Is Jennette McCurdy’s Book ‘Half Her Age’ Based on a True Story?
What To Know
- Jennette McCurdy’s upcoming novel, Half His Age, follows Waldo, a teenage girl who yearns to be with her married teacher.
- While the book is a work of fiction, McCurdy has revealed that it takes loose inspiration from her personal life.
- McCurdy previously published the memoir I’m Glad My Mom Died.
When Jennette McCurdy made her writing debut, penning the raw and revealing memoir I’m Glad My Mom Died, it became clear that she was born to be an author. Now that her debut novel, Half His Age, is about to hit shelves, fans are wondering if the book will contain as much candid information about the former child actor’s life as her first work.
Half His Age follows Waldo, a teenage girl who falls for her married teacher. McCurdy writes, “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.”
Scroll to find out more about Half His Age, including the novel’s connection to Jennette McCurdy’s personal life.
What is Jennette McCurdy’s novel Half His Age about?
McCurdy has made it clear that her debut novel is about one thing: Female rage. In her words, that means “having your boundaries violated over, and over, and over again, and not having the language to advocate for yourself. Not having the ability to advocate for yourself. Feeling scared to advocate for yourself. And then just having that compounded, and built, and stacked on to itself over, and over, and over throughout the years until you can no longer take it.”
For McCurdy, this rage manifests in the character Waldo, a ravenous teen caught in the throes of sex, consumerism, class, desire, loneliness, the internet, intimacy, and power. Determined to be with her married, far older teacher, Mr. Korgy, Waldo will do anything in an effort to be seen, desired, and loved.
Is Half His Age based on Jennette McCurdy’s real life?
While Half His Age is a work of fiction, the iCarly star recently revealed that the novel was inspired by her first relationship. “My first relationship was with somebody who was in his mid-30s, and I was 18,” she explained. “I would say there are some loose inspirations from there, but Waldo is a character entirely her own.”
In an interview with Alex Cooper on Call Her Daddy, McCurdy opened up further about this real-life connection, stressing the addictive component of her first relationship. Looking back, she recalled, “I remember thinking like, ‘Oh yeah, there’s just something about me that’s a little different.’ Like, ‘I’m special.'”
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At the time of her first relationship, McCurdy had decided she was going to wait until marriage to have sex. However, as readers of I’m Glad My Mom Died know, her partner convinced her to have sex with him with phrases like, “I have to know that my needs will be met.” As she explained, “If you feel really powerless, you’ll take that bait.” It’s clear that some of that emotion made it onto the page, because, as she put it, “I’m still really f**king angry [about it].”
Half His Age by Jennette McCurdy comes out January 20, 2026.
