The plot feels deceptively slow-paced but then every volume of this makes me tear up and reckon with completely new feelings I’ve never had a book make me feel before ;n; and the art is simplistic and I crave the olden days of more backgrounds but it’s actually so, so beautiful and unique.

This was so fast paced and a blast to get through! It was unsettling to read about post-COVID teens in the world of AI and TikTok but a much-needed perspective shift since the good ol’ 2010s YA. I love Jeanette’s ability to get into the psyche of a child. I can imagine this will change the lives of many early teen girls who are most definitely too young to be reading this but borrowed it from the library unbeknownst to their parents. 🤪

Jeanette’s narration is like spoken-word poetry and for sure enhances the experience. I liked the legs she went on about consumerism, digital isolation, girl/womanhood, class, aging, etc, but if also felt almost too fully-formed for the point of view of a 17-18 year old, even when taking into consideration that Waldo presents as mature for her age, and took me out of the story sometimes. There is something very American about this book, and that may be another reason I felt disconnected from it, especially when comparing to the other piece of media that I can recall was similar to me—the manga Daytime Shooting Star by Yamamori Mika, which was a softer, less sexually explicit and a more slow-burn narrative, but just as scathing. While it was quite satisfyingly terrible to read about Mr. Korgy’s atrocious behaviour, I felt like the fast pacing of the book kind of led to us missing out on more of the awkwardness and hiccups that I’m certain should have existed throughout their relationship rather than altogether at the end—though of course that can be chalked up to an unreliable narrator’s tunnel vision.

I also feel like throughout the book, we live in Waldo’s thoughts but still hardly get to know her much. (Again, could be a sign that she doesn’t even know herself yet.) Her mom is for sure a fascinating character and shows exactly how Waldo was raised with generational trauma to behave the way she does. Reading about their (toxic) relationship to performance of femininity for the sake of men, ironically I was reminded vividly of reading Perfume & Pain by Anna Dorn, which is a very completely lesbian narrative (while Half His Age is uncomfortably, aggressively, and compulsively straight) but has a protagonist that similarly struggles with relationship addiction wrapped up in experiences of structural inequality, and often projects it as obsessing over women’s appearance in a very uncomfortable manner. Both books made me take pause and question how I feel towards femininity—which I generally steep myself in as a hobby, but it’s always good when fiction compels you to reexamine yourself—and then thank the stars that it’s positive and centered around my own joy. While I relate to so many of Waldo’s growing pains and insecurities, I am grateful I grew out of most of it and simply don’t have the headspace to be micromanaging my body and behaviour for the sake of somebody else.

I kind of wish Waldo’s high school peers had more of a part to play. I know that “in the end it turned out everybody did care and the power of friendship conquered all” is not always very realistic but I just wanted to be surprised by the narrative some more and find that more of Waldo’s worldview was warped than initially thought. Again, it is of course a symptom of her grooming that she would continue to feel disconnected from life with her peers no matter what.

In the end, I guess my biggest critique really is that the book ended too abruptly. There were many twists and truly shocking scenes throughout (which I do appreciate because art needs to be taboo once in a while to make us think—preferably when the artist themself is a survivor), however the ending was in many ways fairly predictable—but that doesn’t make up for the lack of context surrounding it. We don’t get much insight at all into how Waldo reaches breaking point, we don’t see how the cracks in the facade come together. That’s what I would’ve loved more of.

Not the kind of vibe I usually seek out in my books, but I hope Jeanette keeps writing fiction and all I wish for is for Michelle Zauner to do the same! 4.5⭐️