Review by Booklist Review
Celebrated author Cate Kay has secrets. First, her name isn't really Cate Kay. The Three Lives of Cate Kay is framed as her memoir, with added chapters from other characters that present the whole story. In her childhood, Cate had an intense friendship with Amanda and plans to make it big in Hollywood together, plans that were complicated by the fact that Cate is gay and was not-so-secretly attracted to Amanda. After Cate leaves her hometown on her own, her life becomes entangled with a lawyer and then a closeted actress on the verge of a breakthrough. Centering on the experience of this small-town girl with burning ambitions, the book is exquisitely plotted with its inventive story structure, placing nuggets of information throughout to reel the reader in. Though the pace is leisurely, the tension of the story is taut and explores how ambitions clash with genuine connection and test the humanity of compassionate relationships. It is intimate and personal and digs into the often-opaque motivations of its characters. At its heart, it is about how we deal--or don't deal--when tragedy strikes. Fagan's (All the Colors Came Out, 2021) journalism-honed observational skills make her fiction debut shine.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Sportswriter Fagan (What Made Maddy Run) makes her fiction debut with the electrifying story of a bestselling author's secrets. Many have read The Very Last, but few know the identity of its pseudonymous author, Cate Kay. The narrative, framed as Kay's unpublished memoir, gradually unravels her true story. Raised as Annie Callahan in Upstate New York, she now lives in Charleston, S.C., under the name Cass Ford. When she was a teen, her friend Amanda fell from a zip line while trying to impress her. The accident prompts Annie to run away without knowing whether Amanda survived. She drives aimlessly north and winds up in Plattsburgh, N.Y., where she lives out of her car and works in a coffee shop, afraid to face Amanda and relishing her newfound identity under the name Cass. Eventually, she meets Sidney, a law student who encourages her writing and helps her understand her queer identity. She catapults to fame with the pseudonym Cate Kay and continues to shed her past, leaving Sidney for movie star Ryan Channing, who's secretly a lesbian, after Ryan is cast in a film adaptation of The Very Last. Fagan fascinates with her enigmatic and shape-shifting protagonist, and the tightly woven plot will keep readers on the edge of their seats. It's a blast. Agent: Katie Greenstreet, Paper Literary. (Jan.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
When a young woman writes a trilogy of bestselling books under a pen name, everyone wants to know her identity, but she has reasons for keeping herself hidden. The reclusive author Cate Kay is legally named Cass Ford, but she was born Anne Marie Callahan--and to her best childhood friend, she was always known as Annie. Growing up in upstate New York, Annie and Amanda did everything together. They especially loved to act, and they shared big dreams of running off to Los Angeles. Although Annie's love for Amanda wasn't entirely platonic, their attachment ran deep enough to survive their mismatched feelings. What their relationship was less able to survive was an unexpected accident. Annie ended up leaving town alone and creating a new life for herself. Dismayed by her cowardice in leaving Amanda behind, she takes on a new identity as Cass Ford and falls into a relationship with Sidney, a woman who seeks to isolate and control her. When Cass writes a runaway hit, Sidney--who's one of the few people privy to her real identity--doesn't want to share that information, or any other part of Cass, with the world. As Cass navigates her new success, she begins to wonder whether she ever really knew who she was and what she should do now that she has the power to choose. The story is presented as Cate Kay's memoir and sprinkled with her own footnotes, but it also offers brief chapters from the first-person viewpoints of many other characters, implying that Cass has reached out to them for their perspectives. Through this documentary-like setup, author Fagan is able to round out the picture of Annie/Cass/Cate and the way she's coped with various traumas. Though the characters are multidimensional and compelling, some of their actions are a bit hard to believe, like the way Annie abandoned her best friend in a moment of need and later accepted tragic news without any sort of verification. Similarly, there are times where the narrative is weighed down with irrelevant details. Even so, Fagan explores many complex topics with grace, ranging from toxic friendships to uncomfortable professional successes and undeserved second chances. A smart and enticing fictional memoir. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
