Half His Age Audiobook By Jennette McCurdy cover art

Half His Age

A Novel

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Half His Age

By: Jennette McCurdy
Narrated by: Jennette McCurdy
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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.

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, USA Today, Bustle, Town & Country

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. Coming of Age Editors Select Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Women's Fiction Funny Inspiring Tearjerking

Critic reviews

“You’ve never met a character quite like Waldo. . . . An explicit, provocative, and sometimes uncomfortable read . . . an unapologetically bare and intimate portrait of the psyche of a girl on the brink of womanhood and a meditation on the generational cycles that shape us.”—Harper’s Bazaar

“A debut novel that confirms [McCurdy’s] gift as a chronicler of disaffected girlhood [and] dares you to flinch, squeal, and/or chuck your book out the window, but ultimately rewards the fearless reader. . . . This is a bold and unapologetic novel for edge-seekers, doom-scrollers, latchkey kids, horn-dogs, and all those who love hard. . . . This is what Half His Age is ultimately about, scandal and sex scenes aside: the dead end of longing, whereby you ask people or things for the love they can’t give you, and how lonely this mismatch can feel.”—Brittany Newell, The New York Times Book Review

“A bleak, often hilarious and uncomfortable triumph that underscores McCurdy’s talent for focusing in on the multilayered nature of trauma and artfully unpicking it, one scab at a time.”—The Guardian

“Proves her memoir was anything but a one-hit wonder. . . . Brimming with teenage angst and McCurdy’s signature dark humor . . . This is far from a romance, and it’s not a glamorization of age gaps—it’s an analysis of consumerism, insecurity, misguided desire, class, and addiction.”—USA Today

“17-year-old Waldo finds herself desperately, foolishly, hopelessly in love with a teacher, a predicament that allows McCurdy to stretch her muscles exploring power and desire in our modern moment.”—Town & Country

“Haunting, hilarious, and heart-rending . . . a coming-of-age story that refuses easy answers—the kind McCurdy tells best.”—Bustle

“In Half His Age, Jennette McCurdy takes what could have been a simple morality tale and turns it into something more complicated and infinitely more interesting—a riveting examination of lust and self-delusion, and a sly reminder that our worst mistakes can sometimes lead us stumbling toward the light. McCurdy is a fearless and darkly funny writer with an unerring eye for the perfect mortifying detail.”—Tom Perrotta

“Jennette McCurdy writes sentences that glimmer and cut like razors. With Half His Age, she delivers a deeply felt and humorous tale about the dangers of youth and desire—this novel is uncomfortable, unpredictable, and unputdownable.”—Aria Aber

Editorial Review

Jennette McCurdy’s foray into fiction
As a fan of Jennette McCurdy’s bracing I’m Glad My Mom Died, I couldn’t wait for her debut novel. Half His Age, about a precocious teen who falls for her high school English teacher, is decidedly NOT Nickelodeon material. But despite the skin-crawling plot, I found myself rooting for Waldo (yes, Waldo) and even laughing at the comic moments. McCurdy writes short, propulsive chapters and cutting observations (my favorite, “The lemon verbena is a double-edged sword,” describes how Waldo’s mom’s preferred hand soap eats away at her spray tan), and her narration is at once matter-of-fact, sharp, sad, and funny. Like My Dark Vanessa for the anxious generation, Half His Age is set against a backdrop of frictionless tech and late-stage capitalism. At a lean 4.5 hours, it asks you to sit in discomfort—but no longer than necessary. —Kat J., Audible Editor

All stars
Most relevant
I loved how true and raw this was. I only didn’t like how you didn’t finish the ending, what was her life after leaving? What did he do or say? Like what kind of ending was that ugh

Felt So Real And Raw

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Jennette is a great writer she really knows how to paint a picture. I wish the ending was clear. It seems Waldo like chose herself but I’m not so sure.

Love Jennette’s Narration

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I loved her last book, so I jumped into this one immediately. It is tough to read, again, and clearly meant to be. I found parts of it painfully relatable, especially the loneliness and confusion of being young and wanting to feel chosen. I was endlessly annoyed at the mother. Child neglect is something I struggle to tolerate, and it sat heavy with me the entire time. I also could not wrap my head around the teacher. I kept wishing for a psychiatrist in the room to explain why men like this do what they do, and why they so often cast themselves as the victims. That question lingered more than the plot. One small thing that distracted me was the FMC’s name, which felt like an odd choice and took me out of the story more than once. The book also felt almost too short, like it ended before I was fully done wrestling with it. Still, it stayed with me. And I will absolutely keep reading whatever she writes next.

Will read more of her work

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The book was really good and I couldn't put it down, but it was very gross. Jennette McCurdy can be a very blunt writer and often times her book was grotesque and disgusting. But ultimately it did what it was supposed to do. This book isn't for the faint of heart or someone who gets nauseated easily because DAMN this book was nasty. Once again, she delivered a fantastic book though and I recommend it anyone who can stomach it.

The storyline and writing style

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The voice in which JM writes is both approachable and slightly taboo. She says what everyone thinks, and makes you feel like you could have been thinking it. Her longing for both her teacher and the trivial online buys which she describes (both) in great detail is relevant to the very consumable things before us in life. I love the mundane mixed with the delicious. The very matter of fact method, and just the pace!

Informed and relevant

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