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DAMN, 1984 had a depressing ending. But I've heard 451 is better in that regard, at least. Wish me luck!

A lot of older sci fi is depressing, back then it was more about being a cautionary tale or extrapolation of current problems in society, not really about pewpew space battles and escapism. Or at least the stuff that survived to become classics.

Some of the messages or assumptions seem dated now, but Fahrenheit 451 like some of Bradbury's other stuff was about censorship and actually if anything even more relevant today.

Bradbury has a LOT of fiction though and I'd recommend you try some one of his short story collections. A lot of his prose almost reads like poetry and I'm a big fan of his, probably my favorite of the sci fi authors from that era

Once I'm done with 451, I plan to read Brave New World to finish the "Old Dystopia" trilogy.

In that case, you'll want to read We by Yevgeny Zamyatin.  It's the book that directly inspired both 1984 and Brave New World, and is better written than either of them.

I still haven't finished my copy of We, but I hope to one day. Whenever my friends knock the Terry Gilliam movie Brazil for too much resembling 1984, I like to point out that Orwell admitted to lifting the plot to 1984 from We. And Zamytin actually lived under the Soviets, so he actually knew what he was talking about. 

You can also read The Handmaide's Tale by Margaret Atwood. That's a thoroughly bleak and depressing novel. Also, check out Philip K. Dick's alternate universe novel The Man in the Highcastle. 

I know AtomBomb is banned now but just bringing up that Oryx and Crake, also by Margaret Atwood is a pretty excellent dystopia-seguing-to-apocalypse novel, about out of control generic engineering along with all the usual Horsemen taking society apart.

There's a sequel that came out but I never did get around to reading it, and sequels written so many years after their originals usually have a pretty different feel so I'm not sure what to expect.

I've heard good things about Jennifer Government.