I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The Three Lives of Cate Kay by Kate Fagan Series: Standalone
Published by Atria Books on 2025 January 07
Genres: Drama, Contemporary
Pages: 304
Format: E-Arc
Source: Netgalley
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.
There’s something about this book that’s both lovely and disorienting. Is it because of the numerous POVs? Is it because it feels more like of a memoir than your typical novel? Or is it because our protagonist still seems an enigmatic person even until the very end? As someone who prefers SFFs and RomCom stories, the Three Lives of Cate Kay felt so new to me that reading the first few chapters felt weird. At some point, I did ask myself whether I downloaded the correct file because I expected something typical only to be handed with a story centering around theC life of this queer individual who is as lost as the legend of yore. But as I plowed through the story and finally getting the hang of the multiple POVs, a certain hunger has awoken in me. I could not read the book fast enough; there are questions that I need to be answered as soon as possible so I devoured the book in one sitting. Just like our mysterious Cate Kay, this book has a certain charm that you cannot just resist.
The events and the setting may be different but every one of us has an inner Cate Kay that’s why this book hits differently in a personal level. At some point in our lives, we’ve all been there; trying to demand something from the world but not getting what we seek, making the wrong decisions, pushing everyone away, and all that. And amidst all that, we still fight, we still dream, and cling even to the smallest motivation there is. Out of the three personas of Cate Kay, I could probably relate more to the enthusiastic and uncertain Annie who secretly longs for her bestfriend, who dreams big, and desires to please her best friend. For her succeeding lives, however, I find them painful to read because she’s just lost despite reaching the pinnacle of success. It also did not help that she surrounded herself with the wrong person and shunned away the world, living in her own safety bubble. As I read through this slice-of-life novel, I was both emphatic and angry at Cate Kay while my heart bled for the other characters who got entangled with the chaos that is Cate. Like did they deserve such treatment from Cate? This is probably the reason why I had to knock off a star from my rating because the ending was some sort of anti-climactic. Our protagonist’s redemption arc was not thoroughly explored and I was not convinced that after all the hullabaloo that had happened, Cate can just waltz in easily into the lives of Ryan and Amanda.
Of course, I love how the story was wrapped up. It’s just the conflict resolution was too easy, and it makes Cate Kay look like this entitled goddess who cannot be denied with what she wants to happen. Like everyone is at her beck and call, like everyone needs to beg for her attention.
But all in all, there are no other words for this book but it’s a superb and nuanced tale about picking up the pieces and ultimately, embracing everything life has to offer.