Sadie’s Reviews > Half His Age > Status Update

I can’t believe Mr. Korgy is so emotionally stunted that he needed a fucking teenager to offer him a way out of his sad life. That is so unfathomably pathetic. What’s worse is how this is the story of so many people who take advantage of young girls.

I didn’t expect the book to reach this far into the depths of this relationship dynamic. I think this is when she realizes how juvenile it all is. She’s seen Mr. Korgy for who he really is already. All that’s left is to realize that there’s nothing sexy about an adult man who would take advantage of a teenage girl to satiate his lack of fulfillment in his life.

And so, the type of man who would take advantage of the hormonal desires a teenage girl experiences to feel more mature than she is reveals himself for the man he really is! Portraying this subject matter accurately is important but it’s also important that the reader is able to see the man for who he is. Mr. Korgy is doing an evil and selfish thing. It’s not a cute, naughty romance. He’s manipulating a kid.

Dude!!!! I was on page 28 of this like 2 hours ago, wtf???? This book is so honest. The sex scenes are hot, but they’re not hot in a glorifying way so much as an honest way. A lot of books that explore this theme would go out of their way to show why this was wrong in the moments where it feels right, but that dampens the reality of situations like this. I think it makes it harder to spot when it really is wrong.

Extremely Jeanette McCurdy. I hadn’t realized how much of a style she had developed in writing her last book. I can really hear her narrative voice. So far she’s painting a very realistic image of a modern teenage girl, and maybe leaning into the modernity just a tiny bit too much.