Jennette McCurdy has announced her debut novel, “Half His Age.”
On Thursday, the actress and “I’m Glad My Mom Died” author unveiled the cover of the dramedy thriller, her first published work of fiction, and its upcoming January release date.
Set to be published by Penguin Random House’s imprint Ballantine on Jan. 20, 2026, “Half His Age” is described as “startlingly perceptive, mordantly funny, and keenly poignant — a sad, funny, and thrilling novel that follows a seventeen-year-old girl named Waldo as she navigates an affair with her teacher, exploring the complexities of desire, power, and self-discovery.”
McCurdy’s debut novel, now available for pre-order, comes on the heels of the massive success of her 2022 memoir, “I’m Glad My Mom Died,” which has sold more than three million copies and remained on the New York Times bestseller list for more than ninety weeks. The title, which recounted McCurdy’s career as a child actress and her difficult relationship with her abusive mother who died in 2013, won the 2023 American Library Association Alex Award and the 2022 Goodreads Choice Award in the memoir and autobiography category.
Currently, McCurdy is adapting “I’m Glad My Mom Died” into an Apple TV+ series starring Jennifer Aniston and executive produced by Aniston, McCurdy, Sharon Horgan, Ari Katcher, Jerrod Carmichael, and Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap Entertainment. She is co-creator, co-showrunner and co-writer on the 10-episode series.
“Writing ‘Half His Age’ has been the most creatively fulfilling experience of my life,” McCurdy said in a statement Thursday. “Through a seventeen-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.”