Book Review: Half His Age
Former child-actress Jennette McCurdy released her international best-selling memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died, with a matter of fact, impactful title, in 2022. Its raw honesty about why she’s glad her mom died, set the blueprint for her debut.
McCurdy’s debut novel, Half His Age, analyzes and twists a predatory relationship by stripping away flowery language to focus on uncomfortable themes. In doing so, McCurdy challenges us to define what it means to be judged by defying societal norms.
Former child-actress Jennette McCurdy released her international best-selling memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died, with a matter of fact, impactful title, in 2022. Its raw honesty about why she’s glad her mom died, set the blueprint for her debut.
In Half His Age, McCurdy drops the reader right into the heart of her main character Waldo’s pressing desire: to be loved. Waldo is a perceptive, snarky, lonely seventeen-year-old who can’t seem to find love from her mother—who is never home—or her best friend, who we learn isn’t truly her best friend, but rather someone she stuck with since childhood. So, by McCurdy’s control, the reader concedes that in this world, when Waldo is seduced by her writing teacher, Mr. Korgy, she will take it, and therefore, cut her some slack.
In half the number of words, McCurdy uses snappy dialogue and vivid imagery so readers can witness the subtle shifts in power and trust that define toxic and abusive relationships. After Mr. Korgy—a not so subtle reference to a dog—approaches Waldo at her job (Victoria’s Secret), claiming to have just been “passing by,” it is the beginning of the end. During a school dance, Waldo seduces him in the privacy of his classroom, and from then on, they engage in a sexual relationship. By inviting us into this world, McCurdy exposes our idea of empathy at the cost of what is acceptable.
There is an unwavering commitment to truth; there is no sugar-coating or poetic detour in the prose. With direct language to mirror Waldo’s experience, there is no confusing the harmful toll it takes on her. Without romanticizing it, the blunt narration does not allow the reader a place to hide or look away from the uncomfortable and gross relationship with Mr. Korgy. We stare into it and want to vomit.
McCurdy hands us this complicated relationship as a way to force us to look into a mirror. McCurdy does not shy away from the shame or lingering effects of trauma. Through binge-eating and excessive shopping, Waldo is seeking a vice within her vice as a way to process this relationship with Mr. Korgy. We understand Waldo because we have all been a Waldo, in some way or another, just wanting to be loved and looking for vices to help us. In this way, the book doesn’t ask us to excuse harm, but rather how easily judgement becomes another norm we inherit amongst ourselves.
As we are being told that the relationship is a horror show and are compelled to judge it as wrong, McCurdy masterfully demonstrates how yearning and power can distort the rules set before us. She forces the reader to confront the uncomfortable truth that, when lonely or desperate enough, any of us might defy our own idea of what we consider normal. Who hasn’t been a rule-defying teenager at some point or another, intent on being rebellious?
Waldo’s journey becomes more than just a story about a scandalous, predatory affair, but an evaluation on agency and resilience. Told only from Waldo’s perspective, we witness first-hand the struggles she faces as she attempts to navigate such a complicated relationship and reclaim a sense of self-identity. McCurdy’s writing acts as both a mirror and a guide. If we can acknowledge the ways in which Waldo has been harmed, then maybe we can acknowledge the ways in which we have been harmed ourselves.
Half His Age argues that societal norms aren’t neutral, and stands out as a forging exploration of vulnerability, agency, and the immediate effects of toxic relationships. Rather than be a story about grooming, it tells the story of emotional addiction, and the impacts we can all find ourselves in. Jennette McCurdy’s Half His Age invites us to reconsider how we perceive ourselves and others when faced with relationships that challenge convention and comfort.