If you were a teenager in the mid or late 2000s, it’s most likely that you have been watching Nickelodeon and iCarly in particular. Jennette McCurdy therefore isn’t a strange name to you. However, this former actress was a child star at the time and elaborated in depth on her experience on being a child actress in her 2022 memoires I’m Glad My Mom Died. The hype surrounding them was huge. Even this huge that it eventually reached me and I listened to the audiobook, narrated by the author herself. Fast forward to 2026 and it’s time for McCurdy’s fiction debut, Half His Age. Following her previous success, this book has been highly anticipated by many. Does this live up to the hype?

About the book

Half His Age by Jennette McCurdy
Published by Ballantine Books on January 20, 2026
Pages: 276
ISBN: 9780593723739
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, General fiction, Literary fiction
Rating: 2/5

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of I’m Glad My Mom Died comes a sad, funny, thrilling novel about sex, consumerism, class, desire, loneliness, the internet, rage, intimacy, power, and the (oftentimes misguided) lengths we’ll go to in order to get what we want.

Waldo is ravenous. Horny. Blunt. Naive. Wise. Impulsive. Lonely. Angry. Forceful. Hurting. Perceptive. Endlessly wanting. And the thing she wants most of all: Mr. Korgy, her creative writing teacher with the wife and the kid and the mortgage and the bills, with the dead dreams and the atrophied looks and the growing paunch. She doesn’t know why she wants him. Is it his passion? His life experience? The fact that he knows books and films and things that she doesn’t? Or is it purer than that, rooted in their unlikely connection, their kindred spirits, the similar filter with which they each take in the world around them? Or, perhaps, it’s just enough that he sees her when no one else does.

Startlingly perceptive, mordantly funny, and keenly poignant, Half His Age is a rich character study of a yearning seventeen-year-old who disregards all obstacles — or attempts to overcome them — in her effort to be seen, to be desired, to be loved.

My review

Before reading

As stated before, I listened to I’m Glad My Mom Died and I was invested. Shocked in fact. However, I don’t rate and review memoires, so you therefore can’t find a review on this blog. Besides, I also stated multiple times that I don’t anticipate too many books in 2026 because I have been left disappointed multiple times by highly anticipated reads in recent years. It therefore took me a very long time till my mind registered that this book was coming out and that I actually wanted to read it. The blurb still didn’t really convince me, but the eagerness that this book was awaited with, made me curious. The author visited my local book store as part of her European book tour, which made me even more curious. I didn’t check any reviews beforehand, but with all aforementioned factors in mind, it’s safe to say that my expectations weren’t really through the roof. And in hindsight, this was for the better.

Characters

Although you read the story entirely from seventeen-year-old Waldo’s point of view, you only get to know her to some extend. The author focuses primarily on her crush on her creative writing teacher, Mr. Korgy, which is the main subject of this book. It soon becomes clear that Waldo is somewhat more complex than she appears at first glance, yet it remains difficult to feel empathy for her. Besides being in love with her teacher — who is married, has a child, and is twice her age — Waldo has a serious shopping addiction and constantly craves sex. Gradually, you discover that this is connected to several elements of her life. Her mother is mostly absent, and her best friend isn’t exactly a friend. Towards the end of this novel, you learn more about the dynamic between Waldo and her mother, which ensures that at least a few puzzle pieces fall into place. However, this does not prevent this character from coming across as unsympathetic. Besides Waldo, Mr. Korgy plays an important role in the story. Unfortunately, he is not given a voice , meaning his outlook on the situation is not explored. This is a missed opportunity, as it could have provided more depth to it. The chemistry between these two characters is completely lacking, which is precisely the author’s intention. As both characters remain somewhat superficial, they fail to stick with you, and that does not benefit this novel.

Writing

This might sound pretty dramatic, but the writing is what saved this book for me. Many authors try to use lyrical and whimsical writing to draw the reader in, which of course is nice, but often takes forever to get to the point. McCurdy has a different approach here with a pretty blunt writing style that doesn’t shy away from any hard topics and graphic details. The sexual content is pretty explicit and therefore may bee seen as vulgar. This usually doesn’t put me off as I enjoy me some smut, but this time it’s different. However, the approximately 90 chapters are of quite short length which makes this novel a fast read, for which I was glad.

Plot

A book like this should be carried by the characters. And since I don’t like both Waldo and mr. Korgy that much, I couldn’t connect to the plot either. These characters carry the plot, which is basically just Waldo trying to be invisible and tiptoe around her mom’s moods, as well as physically please herself. She has meaningless sex a lot, that’s actually what the book starts with. Gradually, the sexual interest moves to mr. Korgy and mr. Korgy alone. The lust and love was instant, which is pretty questionable in my opinion. However, I still don’t know what the author is trying to say with this book, as the plot failed to captivate me. The main theme is a student-teacher relationship, alongside a teenager struggling a lot. I can’t really elaborate more on my feelings here, because this novel just doesn’t stick with me. In fact, I’ve forgotten most of it, apart from its vulgarness. This book is definitely unsuitable for the young adult readers, although Waldo’s age might suggest otherwise.

Final thoughts

Highly anticipated, but reviewed by not many book bloggers yet, Half His Age by Jennette McCurdy is definitely a controversial one. After her successful memoires, the anticipation was high, because what would this author’s fiction debut be like? Unfortunately, this is a tough one to review, but even a tougher one to read. This certainly has to do with the main characters, as both Waldo and Mr. Korgy fail to impress me. They don’t stick, nor does the plot. These characters carry the plot and whenever you can’t connect to both, the plot therefore falls flat as well. The writing is what saved the book for me. The approximately 90 chapters are quite short which makes this book a fast read. however, it just failed to captivate me, and stick with me in the long run. In fact, I already had to dig deep into my thoughts in order to remember what this book is about and what it was like reading it. McCurdy’s blunt writing style is refreshing after encountering plenty of books with whimsical writing. The author doesn’t shy away from telling what’s going on, including graphic and explicit details. This book therefore comes off as vulgar and whereas this doesn’t usually put me off, I was a bit taken by surprise here. This vulgarness makes this book unsuitable for the young adult readers, although Waldo’s age suggests otherwise. Even though this work of fiction wasn’t for me, I’m still curious for what McCurdy comes up with next.