"In her debut work of fiction, Half His Age, McCurdy continues to shake open a Pandora's box, shedding light on blurred parent-child boundaries and loss of identity due to over-enmeshment, with solid one-liners that feel straight out of a sitcom writers' room. Lead character Waldo is a high school senior whose life doesn't seem to be her own. She play-acts through sexual encounters and disassociates at the school disco (I stand off to the side watching, enveloped by a blanket of catatonia)."
"McCurdy writes the Mom as a comedic grand guignol, the damage she has writ on her child seeping out throughout the novel as though from invisible bullet wounds. Their relationship shifts uneasily between friends, siblings and caretaker (I've been managing my mom's emotions since I was five). Waldo remembers Mom giving her advice on seduction when she was five (the best way to keep a man is to be as pretty as you can be), with tips from the tradwife school: to essentially morph into whoever your man wants you to be."
Half His Age follows Waldo, a high-school senior whose life is consumed by a chaotic, enmeshed mother. Waldo dissociates at social events, play-acts through sexual encounters, and has managed her mother's emotions since childhood. The mother functions as a comedic grand guignol whose invisible wounds bleed into Waldo's body and selfhood. Their dynamic oscillates between friends, siblings, and caretaker, with early seduction advice and tradwife tips that pressure Waldo to morph for male approval. Scenes alternate wry sitcom one-liners with grotesque domestic details — empty houses, Post-It instructions and unsatisfying TV dinners — culminating in a sex scene that shifts from body horror to French farce. Central themes include blurred parent-child boundaries, identity loss from over-enmeshment, sexualization of youth, and generational trauma.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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