I too was waiting for the thread and did not see it until now. The 'show all new posts' browser does not always pick up everything. I would definitely be in favour of announcements on the front page.
I think it was appropriate that Peg did not survive---she can join Annie in whatever afterlife---but I was very disappointed Brant did not. I know it's cliche, but he was the hero and I was disappointed with such a grim ending for him. Plus I thought Tom was kind of a brat, so if I had to choose among the two of them to be the sacrificial half of the hero duo, it would have been Tom. I think it would have been a cool ending too if Annie's illness had somehow deux ex'd her out of dying for good when Seth was killed and if she and Brant had been the lone survivors. If Peg had turned herself to save Annie and then died in the end, that would have been interesting.
I don't think there are lines that should not be crossed in fiction, but I see where you are coming from on that. I wrote a fanfic once where a main character describes a past event of a bad guy hurting his dog, and I got more feedback on that than anything else I had written for that story. People were very affected by dog
Kids are like that for many people. My stepmom will not read stories involving child abuse.