Teeny Tiny Book Reviews: The Three Lives of Cate Kay by Kate Fagan

Spoilers below!

This book had a lot of great exposition, but completely glazed over the – potentially – best part!

I was intrigued by the premise of the book and comparisons that I had seen to The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, which is one of my favorite books. Though I do understand the comparisons – lesbians! Hollywood! twists and turns! – I did not like this book nearly as much as Evelyn Hugo, and was ultimately disappointed by it by the end.

My biggest gripe was that there did not appear to be any consequences for any characters’ wrongdoings, which meant that, by the end, the emotional stakes felt stunted and flat. Annie/Cass/Cate spent nearly the entire book in hiding, scared of the repercussions of running away from difficult situations, not trusting anyone, but why? She adopts an entire fake persona to run from her past life, but when she returns to that past life… there are no repercussions. Sidney walks all over Cass’s personal life for her gain, so Cass leaves her as a partner and a client and… it’s fine! She gets married and continues being a successful lawyer! Ry comes out and… nothing? Amanda drunkenly lashes out at her friends and… we just never see them again?

This frustration is best illustrated by the novel’s second-to-last and last chapter. In the second-to-last chapter, Ry races to Cass and Amanda’s hometown to confront Cass and confess her love for her, while at the same time, Cass and Amanda have reunited for the first time in nearly a decade, and all of the storylines are poised to meet and Cass’s personas and conflicting feelings are all poised to crash into each other in a dramatic climax and… we fast forward 5 years, and everyone is now ambiguously friendly and supportive of each other.

LAME! I wanted to hear everyone work out their complicated feelings and backstories and let Annie/Cass/Cate unravel in real time. This ending felt like the ultimate cop out, and I felt cheated! I might have liked the book more if there were some semblance of an emotional payoff, but nope! It was a fun ride, but I would not recommend it based on the ending alone.