Review: The Three Lives of Cate Kay
I love a lesbian love triangle
I like to start a book review with the reason I picked the book off the shelf, or in this case, pressed play on a Spotify audiobook “included with Premium.” The cover was very appealing: a bright pink-red background with yellow block text reading “The Three Lives of Kate Cay.” Three lives? Tell me more.
Below the title, there’s an image of a broken rearview mirror with three sets of eyes refracted in the glass. Clean, mysterious, and somehow posh. In addition to a pretty cover (superficial, I know) I usually look for author credentials. Kate Fagan is a #1 New York Times bestselling author for What Made Maddy Run, a book about University of Pennsylvania athlete Maddy Holleran’s suicide and bigger picture mental health issues among of college athletes. Fagan spent 7 years as a columnist and sports writer for espnW, ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine. I didn’t know this about Fagan’s biography until after I read this book, and now I appreciate the apparent versatility of Fagan’s writing skills and jumped to put What Made Maddy Run on my list.
The Three Lives of Cate Kay is also in Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club, which I’ve never really been disappointed by. I don’t know what that says about me as a reader, but it kind of makes me want to be in a book club with middle-aged pilates moms in the suburbs.
About an hour into The Three Lives of Kate Cay I was already drawn to the voice of the characters— but then it got better. I knew from the summary that the book was about a famous author who was hiding from her past and keeping secrets for some reason. What I did not know (and what was not included in the summary) was that all of the romance in the book was going to be wlw. I was running on the American Tobacco Trail enjoying an afternoon run in the sun, listening to the audiobook, when it was revealed that the main character, Annie, was gay! I think the last mile of my run was faster for that very reason. Annie momentarily pursued a hot barista at her local coffee shop, and I couldn’t help me be like, yeah that’s me, I’m the hot barista in this novel.
In quick summary of the novel, we have Annie and Amanda. Best friends growing up, they did everything together. However, Annie was not-so-platonically in love with Amanda, who did not feel the same. They never directly confront this, but Amanda shot Annie down in a pivotal moment that could have been a turning point in the nature of their relationship in high school. Right before they were set to move to LA together after graduation to be movie stars (because of course they would), Amanda got in an accident. Annie had to decide of it was worse to leave Amanda behind forever or to forgo her dreams and stay at home with her best friend (because there was no in between option? it was very dramatic). The guilt that resulted from Annie’s decision complicated her career and followed her for rest of her life, even making her change her identity to escape her past. Years later, Annie published the instant success novel The Very Last of Us, which she anonymously published under the pseudonym Cate Kay. While nobody knows who she really is, Annie must reckon with her past, present, and future selves, and the complications they create for her ability to love and heal.
The question stands: Was this book actually good or was I just excited to read a novel in which I identified with the characters? Here is what I have decided:
The plot was not very believable, or particularly interesting. But I did like it. The charm, flirtation, shiny Hollywood set, famous movie-star and author characters, unrequited love, and huge cast of characters created enough allure for me personally to get over the holes in the story and the absence of an overarching meaning to the story.
Fagan created interesting pacing by switching perspectives between three core characters and at least 8-10 additional minor characters or observers that added comments or filler in the story that created tension between the characters and their professions and relationships. Fagan also switched back and forth in time to retell Annie and Amanda’s childhood. As if that wasn’t enough, Fagan also had sections of the book that were supposed to be snippets from the book Annie/Cate had written. This was to let us see how the book Annie got famous for writing reflected her trauma/love/loss, etc. While all this movement might seem distracting, I think Fagan pulled it off well and managed to differentiate all the voices.
Listening to the audiobook was a game changer. I was more attentive because of the change in voice actors. My favorite character was Ryan because of how much I liked the voice performance. The longing, curiosity, and intensity that came through in the voice made Ryan’s growing affection for Cate very engaging, sexy, and posh. Her personality almost tangible, despite how far-fetched some of her life seemed on paper. While I don’t know how realistic Ryan’s experience of Hollywood fame was, it was enough to make me feel some of the glitter of the her high-profile lifestyle and the undercover gay romance.
Would I recommend this book? Yes. But I’d recommend it to fellow Queers specifically looking for a steamy romance to lay out in the Spring sunshine with. The Three Lives of Cate Kay was not as deep and moving as a Sally Rooney, or as comedic and charming as a Casey McQuinton, but it also wasn’t as cheesy as an Ashley Herring Blake.
If anyone has any recommendations for more gay books, please let me know. I’m currently reading Orange is the New Black and I’m going to watch the show after. Hoping to start a streak of reading Queer books and supporting Queer authors at my local book stores. Also, Spotify having a cap on how many audiobook hours you can have is dumb and I think it should be unlimited. I got two hours from the ending of this book and had to wait a whole week for it to be March so I could finish it. You have been warned. I gave this book 4 stars on Goodreads, which feels generous, but I don’t care.