The Three Lives of Cate Kay is a mysterious book about a famous author who no one knows is the person behind the pseudonym. But it asks a lot of questions that are more intriguing than their actual answers.
The Three Lives of Cate Kay sounds like an amazing title for a con artist book or a thriller. Let’s say the quiet part out loud–this is not a con artist book, and it’s not a thriller. Cate Kay is much more in the women’s literature section, but it does feature two prominent romances. Beyond that, this is a hard book to quantify. It’s not really a mystery as it sets up the question of who is Cate Kay, a famous author who goes by a pseudonym. We know from the beginning who Cate Kay is. We also know why she’s going by the pseudonym fairly early on. The marketing doesn’t help much in understanding what the book is about either, comparing it to Evelyn Hugo. So is it a Hollywood story? A lesbian romance? The truth is that Cate Kay is a lot of things but, unfortunately, it all adds up to less than the sum of its parts.
Cate Kay is the story of Annie, who grew up in upstate New York and was the daughter of an absentee mother. She befriends Amanda, and the two are incredibly close all through high school. Annie is in love with Amanda, and the two plan to head to Hollywood after graduation and become movie stars. But when an accident happens to Amanda, Annie finds herself on the run with a new, assumed name and identity–Cass. Years pass, and Annie, not knowing Amanda’s fate, continues to hide and starts writing a novel, aided by her lawyer girlfriend, Sydney. The novel is published under a pseudonym–Cate Kay–and becomes wildly popular, with adaptations galore. The famous and closeted Hollywood actress hired to star in the movie, Ry Channing, requests a meeting with the elusive Cate. Cass agrees to take the risk of revealing her identity to Ryan and finds herself attracted to her. Meanwhile Amanda begins to suspect that the mysterious Cate Kay is actually her long lost friend Annie.
While I was reading Cate Kay I found myself very engaged with the plot and the story. I had no idea where it was heading, and the book changes POV as it moves. We also start by learning that Cate Kay is being asked to reveal herself and that the book we’re reading is her memoir. All of these elements feel intriguing, and lend the book pace as it feels like we’re building to a big reveal at the end. Annie’s choice to conceal her identity both as Cass and as Cate Kay also allow for secrecy and danger which builds up the pace.
However, and I won’t reveal spoilers, the problem for me was that I felt the ending of the book felt like falling off a cliff. Like the plot is so enjoyable and interesting throughout, but part of that is also because it’s not clear what the book really wants to be about. It feels like we will get those answers at the end, but instead the end feels underwritten and anticlimactic. It doesn’t really tie the strings of the book together which undermines the enjoyment of the rest of the plot. This is the kind of book that I enjoyed all the way through, but then once I finished I started liking it less in retrospect.
There’s also a lot of plot, a lot of road. And the writing here is interesting enough and succinct enough to pull through it. But what is the there there? I found myself consistently asking what this book is really about. Is it an ode to friendship? A story of the romance between Cass and Ryan? A story of Amanda’s sexual awakening? None of it felt quite right which made it hard to understand the point.
I also think comparing this book to Evelyn Hugo did it no favors. That is a distinctly Hollywood story looking at the golden ages of Hollywood through a queer lens. It was fresh and unique. This story felt far less developed and while Ryan is in some ways a successor to Evelyn, she’s not the main character here by a long shot. Holding this book up to that standard doesn’t seem fair to Fagan’s work. Comparing it to Every Lie Wins similarly doesn’t really help, as that book does build to a big climax. So it makes you feel as a reader like the author is assuredly building to something here as well.
This book also feels like it was written as a period piece, before social media and the internet. Finding out what happened to Amanda doesn’t feel so difficult in this day. Instead, Cass believes the only account she gets, which is from the unreliable Sydney. But this didn’t ring true. Same for the misunderstandings between Ry and Cass–they rely on another person delivering a hand-written letter when a text or DM would have done the trick. Again, when you think about it later, it just sort of undercuts the enjoyment of the book.
In terms of the romance, I had a hard time engaging with the romantic storylines because I just wasn’t sure what the author wanted me to be pulling for. In some ways, that’s ok. Relationships are complicated, and I like that Fagan was showing multi layered female relationships. But by consistently changing POV, it wasn’t clear what outcome Fagan wanted me to root for. Cass’s relationship with Sydney is a good example. It feels like a toxic relationship, but more so because Cass never seems invested in it. Never. So Sydney ends up feeling like she has to trap Cass, but it’s unclear why Cass stays at all. The big choice seems to be between Amanda and Ry, but it’s established early on that Amanda is heterosexual. So that seems like kind of a non-competition.
Ultimately, Cate Kay just didn’t come together for me. Although I enjoyed the writing and the plot throughout, I didn’t walk away feeling like I had the answer to ‘Who is Cate Kay?’ or more importantly why I should care about the answer. I love finding a great romance in a story that’s not at its forefront a romance, but this one just didn’t quite deliver.
3.5 stars out of 5
Synopsis (from Amazon):
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo meets First Lie Wins in this electric, voice-driven debut novel about an elusive bestselling author who decides to finally confess her true identity after years of hiding from her past.
Cate Kay knows how to craft a story. As the creator of a bestselling book trilogy that struck box office gold as a film series, she’s one of the most successful authors of her generation. The thing is, Cate Kay doesn’t really exist. She’s never attended author events or granted any interviews. Her real identity had been a closely guarded secret, until now.
As a young adult, she and her best friend Amanda dreamed of escaping their difficult homes and moving to California to become movie stars. But the day before their grand adventure, a tragedy shattered their dreams and Cate has been on the run ever since, taking on different names and charting a new future. But after a shocking revelation, Cate understands that returning home is the only way she’ll be a whole person again.
