Brandenfascher: The only non-dark outcome would be, imo, to just not have any of the main members get sick, especially this early in the story. I certainly don't mean that because it happened, it makes the story bad (you could argue it does the opposite, I'm on the fence whether I like this direction myself or not). My only point is I feel she really misrepresented the story and wonder if she was facetious on purpose or what.
To clarify: while I realize that things could have gone even worse for Tuuri, I don't think that "the worst thing, literally a fate worse than death didn't happen" = "it's not too dark" - makes sense?