Book Review: Half His Age by Jennette McCurdy

Book Title: Half His Age
Author: Jennette McCurdy
Rating: ★★★★☆
Link to Book: [AMAZON]

This isn’t the first book I’ve read by Jennette McCurdy. I read, and really enjoyed, I’m Glad My Mother’s Dead. Her first book was a nonfiction work though. Half His Age is her first work of fiction and I had such high expectations for it. This book leans heavily into complicated relationships and messy emotions that comes with them.

Nothing feels clean or simple here. The dynamics are layered, the decisions are questionable, and everything feels a little bit tangled and unhinged. Which honestly made it feel more realistic, I made my share of bad decisions as a teenager and hell, even as an adult.

I didn’t always love what was happening, but I was interested in seeing how things played out, what consequences would be faced and how the main character, Waldo, would come out of this end the end.

There’s something about stories like this that makes you reflect more than react. You’re not just following the plot, you’re thinking about the choices, the consequences, and how things could have gone differently. It didn’t completely pull me in emotionally, but it did keep me engaged.

I didn’t hate it, but it didn’t make the favorites shelf in my collection. I had a really hard time reading this as a work of fiction and kept having to remind myself that this wasn’t a work of nonfiction, but that’s a me problem. Over all, I do think this was a good book and it is something I am glad I read.