maybe it was only the second, I can't remember. Then I put the book down because I didn't want to read an account of a rape and murder at that moment, and somehow never got round to picking the book up again. That said, the rest of my family continually urge me to reconsider.
Perhaps George R.R. Martin himself is suffering from the same malady!
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