J
Jennette McCurdy
American writer, director, podcaster, singer, and former actress.
Half His Age
Synopsis
In her fiction debut, Jennette McCurdy — author of the record-breaking memoir I'm Glad My Mom Died — writes a thorny examination of power, lust, shame, and rage.
Waldo is seventeen, living with her single mother and filling the hours buying clothes she doesn't need online. She is consumed by desire for her creative writing teacher, Mr. Korgy: forty, married, a father, and openly disappointed by his own unfulfilled ambitions. What Waldo wants most is to be seen by him.
Startlingly perceptive, mordantly funny, and keenly poignant, Half His Age is a character study of loneliness and adolescent yearning rather than a romance — an unflinching look at the imbalance of power at the story's core.
Genres
Characters
WaldoProtagonist
A lonely, blunt, self-possessed seventeen-year-old in Anchorage who manages her household while her mother pursues relationships, and who initiates and pursues a year-long affair with her creative writing teacher.
Theodore KorgyAntagonist
Waldo's forty-year-old married creative writing teacher at her Anchorage high school, addressed by her only as "Mr. Korgy"; his selfishness and emotional inadequacy are steadily exposed as the affair unfolds.
Frequently asked questions
Is Half His Age a romance novel?
No — despite the title and some retailer categorization, this is a dark literary satire by Jennette McCurdy about power, consumerism, and a predatory student-teacher relationship, not a genre romance.
