Rosemary, a trans girl, has many conflicting qualities. She's super smart but flawed, polyamorous but timid, promiscuous but inexperienced. She's surprising, and surprised by herself.

A call that Rosemary's grandmother is dying puts her on the bus from Te Whanganui-a-Tara back to Kirikiriroa. There, with her mother, half-sister, and other family and friends, she remembers the damage of her past. And then Thorn - Rosemary's long-distance daddy - shows up. Often wildly funny, and with a tender, matter-of-fact closeness to the enigmatic Rosemary, kitten has the wisdom that nothing in life is straightforwardly good or bad. It is a novel for readers who want to be seen and understood, or to see and understand.

For all its darkness and hurt, kitten is a wholesome and consoling love story.