THE THREE LIVES OF CATE KAY

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This is @reesesbookclub latest pick - it is fun and I enjoyed it!!

Cate Kay is an author who wrote a best-selling-trilogy-turned-movie series that took the world by storm. But this ultra-famous author has never been seen, and no one knows who she is … until now. She is writing a book about her past and her many selves — what happened back in her hometown, how did she make it big, and why is she revealing everything now?!

I started the ebook version of this, but I wasn’t finding a lot of time to sit down & read, so I switched to the audio format. I preferred the ebook, just because there are many different sections you need to pay attention to: varying POVs and/or testimonials across chapters, and there are also footnotes and book excerpts from Cate Kay (truly the book inside a book inside a book!). Because of this, I found I was more easily able to follow along via print.

I really liked the characters and format of this one - although I wish some of the suspense lasted longer about what happened when Annie was younger. No spoilers, but I thought some of the ways things played out could have been solved a liiiittle easier (queue the “why don’t you just call Taylor up?!” sound!).

That being said, I did really like the writing and the ending — I was rooting for our girl(s)! I thought this was clever and really kept me engaged; I definitely will add Kate Fagan to my authors-to-follow list!

The Three Lives of Cate Kay took me awhile to get into (a good 25-30%), but I’m so glad I stuck with it. By the end I wasn’t ready for Cate/Cass/Annie’s story to be over.

Cate Kay is finally ready to tell her story. Born Anne Marie Callahan, she dreams of leaving small town New Jersey with her best friend Amanda. The girls both have star power, but then tragedy strikes and Annie must reinvent herself alone. We follow Annie (now Cass Ford) as she leaves that old world behind and goes on to write a blockbuster series. Now, years later, she is finally ready to reveal herself.

This was very much a character driven story and I loved that. We spend time in Annie’s head, but also in the women who know her best. The POVs are woven together so we really do see all sides of the story as Annie’s past is revealed piece by piece. I became so invested in Annie’s life and was really hoping she would end up where she did.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria for a review copy.

Synopsis: Cate Kay is the creator of a bestselling book series, and she’s seen much success. The thing, though, is Cate Kay doesn’t exist. Not really, anyways. Her real identity has been a well kept secret… until now. As a young adult, her and her best friend dreamed of moving away and creating a life together, but when this dream was shattered, Cate started running away and taking on new names in every new situation. After a new understanding of what really happened with her friends all those years ago, she knows the only way to move toward with who she is really is, is to confront the past.

Review: The Three Lives of Cate Kay explored themes of grief, guilt, and love, from all of the characters. Written in many different perspectives, another common theme felt like ego, and the ways we seek out what we want and craft our lives around various expectations.
I think that each character and part in this book had purpose, especially purpose for the protagonist, Cate and where she was at in her life when they came in, though I did have trouble connecting with the characters. I also felt that while there wasn’t necessarily a lot that happened, I understood and liked the story and why the things that did happen, happened. As a whole, it felt engrossing, and felt like a look into wanting to belong while wanting to stand out, and felt like a story about purpose and connection. I’d recommend this if you’re looking for a quick read that will pull you into the characters.

See some quotes I loved below!

“It's like you hold me steady, but without holding me still."

“I'd been listening intently for her while watching the raindrops on the glass; the beads of liquid kept merging before I was prepared to lose them.”

“In the many years since, I've thought of this memory as a blueprint that might help explain the life I constructed afterward.”

“We're all so much more, and less, than our best, or worst, moment.”

“I know you remember. I know everything we shared is threaded through you as it is me.”

“A student told me last week that we speak five thousand words a day. Instantly you appeared next to me, giddy over this factoid, trying to do the math: okay, so let's say half our words are to each other, that's 2,500 multiplied by 365 days multiplied by-how many years have we been friends? I pictured you calculating the many millions of words between us. However many, they were hardly enough.”

Rating: 3.5/5

I LOVE a story about an author, and boy did Fagan not disappoint with The Three Lives of Cate Kay, our elusive narrator who, after years of hiding not disclosing her identity, writes a memoir about her life under three different names. I loved how this felt like a memoir, although I don't agree with the similarities found with The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. The characters, however, were three-dimensional and extremely well-written, and I felt so invested in Cate's story that I was heartbroken when it was over.

It seems that character-driven stories are becoming more and more popular, something that I also really enjoyed about Fagan's writing. Their emotions were MY emotions - what more could you ask for from a writer?

Thank you to NetGalley and to the author for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. I look forward to Fagan's next literary venture!

4.5*

This is a really solid, character-driven story, reminiscent of Daisy Jones and the Six, except that the many people who influenced Annie/Cass/Cate’s life tell their own story for a multi-narrated “memoir” rather than being interviewed. In this case, Cate is an author who uses her writing to make amends, process her feelings about the women she’s loved, and finally realize what will ultimately fill the black hole that is her life. In the process, the story serves as an exposé of Hollywood and how both writers’ and actors’ managers hold immense control over the celebrities they handle, sometimes using it for good, but often for self-serving reasons. Cate is a sympathetic character who made a desperately bad decision, but created something memorable from her catharsis. The secondary characters are fully-realized, perhaps because we get to see them from more than one perspective.

My only slight criticism is that the ending seemed abrupt, but that’s more because I like stories tied up in pretty little bows and that’s not how life works. Although there is a sapphic romance element, it’s not the book’s primary focus which is ultimately about ambition, guilt, loneliness, love in various iterations, the power and pitfalls of celebrity, hiding in plain sight, forgiveness, and redemption. A solid work of women’s fiction I highly recommend.

I received a complimentary ARC of this book from Atria Books through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

Honestly, I just didn’t vibe with the style of writing. It was not clicking in my brain. Maybe it’s just a me thing or maybe not, but it wasn’t for me. So sad!

Cate Kay is an enigmatic author whose hugely successful bestselling series is being made into a movie. But Cate Kay is the pseudonym of Annie, a woman who ran away from her hometown when her best friend had a terrible accident in front of her. After living in anonymity for her entire adult life, trying to remain anonymous isn’t sitting well with Cate anymore and she is craving the interaction of someone other than her controlling girlfriend-agent and so she chooses to fly to LA from NY and spend time with the actress starring in her movies and her life begins to change dramatically in many ways.

I’ve had this one on my shelf for a while and while it exceeded my expectations, I’m glad I waited to read it because I then received the audiobook and that took the novel to another level. I loved the multi cast narration and couldn’t stop listening to it. There was a great plot, interesting characters and the story arc kept me wanting to know what happened. In some ways it was presented as a Cate Kay tell all, but the way Cate’s story slowly unfolded really worked for this novel. A nice bonus for me was that there is a storyline that takes place in the UWS SoulcCycle, a place I am very familiar with (my daughter suggested I not admit how many times a week I am there) - I've told the staff there about this one because I think they'd enjoy. I highly recommend the audiobook, but if audiobooks aren’t you thing, the books is an engrossing read as well.

4.25 stars

Thank you to Atria and NetGalley for the ARC to review

Kate Fagan’s debut fiction novel, The Three Lives of Cate Kay, is a Reese’s Book Club pick, so it is sure to be lauded and applauded in the upcoming months. I had added this novel to my TBR list before any mention of Reese, and was excited to learn that Reese and I had shown interest in a similar book. But unfortunately, where Reese seemingly loved this book, I practically loathed it.

The Three Lives of Cate Kay, about an elusive author with a mysterious, hidden past and identity, started off strongly, evoking 90’s nostalgia and beautifully representing the youthful friendship between protagonist Cate and her best friend, Amanda. I loved the fierce bond between these girls, and found their relationship delightfully written as the story progresses, showing how childhood friends shape us and become a part of us; how we never truly let them go, and carry a part of them with us throughout our lives.

But as the narrative of The Three Lives of Cate Kay further develops and the story moves onto numerous, and sometimes inconsequential POVs, this book began to quickly lose me. It felt like we were covering a lot of emotionally intense ground, but getting nowhere. I read pages and pages of this book, just spinning my wheels, waiting for something of consequence to happen. Spacing out when you are reading is never a good sign, but this novel just failed to hold my interest or even conjure up a modicum of care and investment in its characters as I read.

Before reading The Three Lives of Cate Kay, I imagined it to be a literary suspense-lite novel, but what it turned out to be was a sapphic tortured romance. The book’s primarily focus is on Cate Kay and her numerous relationships with women as she tries to move past her one true love. I do not feel like this book was marketed to show its true tone and mission.

This is an unexpected gem. It's the exploration of a woman finding herself even if she needs to reinvent herself multiple times. The story is told in an interesting way with many point of views. Although there is a romantic ribbon, the story is more contemporary fiction and a journey of a woman finding her place in the world and making peace with the past in an unconventional way.

When I saw that this book was being compared to The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo I was intrigued. After reading it I can see why the comparison is made but can also assure you that this debut novel stands on its own.

The Three Lives of Cate Kay is structured as the autobiographical account of the life of a famous anonymous author, Cate Kay. Cate Kay’s debut post apocalyptic novel exploded onto the scene and was quickly followed by movie options, two more books to complete a trilogy, and eventually turned into a Broadway show. Cate’s identity is known to few, a pseudonym for a person in hiding from a tragedy that changed her life trajectory. While Cate Kay is a pen name for Cass Ford, Cass Ford is a new identity for Anne Marie Callahan (Annie).

This story is one of grief, fear and guilt but also love and it is so perfectly balanced throughout. I felt connected to all the characters, including the ones who acted out of hurt and anger and altered Annie’s life. In the end it is a beautiful tale of friendship, coming of age, coming out, and ultimately love.

Highly recommend this one! Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for providing me a copy to review; all opinions are my own. The Three Lives of Cate Kay is out now!

I flew through this book, although I feel it’s being mismarketed as leaning mystery/thriller. It’s a queer contemporary fiction story following Annie in her childhood and how she becomes writer Cate Kay - it brings in different characters throughout her life. It was a fun story and Fagan does a great job bringing everything together

This was a little bit of slow start, but after the halfway mark, it really picked up. Similarly, it took a while to sell me on so many POVs, but once it clicked, I really came to love and appreciate what it did for the mystery and intrigue of the story.

This is not a book I would’ve necessarily chosen on my own, so I’m glad it was an option to select to bring me outside of my comfort zone. Though I had this book on my Kindle, I really gravitated to the audiobook. I’d recommend that for an immersive experience. The full cast was a huge plus as the full production really brought this to a life of its own.

I enjoyed the character driven plot. While there were some miscommunication bits here that I’m not typically a fan of, I still liked where the story went. There were series of events where some misguided choice caused a snowball effect which was thought provoking. Worth the read or listen.

This is a brilliant plot for a book; the idea of Annie taking on different personas for the big moments of change in her life was really impactful. Her inner thoughts gave a really good insight as to why she chose to take action the way she did. The plot is steady and engaging; the style of writing is easy to follow and there are so many quotable lines in this book. The only thing I was slightly disappointed in (by no fault of the author) is that this book was aligned with other books that I felt did not seem similar to at all; I felt like this impacting my overall experience as it wasn’t what I was expecting.

this the story of annie/cass/cate pulled me in almost immediately. you learn about annie and her best friend, then tragedy. the book leaves you on the edge until toward the end when everything is tying together. it’s a beautiful story for coming of age, identity crisis and queerness. I loved the book but the ending felt rushed, i felt like i needed more at the end. I’m hoping maybe there’s a second book to really tie the ends that i feel are loose from this book. overall, a lovely book. thank you so much netgalley and kate fagan for the arc!

Thank you to Net Galley and Atria Books for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I can honestly say that I was very surprised with how much I really loved this book. Based on the description I thought it would be a good read, but I was not expecting to be so enthralled with the story and not want to put the book down. The story was interesting and different, the characters were engaging and at the heart the story was a story about friendship and loyalty and forgiveness. A truly great read!

Loved this book so, so much. We had the great pleasure of hosting Kate at our store with Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe and she is one of the most interesting and engaging authors we have ever had. We would LOVE to have her back for her next novel, and our staff couldn’t get enough of this one.

The Three Lives of Cate Kay is the epitome of the human experience. It has so much nuance, and is filled with humour, love, loss, and pain.

All the characters jumped off the page, no matter how minor they were. They felt so realistic and flawed, with their own views of the world and their own lives.

This book feels like an ode to hope, and how it's never too late to have hope, no matter the circumstances.

The book also has an incredibly unique format, and is written in such an intriguing way, that I couldn't stop reading. The tone of voice is so profound and sincere, it feels like the author truly wrote from her heart.

I especially loved the disability representation, and Amanda's view on feeling like you're constantly taking from people. As a disabled person, I have never read something so true and hard-hitting as that profound guilt. Truly one of the best characters I've had the honour of reading.

I genuinely cannot recommend this book enough, to any and all readers.

This is one of those books that grows on you andhas you thinking about the characters for weeks after.

A best-selling author decides after years to finally reveal her true identity. The novel is told from the perspective of everyone who knows the true story of the author of a best selling trilogy. From childhood friends, people in the business, past romantic interests, the actress who plays the roles in the movies based on her books, family members, and the author herself.

Positives
Multiple povs and timelines
Many themes done well: grief, romance, friendship, identity, guilt, price of fame, family trauma, etc.
I felt like I really got to know the characters from the way they were written. Great character development
The ending did not disappoint

Negatives:
It did take me a bit to get into the book but then I really cared about the characters
You had to keep track of the timeline

While I enjoyed this book, I can see certain people LOVING it.

Thank you to Atria Books for my copy of THE THREE LIVES OF CATE KAY. This one is out Jan 7.

I really loved this strange little story. It was fun getting swept up in this world within a world within a world. I love this style of fiction that reads almost like it's real, I want to find more stories like this one.