Two standout stories made this collection for me: "Indian Cooking" and "We're All In This Alone." Much of this collection delves into discomfort and brings the reader along for the ride, and these two stories were particularly successful in bringing the nuances of pain home to the reader. In "Indian Cooking," our protagonist's mother badly burns her face and turns to a vicious humour to deal with her new reality. It is not the burns that are treated as the horror, but the grief, rage, and laughter her mother holds about them—so intense as to evoke the most peculiar combination of sympathy and bewilderment in the reader. In "We're All In This Alone," we are given one of the only sympathetic portraits of men in the book. If we imagine the protagonists of these stories as one person—my central criticism of the collection is that this is incredibly easy to do—the one man who loved her well also blistered her skin. I ended both of these stories deeply moved in unexpected ways, and they were the standouts for me. Many relatable tales about the horrors of dating and social anxiety, particularly while being a brown woman in Canada, ultimately grew repetitious for me, but that's not to say the stories aren't all competent; they are, and some are even stunningly moving. I do hope this author collects this readers and will happily recommend the collection.

I had the pleasure of seeing Shashi Bhat read from her new collection DEATH BY A THOUSAND CUTS at Upstart & Crow at the end of February and I loved her reading! It made me so excited to read this book and luckily for me I was able to read an advance copy. I loved these stories!! I was hooked into this book and read most of it in one day. The first story Dealbreaker gripped me with the intense foreboding as the main character encounters the danger of online dating. All nine stories feature such well written and compelling female main characters. They all have to deal with the expectations put upon them as women. I loved so many moments in these stories from the humour in My Ex Writes a Novel, the Giantess who works in a library, and the references of Redditors and T&T Supermarket. My fave story is What You Can Live Without which is set in Vancouver. This story is about Aarthi whose parents live in Surrey and they go to Metrotown Mall to meet one of the potential suitors they’re trying to set her up with. It’s hilarious how one of the eligible bachelors listed one of his interests as “reading fiction novels”. Oh boy is right LOL! I loved this book and it’s one of my faves this year!

A relatable and wryly funny collection of short stories from a talented Canadian writer. I enjoyed most of these and as someone who isn't always a bit short story person, I chalk that up to a major win. Clever and insightful, these stories explore modern women's lives, relationships and dating woes and was great on audio. Highly recommended. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy. I have to say this is a top notch cover too!!

*arc provided by netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

everyone that knows me knows that i’m not big on short story collection. they’re hard for me to get into and i get annoyed when i can’t connect to each one. so i was so surprised by how captivated and endeared i was with this collection! each story unpacks the ways women navigate the world with some larger theme in each one. i could really see a couple inspiring a movie - there was a cinematic quality to it for sure. would recommend!

An absolute gem of a collection, Death By A Thousand Cuts is incredibly relatable and will hit you in moments that you least except it to.
Heartfelt, rage inducing and heartbreaking all at once, this is a short story collection that will stick with me for many years to come.
Please find attached my spoiler free (though emotional) youtube review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWYz5pbYZUI

A painfully relatable collection of short stories. The author did a great job of conveying the experiences of young women as they navigate life, the dating scene, and casual misogyny. My only critique is that a couple of the stories did not fit together cohesively in the collection as a whole. Despite this, I still enjoyed each individual story. I also thought that some stories, particularly the first one, would have made great full-length novels.

Overall I enjoyed this & will be keeping up with the author's work going forward! Their writing has a perfect balance of wit, relatability, and intrigue, which allowed me to fly through the book in a few days.

This book is a collection of incredibly sharp, eloquent, painfully relatable short stories (or cohesive-yet-standalone chapters in a novel about the horrors of being a woman). If I could make it mandatory to read this, I would. I would stand at the top of a very tall building and project its lines onto entire cities, grab society by the collar and say “hey you. you need this”, and while everyone sat heavily with the glaring weight of being known on a level which we barely understand ourselves, I will be able to breathe again. This is likely the greatest collection I will read in my 20’s. I will hand-sell the s*** out if this.