Jenette McCurdy became a bestseller with her memoir “I’m glad my mom died” and takes the difficult jump from celebrity memoir and into fiction. 

McCurdy clearly has a talent for writing and her deadpan humor really shines through. She’s sturdy in her delivery, she knows where she is going and not a single page is wasted. For those complaining about books with long chapters – check this one out – 88 chapters spread out between 288 pages. It’s a short chapter dream. She’s also said in interviews that she aimed to read her audiobook so that listeners wouldn’t have to up the speed, commenting that narrators often read too slow. (And she’s right!) And this is also mastered beautifully. Her audiobook is perfect at 1x speed. 

Adding to the coming of age romance genre, McCurdy’s protagonist Waldo seems to have grown up quite a lot before the book even begins. A symptom of absent parents, her dad not in the picture and her mom mostly present on post-it’s, she is at 17, self sufficient and lonely. She does what she can to fill the void in her life with internet shopping and empty relationships that’s rarely more than just sex. Enter her teacher Mr. Korgy, married father of one. He quickly becomes an obsession and a challenge she can’t help but pursue and McCurdy cleverly shows us just how fast a relationship like this can develop. It’s a slippery slope and Waldo is lubed and ready to slide!

She plays the perfect Lolita and Mr. Korgy, the failed writer stuck in a mediocre life can’t help but be enthralled. 

McCurdy was open about being coerced into a sexual relationship by an older man when she was young, and that she has drawn inspiration from that for her new novel. And her personal experience must be why it all feels very organic. Waldo is also the one initiating most of the sexual interactions, but with a put on persona mostly found in porn. It fills her cup on most days, but on the days that come up empty she reverts back to internet shopping. Filling her cart to fill her void. She shops online like she shops for relationships, filling her cart with things she knows is useless that end up being returned after they don’t add anything to her empty life. And so the circle goes. 

As a debut fiction novel, this was spot on. Not as vulgar as the cover might suggest, but sharp observations on what I can only diagnose as a borderline depression and a masterclass in sexual scenes. I can’t wait to see where McCurdy goes next, she’s definitely a writer to keep an eye on.