A Young Woman's Struggle with Self-Worth

Jennette McCurdy's new book, Half His Age, dives into the life of a 17-year-old girl named Waldo. She lives in Alaska and has a complicated relationship with her English teacher, Mr. Korgy. Their relationship is not healthy. It is filled with sex and power imbalances. Waldo's life is messy. Her mom is not a good parent. She spends her nights alone, shopping online. She works at Victoria's Secret but spends all her money on more shopping. She is trying to feel better about herself. She dates many boys, but none of them make her happy. She is drawn to Mr. Korgy because he is different from her. He is older and unavailable. This makes her feel special. Waldo and Mr. Korgy start a relationship. Their sex scenes are written in a way that makes the reader uncomfortable. This is intentional. McCurdy wants to show how wrong their relationship is. But the book has too many of these scenes. It starts to feel like the only point of the book is to shock the reader. Waldo's life is not easy. She does not have a father figure. She does not respect her peers. She is bored by her classmates, including Nolan, who might be good for her. She dismisses his stable family life. She thinks people from functioning families are boring. She knows this might not be true, but she does not care. She goes back to Mr. Korgy.Mr. Korgy is not a good character. He is a stereotype. He likes to watch artsy movies and talk about them. He wants Waldo to read and watch certain things. But he is not a good person. He is cheating on his wife with a child. He is not nuanced or sympathetic. The book would be better if he was not in it so much. McCurdy is better at writing about Waldo's relationships with her mom and her best friend, Frannie. These relationships are more interesting and important. Korgy holds Waldo back. The sex scenes take up too much of the book. They make the reader uncomfortable, but they do not add much to the story. The book starts to get better when Waldo realizes that Korgy cannot give her what she needs. The sex was never just about sex. It was about what it meant to her. The same can be said for the book. Once the sex stops, the real story can begin.