I don’t know…Harry goes through some shit, including physical mutilation, being forced to murder a woman he loves, being paralyzed by breaking his spine, having that healed by making a deal with one of the most dangerous fay, being freaking MURDERED himself, becoming the warden of an otherworldly prison full of some really, really bad “people”, etc, etc.
Dresden Files is not Esther Freisner fantastic farce. Yeah, there’s humor, but the tone isn’t “light” all the time.
I guess we differ on what “grim and gritty” means. It doesn’t just mean that bad things happen in the books.
I’ve read some serious grimdark and can make recommendations in the genre. Dresden isn’t Myth Adventures, but it’s a long damn way from Game of Thrones.