PanLos Angeles Review of BooksReviews of The Question Authority have generally asserted...that Cline \'adds depth and nuance\' to the #MeToo movement, but the novel actually represents a harmful attempt to minimize and complicate #MeToo’s most basic goal: to empower the survivors of sexual violence and hold abusers accountable ... Cline ultimately presents #MeToo as a self-obsessed, almost masturbatory project, an endeavor that is less about justice and more about self-examination ... What feels most harmful about Cline’s exploration of #MeToo is that the moral situation depicted in the novel is so painfully clear: Cline’s characters were children systematically abused by a teacher. Ambiguity doesn’t resolve anything here ... The Question Authority distracts readers from the actual work that needs to be done for girls and women worldwide—to empower, understand, and diagnose abuse without the scourge of himpathy clouding our judgment.
