Author Guide · Memoir & Fiction
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Jennette McCurdy was six when her mother took her to her first acting audition, and eleven when, she writes, her mother taught her to restrict calories. She went on to play Sam Puckett in 93 episodes of Nickelodeon’s iCarly, then stopped acting altogether. In 2022 she published I’m Glad My Mom Died, which sold more than 200,000 copies in its first week and spent eight weeks at number one on the New York Times list. Her first novel, Half His Age, followed in January 2026: a seventeen-year-old in Anchorage and her forty-year-old teacher. This guide covers her two key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 2 key books · 2022–2026 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Jennette McCurdy has published two books: the memoir I’m Glad My Mom Died (2022) and the novel Half His Age (2026). Start with the memoir, her best-known book, which has sold more than three million copies and won the 2022 Goodreads Choice Award for memoir. Below are both books in order, with what each is about and where the novel fits.
Where to Start with Jennette McCurdy
If you have never read her
→ I’m Glad My Mom Died (2022) — the book that made her a writer.
If you want her fiction
→ Half His Age (2026) — her first novel, best read after the memoir.
If you watched her on iCarly
→ I’m Glad My Mom Died (2022) — her own account of the years behind the show.
Both Jennette McCurdy Books, in Order
I’m Glad My Mom Died
McCurdy’s memoir of growing up as a child actor under her mother, Debra, who pushed her into auditions from the age of six and, McCurdy writes, into calorie restriction from eleven. It covers her years on iCarly and Sam & Cat, her mother’s death from cancer in 2013, and the eating disorders and drinking that followed, in two parts headed “Before” and “After”. Published by Simon & Schuster in August 2022, it sold out within a day, spent eight weeks at number one on the New York Times list and won the 2022 Goodreads Choice Award for memoir.
Blunt, funny in unexpected places, and completely without the softening that most celebrity memoirs use to protect a parent’s memory. The title tells you exactly what kind of honesty to expect, and the book delivers on it from the first page. I read it in a single evening and kept stopping to reread paragraphs — it’s rare for a memoir to be this dark and this readable at the same time.
— LisanneHalf His Age
Her first novel. Waldo, seventeen, lives with her mother in Anchorage, Alaska, pays the household bills while her mother chases a string of men, and falls for Mr. Korgy, her forty-year-old, married creative writing teacher; the two begin an affair. Published by Ballantine in January 2026, it was a New York Times bestseller. Reviews were mixed: Kirkus praised the mother-daughter material but found the prose uneven, while Gillian Flynn called it “eerie and unsettling and believable”.
Read this after the memoir, not instead of it. Knowing what McCurdy has said publicly about her own experience with an age-gap relationship gives the novel’s fictional distance a sharper edge than it would have on its own. I noticed how much restraint she uses here compared to the memoir’s directness — it’s a different muscle, and she’s clearly still working it out.
— LisanneIn What Order to Read Jennette McCurdy
Read them in the order they appeared: I’m Glad My Mom Died (2022), then Half His Age (2026). The novel is not a sequel, but McCurdy has said that writing Waldo helped her process “a lot of unprocessed anger from some of my own life experiences”, and the memoir is where those experiences are told.
Before the books she wrote essays, among them pieces for The Wall Street Journal from 2011, including one on her mother’s cancer, and a 2019 HuffPost essay on her eating disorder. If you want more memoirs like hers, see my best memoirs and biographies.
A reading path
1. I’m Glad My Mom Died (2022)
2. Half His Age (2026)
The years · 1992–2026
Quick facts about Jennette McCurdy
- Known for
- A former Nickelodeon child star whose memoir about her controlling mother, eating disorders and child fame became one of the bestselling books of the 2020s.
- 1992
- Born in Long Beach, California
- 2007
- Sam Puckett in iCarly
- 2013
- Her mother dies; Sam & Cat premieres
- 2026
- Half His Age, her first novel
- Born
- 26 June 1992, Long Beach, California; grew up in Garden Grove, the youngest of four
- Acting
- iCarly (2007–2012), Sam & Cat (2013–2014), Netflix’s Between (2015–2016); stopped acting around 2017–2018
- Music
- Country singer with Capitol Nashville; album Jennette McCurdy (2012)
- Writing
- Essays for The Wall Street Journal (from 2011) and HuffPost; two books, 2022 and 2026
- Stage & screen
- One-woman show I’m Glad My Mom Died (2020–2021); short films as writer-director, 2017–2019; podcast Empty Inside (2020)
- Recognition
- Goodreads Choice Award, Memoir & Autobiography (2022); eight weeks at No. 1 on the New York Times list
The red mark is 2022: I’m Glad My Mom Died, the memoir that turned a former child actor into a bestselling writer.
How Jennette McCurdy Writes: Present Tense, No Softening
I’m Glad My Mom Died is told in the present tense, from inside each age: the six-year-old at her first audition, the eleven-year-old learning “calorie restriction” from her mother, the twenty-one-year-old at the hospital bed. It opens there, in the ICU: “Mom is in the ICU at the hospital. The doctor told us she has forty-eight hours to live.” The child does not know what the reader knows, and the book lets that gap do the work.
Her sentences are short and the jokes come in the worst moments, which is how she keeps very dark material readable. The memoir is split into “Before” and “After” her mother’s death, and the second half is about what was left: the eating disorders, the drinking, and therapy. The title comes from her one-woman show of the same name.
In Half His Age she moves into fiction but keeps the close, bodily first-person voice and the theme of an adult with power over a girl. She has said the idea came to her as “this full-body knowing” on a bullet train in Japan, and that although Waldo is the pursuer, “at the end of the day, he’s still 40-years-old. He’s still her teacher.” For writers with the same unflinching voice, see Authors like Jennette McCurdy.
Watch
Jennette McCurdy on her memoir
McCurdy talks to ABC News about the stories behind I’m Glad My Mom Died, her mother and her years as a child actor.
Frequently asked questions about Jennette McCurdy’s books
How many books has Jennette McCurdy written?
Two: the memoir I’m Glad My Mom Died (2022) and the novel Half His Age (2026).
What are Jennette McCurdy’s books in order?
I’m Glad My Mom Died (Simon & Schuster, August 2022), then Half His Age (Ballantine, January 2026).
Where should I start with Jennette McCurdy?
With I’m Glad My Mom Died. It is her best-known book, and it tells the life that her novel, Half His Age, comes out of.
What is Jennette McCurdy’s most famous book?
I’m Glad My Mom Died (2022). It sold more than 200,000 copies in its first week, spent eight weeks at number one on the New York Times list and, according to Rolling Stone, had sold more than three million copies by July 2025.
What is I’m Glad My Mom Died about?
It is McCurdy’s memoir of growing up as a child actor under her mother, Debra, who pushed her into acting from the age of six and, McCurdy writes, into calorie restriction from eleven. It covers her years playing Sam Puckett on iCarly, her mother’s death from cancer in 2013, and the eating disorders and drinking that followed.
Is Half His Age based on a true story?
No. Half His Age is a novel, McCurdy’s first work of fiction, about a seventeen-year-old in Anchorage who has an affair with her forty-year-old teacher. McCurdy has said writing it helped her process anger from her own life, and in her memoir she describes a relationship she had at eighteen with a man in his thirties, but the characters and story are invented.
Does I’m Glad My Mom Died contain difficult content?
Yes. It describes eating disorders, emotional and physical abuse by a parent, alcohol misuse and a parent’s death from cancer in close detail. If these topics are difficult for you, it is worth knowing that going in.
What age group is I’m Glad My Mom Died appropriate for?
It is written for adult readers. Although McCurdy’s story begins in childhood, the frank treatment of disordered eating, abuse and adult relationships makes it a memoir for a mature audience rather than for children.
Is there a TV series of I’m Glad My Mom Died?
One is in development. In July 2025 Apple TV ordered a ten-episode series created by McCurdy and Ari Katcher, with Jennifer Aniston cast as the mother. In July 2026 Aniston left the project, citing scheduling conflicts. No release date has been announced.
Who is “The Creator” in I’m Glad My Mom Died?
McCurdy does not name him. In the memoir “The Creator” is the Nickelodeon producer behind her shows, whose treatment of her she describes in detail; many readers and outlets have assumed he is Dan Schneider. She also writes that she turned down $300,000 from Nickelodeon offered on condition that she not speak publicly about her experiences there.
How old is Jennette McCurdy?
She was born on 26 June 1992, in Long Beach, California, so she turned 34 in June 2026.
Does Jennette McCurdy have a twin?
No. She is the youngest of four children, with three older brothers.
What happened to Jennette McCurdy?
After Sam & Cat ended in 2014 she starred in the Netflix drama Between (2015–2016), then stopped acting around 2017–2018 and declined to return for the iCarly revival (2021). She turned to writing and directing short films, staged a one-woman show, and published her memoir in 2022 and her first novel in 2026.
How old was Jennette McCurdy in iCarly?
She was fifteen when iCarly premiered in September 2007 and twenty when it ended in 2012. She played Sam Puckett in 93 episodes.
Are Jennette McCurdy and Ariana Grande friends?
They co-starred in Sam & Cat (2013–2014). In the memoir McCurdy writes that she was jealous of Grande at the time, partly because Grande’s other work meant McCurdy had to turn down roles and saw her own character written around Grande’s absences. In a 2015 interview McCurdy said the two had made up.
Footnotes
- Jennette McCurdy — Wikipedia
- I’m Glad My Mom Died — Wikipedia
- Half His Age — Penguin Random House
- Half His Age — Kirkus Reviews
- Jennette McCurdy follows up bestselling memoir with Half His Age, her fiction debut — NPR (via KUNC), 2026
- Jennette McCurdy explains why she was jealous of Ariana Grande — ET
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“Mom is in the ICU at the hospital. The doctor told us she has forty-eight hours to live.”
— Jennette McCurdy, I’m Glad My Mom Died (2022)
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