The power of fiction, yet again

I've been literally shaking for the past ten minutes, after beginning to read the latest chapter of an online story I've been following, only to find one of the main characters being killed off in a particularly nasty and unexpected way (accident rather than malice). I've thought, almost from the first, that this particular story had a 'heart of darkness', but I was expecting something else entirely. My first reaction, after immediately closing the tab I was reading the story in, was anger at the author, then distress at the character's fate. Now I've had time to think about it a little more rationally, though, I guess it's no different to what I did when I wrote Valediction more than three years ago, and which badly upset at least one of my readers. Rather than being angry, I guess I should admire the author's ability to affect his readers' emotions in such a visceral way. I won't be reading the rest of the story, though.

Love & best wishes to all
Sammy B