Jennette McCurdy will follow up her bestselling memoir with a new novel.
Ballantine will publish the actor’s fiction debut, Half His Age, next year, the press announced in a news release. It calls the novel “startlingly perceptive, mordantly funny, and keenly poignant.”
McCurdy, known for her roles in the television series iCarly and Sam & Cat, rose to literary fame in 2022 with the memoir I’m Glad My Mom Died, which chronicled her experiences as a child actor and her relationship with her mother, who she claimed was abusive. The book was a huge hit, and in a starred review a critic for Kirkus called it “the heartbreaking story of an emotionally battered child delivered with captivating candor and grace.”
The memoir is being developed as a television series with Jennifer Aniston attached to star, and McCurdy on board as writer and showrunner.
Half His Age will follow Waldo, a 17-year-old girl who embarks on an affair with her creative writing teacher. Ballantine says the book is “a rich character study of a yearning 17-year-old who disregards all obstacles—or attempts to overcome them—in her effort to be seen, to be desired, to be loved.”
“Writing Half His Age has been the most creatively fulfilling experience of my life,” McCurdy said in a statement. “Through a 17-year-old girl named Waldo, I got to explore the complexities of desire, consumerism, class, loneliness, the internet, rage, addiction, and the (oftentimes misguided) lengths we’ll go to in order to get what we want. Waldo’s story is ultimately about finding yourself in a world designed to make you lose yourself, and that felt profoundly meaningful for me to write. I can't wait for people to read this novel.”
Half His Age is slated for publication on January 20, 2026.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
