Jennette McCurdy Half His Age review: Her debut novel is inspired by her own ‘creepy’ age-gap relationship

Told in first person, Half My Age follows Waldo, a 17-year-old high school student in Alaska. Living with her single mum, who bounces from man to man and struggles to hold down a job, Waldo works in Victoria's Secret between school hours to sustain her online shopping addiction. Disillusioned with dating and disgusted by the boys in her year, Waldo becomes infatuated by her new creative writing teacher, Mr Korgy.

Nearing 40 and balding, he’s grieving for the successful author career that never happened, while blaming his wife for blocking his dreams. A willing participant in Waldo’s misplaced desire, the unhappy duo start an illicit affair in classroom cupboards, seedy motels and shopping centre parking lots.

The age-gap entanglement sees both Waldo and Mr Korgy each vying for power and dominance over the other. McCurdy’s novel has plenty of parallels with Lolita, but the modern age retelling sees Waldo recognising and reacting to Mr Korgy’s manipulation of the relationship. Of course, this doesn’t gloss over the uncomfortable and problematic nature of the story – it is about grooming and exploitation by an older man. But just like McCurdy took ownership of her own story (both with her abusive mother and a relationship with an older man during her teenage years), she gives Waldo agency and a voice. Similarly to her memoir, McCurdy doesn’t hold back with the explicit details – in one scene, Waldo is covered in her own period blood hiding in a wardrobe from Mr Korgy’s wife.

While the novel is certainly audacious and thought-provoking (particularly given McCurdy’s first-hand experience of such a relationship), Waldo never really came alive to me on the page. Her online shopping addiction seemed superficial and didn’t reveal as much about the character as McCurdy might have hoped, while her mother’s redemption arc didn’t really land as it could have. Waldo eventually chooses herself, but you get the sense the relationship didn’t impact her in the way it did for Mr Korgy. Perhaps this was intentional, but arguably not realistic. The author said on Call Her Daddy that Waldo is everything she wanted to be – Half His Age can be read as cathartic in that sense, and McCurdy’s means of working through that “creepy” relationship.

The novel is undoubtedly a page-turner: the writing is razor-sharp, sparse and unpretentious (Waldo wryly criticises the florid writing of the authors Mr Korgy tries to get her to read). Its darkly comedic tone and downright vulgar moments make for some laughable one-liners, while the forbidden affair is both objectionable and compelling (just like it is for the characters).