Half His Age
A Novel
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected Jan 20, 2026
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
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.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Author Jennette McCurdy (I’m Glad My Mom Died) forces us to confront the fallacy of the “perfect victim” in this bold, uncomfortable, deeply important debut novel. At 17, Waldo has decided to sleep with her English teacher, Mr. Korgy. But McCurdy leaves zero room for doubt: Waldo is very obviously a child. She may not know it, but we do, and so does Mr. Korgy as he proceeds to groom, manipulate, and abuse her. Hearing Waldo’s thoughts is heartbreakingly insightful. Forced by her family situation to grow up before her immature mind or body could possibly live up to the title, she’s cynically sure she knows what everyone is thinking—though her conclusions are all just teenage projections. She’s even more desperate than her peers to feel confident, accepted, and whole. And McCurdy lets us see why, from the absent father who left a hole in Waldo’s life to the distracted mother who leaves her daughter vulnerable in every sense. This isn’t a fun read, but it’s a powerful one.
