A few months ago, I was just scrolling through Amazon looking for new book recommendations. I stumbled upon The Three Lives of Cate Kay by Kate Fagan, and the premise immediately piqued my interest. It’s marketed as to be for fans of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo as well as Emily Henry’s Great Big Beautiful Life. Did this book live up to those high standards set by marketing?
About the book
The Three Lives of Cate Kay Published by Atria Books on January 7, 2025 Pages: 294
ISBN: 9781668076217
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, General fiction, Literary fiction
Rating: ⭐️⭐️
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.
My thoughts
I have mixed experiences with both aforementioned books. The first one is an all-time favourite of mine, whereas the second one was enjoyable at best. Stories like these seem to become increasingly popular, so the marketing for The Three Lives of Cate Kay doesn’t seem all that strange to me. However, the bar is set sky high as the other books became instant bestsellers. This one seems to have flown under the radar. In fact, I forgot about it although it was in my Kindle app. I randomly picked this for my next read and was expecting to at least enjoy it, but not to be as good as The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.
Cate Kay has lived three lives. Now it’s time for her to open up and reveal the truth once and for all. The book starts in 1991, in her early youth. Gradually, we learn more about her and why she adopted three different identities. Now in 2013, she lives an anonymous live and this sparks curiosity. Why has she decided to live like this? Unfortunately, it’s hard to get to know Cate Kay as she still has three different identities and you simply don’t know who this woman is and what her actual personality is like. It doesn’t really shine through. The fact that people whom she crossed paths with in life also get their own point of view doesn’t help with that, although it’s believed otherwise. As a result, Cate Kay is pretty two dimensional instead of a character you could empathize with as a reader. The best part of those characters is that all of them are gay. But why are they instantly mesmerized and enchanted by Cate’s presence? I just don’t understand. And maybe, just maybe, that’s exactly Fagan’s aim with this concept.
The plot itself reads like a mess. A well-structured one, but a mess nevertheless. It was hard for me to understand why other people, who didn’t seem important at first, got their own point of view. Gradually this becomes clear, but I was still lost. Cate’s story didn’t captivate me at all, even though there are some mysteries to be solved. At the start I was intrigued, but this changed into annoyed once the story progresses. The character of Cate Kay shows too little growth for my taste. The growth she does show however, appears to be abrupt. It was merely do to the writing style that I was able to finish this book pretty quickly, but I have to admit that it doesn’t stick at all and definitely doesn’t meet the bar marketing has set for it.
The Three Lives of Cate Kay by Kate Fagan fell victim to its marketing and popular books with the same concept. Even though it’s probably the author’s aim, it was impossible to connect to and empathize with Cate as her actual persona remains still a mystery to me. The plot was a well-structured mess as many other people’s point of view was taken into account. This made it hard to be intrigued by this book at all. The writing is the mere reason I finished this book quickly and actually continued, but the story didn’t manage to keep my full attention. This book unfortunately doesn’t meet the level of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and comparing both books is simply unfair.