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Half His Age

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Half His Age

By: Jennette McCurdy
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About this listen

The 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, Sunday Times 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

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

©2026 WAFFLE CONE, INC (P)2026 Penguin Random House LLC
Coming of Age Dark Humour Editors Select Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Women's Fiction Funny

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

All stars
Most relevant
Loved it - such an honest look into the dynamics of relationships
Straightforward, punchy, hilarious and honest

Honest, raw, relatable

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Jennette McCurdy builds up the image of a cold, calculating, manipulative figure. Then within the latter half of the novel, breaks him down into a painfully mediocre man. The reader falls out of love with him just as Waldo does.

An extraordinarily realistic portrayal of grooming

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It was an ok read at the beginning. Felt hot but uncomfortable if I thought too long. Started getting annoyed with the way Waldo was being treated but thank goodness for the ending otherwise would have left this book feeling very uncomfortable.

Great ending

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Not what I was expecting, had me gasping in disbelief. Heavy but juicy worth a listen.

Wild ride.

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I can’t put my finger on it but the characters lacked a sort of depth that made them feel all too the same. On a technical note, I had to slow it down to .85x or the recording sounded sped up.

So much potential

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.