That night, he texts her repeatedly, his messages at first insecure and politely questioning if she was with a new boyfriend but becoming more needy, jealous and belligerent as Margot does not reply, ending with calling her "Whore."

The Washington Post described "Cat Person" as unique among the content in The New Yorker because it resonated with a younger audience, commenting: "for one of the first times, something in the magazine seemed to capture the experience not of print-oriented, older intellectuals, but of Millennials.

The Atlantic notes that "The depiction of uncomfortable romance in 'Cat Person' seems to resonate with countless women", and describes it as a "literary adjunct to the latest #MeToo moment".

[6] Personal reactions have been largely, but not entirely, along gender lines (drawing comparisons to Jane Austen),[7] and for many readers, it captures what it is like to be a woman in her twenties in 2017, including "the desperate need to be considered polite and nice at all costs".

[8] Following the story's success, Roupenian secured a seven-figure deal with Scout Press for her debut book, and was the subject of a bidding war in the American market, with offers exceeding $1 million.

Roupenian acknowledged that information she learned from Nowicki's social media served as a "jumping-off point" for "a story that was primarily a work of the imagination, but which also drew on my own personal experiences, both past and present."