WARNING: This review contains mild spoilers for Half His Age.
I wasn’t sure about Half His Age before I picked it up.
I loved Jennette McCurdy’s memoir I’m Glad My Mom Died, but a memoir is one thing – this is the former iCarly star’s first foray into fiction.
I needn’t have worried. It’s a spectacular book, and one that will linger with me for a long time to come.
The set-up
The novel follows Waldo, a 17-year-old high school senior in Anchorage, Alaska, who lives with her mother and is, more often than not, the one doing the caretaking.
Isolated at home and looking for attention, control and escape, she begins a sexual relationship with her creative writing teacher, Mr Korgy, who is 40 and married with a child.
It lasts a year, and it is no love story.
This is a book about power – who has it, who thinks they have it, and what it costs to work out the difference.
READ MORE: My review of Nyla K’s For The Fans
Inside Waldo’s head
What I loved most was getting into the mind of Waldo.
McCurdy puts you so firmly inside her head that you see Mr Korgy the way she does, which means you never quite know whether to believe him.
Then there’s the shame of believing him.
It’s uncomfortable, and it’s meant to be. McCurdy has said in interviews around the book’s release that the discomfort is deliberate, not something to be softened for the reader.
McCurdy, 34, told The New York Times an age-gap relationship she had at 18 was a “jumping-off point” for the novel, though she stressed it is not autobiographical.
She also said she rewrote early drafts because Mr Korgy came across as too much of a villain to be believable.
You can feel that on the page. He is all the more unsettling because you’re never sure what to make of him.
The power of moving on
Where the book really lands, for me, is in the power of Waldo moving on.
I won’t spoil how she gets there, only that the reckoning is hard-won and it’s the part that has stayed with me.
READ MORE: My review of My Roommate From Hell
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What the critics said
Not everyone was as taken as I was.
The Guardian called the book “bleak and funny” and The New York Times Book Review dubbed it a “reverse Lolita“, while Kirkus Reviews found it uneven.
Readers turned up regardless. The novel debuted at number two on the Publishers Weekly hardcover fiction bestseller list, selling 30,761 copies in its first week.
It had a lot to live up to. I’m Glad My Mom Died, released in 2022, has sold more than 3 million copies, according to Variety, and is being adapted into an Apple TV+ series starring Jennifer Aniston.
What’s next
I can’t wait to see what McCurdy does next.
The good news is there should be more to come: Publishers Weekly reported in 2022 that her deal with US publisher Ballantine was for two books.
Half His Age is published in Australia by Fourth Estate and is available now.
I knew almost nothing about Jennette McCurdy. Then I read 'I'm Glad My Mom Died'
This review discusses child abuse and eating disorders.