In Jennette McCurdy’s Half His Age, the Ick Is Intentional: ‘If Something Makes You Uncomfortable, It’s Probably Truthful’

Some readers may find Jennette McCurdy’s new novel uncomfortable to read. That’s intentional.

In a Jan. 18 interview with The New York Times, the author, 33, spoke about the process of writing her debut novel Half His Age, now available from Ballantine Books.

McCurdy, formerly of Nickelodeon shows like iCarly and Sam and Cat, turned to writing after retiring from acting at age 21. Her bestselling 2022 memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died, detailed her upbringing in the entertainment industry, as well as her complicated relationship with her late mother, Debra, who died in 2013. The revelatory book recounted McCurdy’s experience with addiction, eating disorders and alleged abuse from her mom.

Half His Age follows high school student Waldo, who embarks on a sexual relationship with her married creative writing teacher, Mr. Korgy. The book is part of a long history of novels about controversial relationships, from Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita to Katie Elizabeth Russell’s My Dark Vanessa, but McCurdy noted that she hadn’t seen many published novels that approach the subject quite like her own. With Waldo, she didn’t want to “shy away” from creating a complex protagonist.

“I see this as a story less focused on the taboo itself and more on the psychological examination of the young woman who’s experiencing it, and all the contributing factors that allowed her to fall into this relationship in the first place,” McCurdy said in the interview.

“To me, if something makes you uncomfortable, it’s probably truthful,” the actress and author added. “If it doesn’t make you uncomfortable, it’s probably dishonest in some way.”

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McCurdy opened up about her own experience with an older man while she was a teenager during a recent episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast. McCurdy met the man — who was more than a decade older than her — through work, and said that she was “most likely 18” at the time.

“He was like, ‘You’re so mature. I can’t talk to anyone this way. I can’t believe how smart you are,’ McCurdy recalled of the experience, which she also writes about in her memoir. “Like, are you kidding me? I was such an idiot. I’m so embarrassed.”

She’s been open about how that relationship influenced her fiction, as well.

“I think there’s this element that both Mr. Korgy gives to the protagonist Waldo and that the person I was in a relationship gave to me, which is that feeling of specialness, that feeling that it was ultimately my choice, that it was ultimately up to me, that ultimately, I was the one in charge,” she added.

McCurdy noted in the New York Times interview that she hoped women would resonate with the book’s examination of power dynamics, and that she’s glad that readers are connecting to “female rage” in fiction too. For McCurdy, it became a catalyst for her own work.

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“I had a lot of unprocessed anger from that experience that I wanted to explore, and anger’s a really useful place to write from,” McCurdy said.

Half His Age is on sale now, wherever books are sold.