I've got two ideas which might help you. First, if following the goverment is the best way for personell progress(economicly, status etc.), have your MC seeking a promotion of some sorts, which is denied to her for no good reasons.
Second, She might stumble upon the preexisting resistance...
Look at the books you like and figure out what you like about them, apart from the characters and the plot.
Look up books you dont like and search for the reasons, especial if you dislike the writing but would otherwise enjoy the characters or the plot.
If that shapeshifter develops multiple personalities, they might became aware of each other and fight among themself to gain permanent controll of the physical body. Could make for quite some tension among his travveling companions, never knowing who is currently in controll, and who is allied...
Just avoid your humans scratching their heads and wondering about this cube law thingy or the how these insects can be so large at all and you are fine.
I wouldn't be too much bothered by it, as long as you dont start the first teenager chapter with a graphic encounter.
There should be some time during which readers can adjust to the new age of the character. Writing about the same carachter during such different stages of development sounds...
As others have already stated, as long as the violence serves a purpose, I dont have much of a problem with it. Where exactly the point lies, where I say "Why did you tell me that ? Does it really matter?", depends a lot on the general tone of the book.
As we tend to agree that violence should...
Hello to everyone, could someone shine light on the social standing glassblowers?
More specificly, I am wondering about the time(roughly medieval) when they were periodicly moving from one place to another, were they seen with suspicion, due to being strangers or admired for their craft...