Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the ARC — all opinions are my own. Posting this review on publication day: happy book birthday, Kitten! (out today, august 4, 2026 🎂)
The premise (spoiler-free)
Katie is fresh out of college, far from home, broke, no longer speaking to her mother, and perfectly content to let her wealthy boyfriend James make life's decisions for both of them. Then James brings his childhood cat, Silver, along on a vacation to his family's seaside house — and Katie discovers a sudden, strange, giddy connection. Silver doesn't care that Katie can't hold a job or a dinner-party conversation. Silver lounges, misbehaves, and gets fed anyway. And the closer Katie clings to that little life, the more her own begins to crack open… or maybe just crack.
Hey — I'm a cat person as much as the next girl. But Katie was bordering on obsession.
What worked
To be fair, the obsession is the point. Katie's fixation on Silver works as a revelation of her own internalized desires, and as a mirror of her relationship with her mother, who leans on her with a heavy, exhausting emotional dependence. It's cleverly constructed — I can see what Yu was doing, and there's real intelligence in the design.
And Katie herself? An energy suck. She drains every room and every page she's in. But here's the strange thing: as unlikeable as she is, she's somehow relatable in more ways than I'd like to admit — and that uncomfortable recognition is the book's best trick.
Unlikeable protagonists — where do you stand?
What didn't land
This book reaches for important themes of the human experience — friendship and codependency, coming of age, the tangled push-pull between children and parents, culture, class and social status — and I respect the ambition. But for me, it all landed a little flat. The cover is undeniably cute, however the premise teased much more depth than was delivered: the story simply didn't have enough substance to propel me forward, and the first hundred pages were a genuine drag.
Still — I'm not writing off Stacey Yu just yet! I genuinely enjoy her writing style, and Katie is a wonderfully diverse main character to spend a book with. I'll be very open to whatever she writes next.
Should you read it?
Maybe — for the right reader. If you live for slow, spiky character studies and don't need a plot pulling you forward, Katie and Silver might charm you more than they charmed me. If you need momentum, this one will test you.
If you've ever outgrown someone or something you once held dear, if you've struggled to truly "grow up," if you've lived a complicated mother-daughter relationship, if you're a weird lover girl, if you've been clumsy in romance, if you've found yourself caught in toxic cycles, or if you're just trying to find yourself in a world that can be overwhelmingly difficult — then this book, my kitten, is for you. 🐱
A confession: I initially rated this one 2.5 spines. But after sitting with it for some time — turning over the simple truths it quietly reflects back at us — I found myself bringing that rating up to a 3.
FINAL RATING: 3 OUT OF 5 SPINES
It's publication day — is Kitten on your radar?
Talk to me: Where do you stand on unlikeable protagonists? And have you ever loved (or side-eyed) a book everyone else adored — or vice versa? Defend your hot takes below. 🐱
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