Half His Age

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Half His Age

By: Jennette McCurdy

Narrated by: Jennette McCurdy

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THE SUNDAY TIMES NO.1 BESTSELLER

Half His Age is a highly anticipated, funny, sad, thrilling novel about sex, class, desire, and power – and the (often misguided) lengths we’ll go to to get what we want, from Jennette McCurdy, the three-million copy bestselling author of I'm Glad My Mom Died.

'SHOCKING, HONEST AND UNSPARING' SUNDAY TIMES STYLE

'A HILARIOUS AND UNCOMFORTABLE TRIUMPH' GUARDIAN

'EERIE, UNSETTLING AND BELIEVABLE' GILLIAN FLYNN, AUTHOR OF GONE GIRL

'ABSOLUTE DYNAMITE' ELIZABETH DAY

Waldo is ravenous. Horny. Blunt. Naive. Wise. Impulsive. Lonely. Angry. Hurting. Endlessly wanting. And the thing she wants most of all? Mr. Korgy, her creative writing teacher.

Mr Korgy, 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 that she doesn’t? Or are they actually kindred spirits, sharing the same 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 an incisive study of a yearning seventeen-year-old who disregards all obstacles in her effort to be seen, to be desired and to be loved.

'THOUGHT-PROVOKING, SHOCKING AND DARKLY COMIC' INDEPENDENT

Jennette McCurdyJennette McCurdyFourth Estate

Coming of Age

Dark Humour

Editors Select

Genre Fiction

Literary Fiction

Literature & Fiction

Women's Fiction

Funny

Thought-Provoking

Coming of Age Dark Humour Editors Select Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Women's Fiction Funny Thought-Provoking

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 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 favourite, “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

Critic reviews

‘Eerie and unsettling and believable’ Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl

'Absolute dynamite. I could not stop reading until I had devoured it whole' Elizabeth Day, author of One of Us

'A bleak, hilarious and uncomfortable triumph. Underscores McCurdy’s talent for focusing in on the multilayered nature of trauma and artfully unpicking it, one scab at a time’ Guardian

‘A postmodern novel for the fast-fashion generation and a portrait of civilizational decline told through relentless consumption. McCurdy’s brittle commentary made me think of Don DeLillo [and her] furious writing is hard to tear yourself away from.’ The Atlantic

‘A bold and unapologetic novel for edge-seekers, doom-scrollers, latchkey kids, horn-dogs and all those who love hard’ Brittany Newell in the New York Times

‘Shocking, honest and unsparing. A sardonic voice, finely tuned to the push and pull of tragedy and humour' Sunday Times Style

‘A beadily intelligent novel. Waldo is a brilliant creation, and I hope McCurdy makes the transition to novelist a permanent one’ The Times

'Thought-provoking and shocking, darkly comic and witty' Independent

'Dark, raw, funny and razor-sharp' Red Magazine

'Jennette McCurdy writes sentences that glimmer and cut like razors. This novel is uncomfortable, unpredictable, and unputdownable' Aria Aber, author of Good Girl

'A riveting examination of lust and self-delusion. McCurdy is a fearless and darkly funny writer with an unerring eye for the perfect mortifying detail' Tom Perrotta, author of Election

PRAISE FOR I'M GLAD MY MOM DIED…

'An important cultural document just as much as a searingly personal one' Lena Dunham

'A vivid, biting, darkly comic writer' Vogue

'McCurdy reveals herself to be a stingingly funny and insightful writer, capable of great empathy and a brutal punchline' Time

'A coming-of-age story that is alternately harrowing and funny' The New York Times

'A magnum opus. Sharply funny and empathetic' The Washington Post

'The publishing sensation.' Guardian

Most relevant

I loved her memoir, read it in one day; listened to this tile in one day too. McCurdy has put into words the story, that I would venture to say, so many young women have experienced. Her storytelling is realistic and frank. She doesn’t shy away from the subject matter, while shining a brutally honest light on the misguided feelings of lust that can overtake us.