It was too much

A scene in book #2 that was meant to give more insight into my main character, Kody Burkoff, was too much for my draft readers. Not a one of them liked the scene the way it was written. Their main complaint was that it seemed uncharacteristic of Kody. I've read those same pages about a billion times trying to justify to myself that Kody would indeed react the way it's currently written. I've been incredibly stubborn about making changes---until yesterday. I deleted all the disruptive description I used and ramped up the emotion. I think I was looking to shock the reader, but it backfired on me. I was portraying Kody in a negative way. It didn't go over so well. This just goes to show how important it is to ask for early feedback.