This was a well written, emotional reflection on crime towards Black Americans. Trymaine Lee really makes you feel his pain and his emotion through his narration. No matter how many accounts you read on this top it’s never enough to really make you understand the hatred and violence experienced.

I found this listen to be very reflective and informative. I would highly recommend picking up this audio when it comes out on September 9th!


A Thousand Ways to Die is out September 9th! Thank you NetGalley, Trymaine Lee, and Macmillan Audio for the ALC. This ALC was provided in exchange for an honest review.

A Thousand Ways to Die: The True Cost of Violence on Black Life in America* by Trymaine Lee

This audiobook had me **woke and wrecked** in one listen. Trymaine Lee’s voice isn’t just narrating—it’s channeling his grief, anger, hope, and history *straight into your ears*.

After a personal near-death experience, Lee takes us on a powerful journey through his own life, while unpacking the generational, systemic, and deeply personal costs of violence in Black communities. It’s equal parts memoir, journalism, and social reckoning—and every word *matters*.

**Why the audio slaps so hard**:

* It’s **authentic**—Lee’s own voice brings unmatched emotional depth.
* The **tone** shifts seamlessly from reflective to rallying; it feels like sitting across from someone telling their truth.
* Runtime is around 8 hrs 45 min—long enough to go deep, but tight enough to stay fully engaged.

**Listen if you want:**
🎙️ A memoir-reporting hybrid that hits intellectually *and* emotionally
🧠 A deeper understanding of the long shadow of violence in America
🔥 Powerful, soul-deep narration from the author himself

This audiobook didn’t just make me listen—it *made me feel*, question, reflect, and carry those truths with me. Highly recommend if you're ready for something raw, real, and unforgettable.

This is a brilliant work of memoir-journalism unpacking the complicated intersections of gun violence and Blackness in the United States. The arrangement of the book by geographic location sometimes leads to overlaps in the timeline or repetition of ideas, but I rounded up because of the overall cohesion and importance of this book.

The stories of straw purchased weapons making their way to Chicago and violence in the wake of Katrina in NOLA affected me most, but all of the stories are important to our understanding of this issue that takes and remakes so many lives.

I especially appreciated that Lee focused as much on those maimed by violence as those killed by it. This is often overlooked in the discussion of the impact of guns on our culture, but surviving gun violence can be its own kind of horror.

Lee's voice is also vital to this story and I'm glad that he chose to read his own book. These are deeply personal stories and his ability to bring them immediacy through emphasis, volume, and pronunciation is vivid and necessary.

Thank you to NetGalley for this audio ARC.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Macmillan Audio for an advanced audiobook copy in exchange for an honest review!

To be honest, I was propelled towards this audiobook because the journalist/author was giving various accounts that spanned time periods, and all of them were jarring to listen to. Normally this is not my cup of tea, but hearing about the systemic racism that spans centuries and still runs rampant today--particularly where guns and other types of firearms are concerned--boils my blood something fierce. Trymaine Lee's voice is powerful in the written word, and at times this book had me at an emotional low. Each anecdote had a lot of impact, and some of them hit more so than others (the idea that a DOCTOR at some point said losing weight was an upside to a woman's debilitating medical condition was WILD and infuriating to me).

Thank you for the chance to listen to this book! Trymaine Lee is a fantastic reporter who has once again done some incredible work. He starts off by admitting "this book almost killed me", and by the end of it you understand why. He brings many angles to the central topic of guns in America with years of reporting that demonstrates not only how these firearms affect people individually, but the affect they have had on generations of Black Americans. He takes the reader on the journey of a well-traveled gun, explaining how gun laws in some states allow for easier access to buying them. Then he zooms out to show how those states' legislative choices have great impact in other states when weapons are trafficked there. Lee's personal story is woven into this narrative, giving it emotion and elevating it from being another book about violence. The book becomes a framework that not only gives the big picture of guns in the U.S. but also doesn't miss the little details that make sure the people mentioned aren't forgotten. I'll never hear the term 'Gigglebox' the same.

This book was a tough one. It was well written, well researched, and over all well done. The path that the author takes to share both his own story, and link it with the stories of so many others is clearly a labor of healing and a quest to feel seen through it.

If I had one critique, I would say that I wish he would go further back into the stories of the folks he shared that ran along his, to give that additional depth to each of them.

That said, I would still highly recommend this one if you’re looking for a more nuanced take on gun violence in America.

As I began reading, I was struck as the author explains the backstory of how, "This book almost killed me."

This is a beautiful and heartbreaking collection of stories reckoning with the generational curse of gun violence that spans from colonialism to the present day.

I resonated with the author’s travels to Ghana; more specifically, his vivid descriptions of the sites of the slave trade there, places I’ve also visited.

“We did what our ancestors never could. We returned.”

The most noteworthy quote:
“When someone leaves his home with a gun, the inevitable occurs […] Someone is hurt or killed. I cannot be his intent to talk while armed. He must, as the jury found, intend harm.”

I highly recommend this book.

Thanks to NetGalley, MacMillan Audio and St. Martin’s Press for the digital copy of this book and audiobook; I am leaving this review voluntarily.

If you’ve been following Bargain Sleuth Reviews for any length of time, you may have noticed a shift in some of my reading. I still love cozy mysteries and historical fiction. I promise to get back to Nancy Drew reviews. However, my interests have shifted. I am trying to read more BIPOC fiction and non-fiction books. A Thousand Ways to Die is just such a book.

Trymaine Lee, a Pulitzer Prize winner, has written a deliberately thoughtful piece. It provides a revealing look at the historically grounded systemic racism in the United States. This work is interwoven with his memoir of his own life. This reflection on his own life is a reflective look at his own experiences with racism and gun violence.

This book is a lot heavier than I thought it would be. The gun violence and generational trauma of the Black experience in the United States must be talked about more. This is necessary, no matter how uncomfortable it may make you if you’re an American. The book contains domestic abuse themes. I normally try to avoid these themes. However, I also found it necessary to read about them.

One of the big themes is New Orleans and how Hurricane Katrina all went down. He makes his point with heartbreak and resilience of the Black population in NOLA. This trauma-filled book was tough to get through, yet I found it necessary.

I thought the narrator, the author, did okay, but sometimes lacked the gravitas needed when discussing the overall theme of systemic racism. He was too "smooth" and more emotion was needed.

Trymaine Lee is a highly educated and accomplished man living under the weight of a country still struggling with racial injustice. Gun violence is wildly out of control in the US and affects black people more, and this affects their families and even the whole of society.
Lee goes through history holding up a spotlight to specific incidents throughout our history. He's also the audiobook narrator, and does a wonderful job. This is a serious book and it felt unrelenting, but until Americans want to make a change, this will continue.