Half His Age: Dark Humor & Power Imbalance

0:00This is your entertainment update for March 17th. Wasar Boutchette kicked off February with Jeanette McCurdy's debut novel Half His Age. The story follows Waldo, a 17-year-old high school student in Anchorage, Alaska, who starts a secret affair with her 40-year-old married. Creative writing teacher, Mr. Corgi. She pursues him first, but he soon becomes obsessed and leaves his wife and child for her. Things take a turn when their fantasy becomes reality. Roe craves the everyday life his wife had, but once she gets it, the romance hours fast. Gross details pile up, like hookups in his messy car or his cheesy smell, shifting her view from infatuation to disgust. Editors raved about the raw writing and dark humor. They felt every emotion, praising how McCurdy captures a teen's mindset without glorifying the power and balance. Many compared it to her memoir, Em Glad My Mom died, noting her skill at blending shock with deeper truths about self-worth and repeating family, patterns.

1:02Things of addiction run deep, from Waldo's shopping habits to her mom's love addictions, all filling emotional voids. Staff saw parallels in chasing unworthy partners, inspired partly by McCurdy's own creepy experience at 18 on the I Carly said. The ending feels hopeful as Waldo goes corgi and starts breaking cycles, though her mom's unchanged. Things caught a freeing and binge-worthy, better than the memoir for some. Next up in March, laws of love and logic by Deborah Curtis. The Daily News Now is presented by our sponsor, linked in the description. Your bedtime ritual just got better, built in sound, built in comfort, S-O-L-I-S-O-L-P-L-O-D-A-I.