Jennette McCurdy’s Half His Age Marks a Bold Fiction Shift
Jennette McCurdy’s public career has unfolded in clear phases. She first rose to prominence as a child actor on Nickelodeon, best known for her role on iCarly. Years later, she reintroduced herself as a writer, earning widespread attention for her bestselling memoir I’m Glad My Mom Died. Now, McCurdy is entering a new chapter with her first work of fiction.
Her debut novel, Half His Age, marks a shift from personal testimony to narrative storytelling, while continuing to examine familiar themes. The book explores age, power, and consent through a fictional lens, allowing McCurdy to approach those subjects without the constraints of autobiography.
McCurdy has spoken openly about how writing replaced acting as a way to regain agency after stepping away from Hollywood. She has said she felt disconnected from the industry and from herself, and that writing offered a space to shape meaning rather than perform it. That creative pivot began with essays and memoir and now extends into fiction.
Half His Age follows Waldo, a teenage girl navigating family instability, isolation, and a desire to be taken seriously, who becomes involved with a significantly older, married creative writing teacher. Their relationship unfolds slowly, shaped by emotional dependence and professional authority long before either character fully names the imbalance. Rather than framing the story as a cautionary tale, the novel traces how unequal dynamics can take hold quietly, often disguised as mentorship, intellectual validation, or care.
McCurdy has explained that her goal was to examine situations people often minimize or rationalize. She wanted to capture how power differences can feel ordinary in the moment, particularly to young women still forming their sense of self. In an interview with The Guardian, McCurdy said the novel is intentionally unresolved, allowing discomfort to linger and encouraging readers to recognize patterns without being guided toward a clear moral conclusion.
While McCurdy has avoided calling the novel autobiographical, parallels to her own experience are difficult to ignore. She entered the entertainment industry at a young age, working within a system where adults held authority over her schedule, image, and income. In that environment, age gaps and power imbalances were not exceptions. They were part of the structure.
That context is reflected in the novel. The older character’s influence is not limited to emotional leverage. It is professional. Waldo’s fear of losing approval, access, or opportunity mirrors patterns many former child performers have described publicly. McCurdy does not portray the relationship as uniquely extreme. She presents it as unsettling because of how recognizable it feels.
Early reader responses suggest that approach is resonating. Reviews on Goodreads frequently describe the novel as unsettling without being sensational. Rather than shock, readers often point to recognition, noting that the tension comes from how closely the story resembles situations that are commonly normalized or dismissed.
For McCurdy, fiction appears to be an extension of her larger creative shift. Where her memoir confronted the past directly, Half His Age examines the systems that quietly enable imbalance. McCurdy has said the novel is not intended to offer lessons or closure, but to draw attention to dynamics that often go unexamined and leave space for reflection.
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