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Death by a Thousand Cuts: Stories
CBC Books' Top Pick for Most Anticipated Canadian Fiction for Spring 2024—a breathtaking and sharply funny collection about the everyday trials and impossible expectations that come with being a woman, from the Governor General’s Literary Award-shortlisted author of The Most Precious Substance on Earth.
What would have happened if she’d met him at a different time in her life, when she was older, more confident, less lonely, and less afraid? She wonders not whether they would have stayed together, but whether she would have known to stay away.
A writer discovers that her ex has published a novel about their breakup. An immunocompromised woman falls in love, only to have her body betray her. After her boyfriend makes an insensitive comment, a college student finds an experimental procedure that promises to turn her brown eyes blue. A Reddit post about a man’s habit of grabbing his girlfriend’s breasts prompts a shocking confession. An unsettling second date leads to the testing of boundaries. And when a woman begins to lose her hair, she embarks on an increasingly nightmarish search for answers.
With honesty, tenderness, and a skewering wit, these stories boldly wrestle with rage, longing, illness, and bodily autonomy, and their inescapable impacts on a woman’s relationships with others and with herself.
What would have happened if she’d met him at a different time in her life, when she was older, more confident, less lonely, and less afraid? She wonders not whether they would have stayed together, but whether she would have known to stay away.
A writer discovers that her ex has published a novel about their breakup. An immunocompromised woman falls in love, only to have her body betray her. After her boyfriend makes an insensitive comment, a college student finds an experimental procedure that promises to turn her brown eyes blue. A Reddit post about a man’s habit of grabbing his girlfriend’s breasts prompts a shocking confession. An unsettling second date leads to the testing of boundaries. And when a woman begins to lose her hair, she embarks on an increasingly nightmarish search for answers.
With honesty, tenderness, and a skewering wit, these stories boldly wrestle with rage, longing, illness, and bodily autonomy, and their inescapable impacts on a woman’s relationships with others and with herself.
216 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 30, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 61 reviews
April 25, 2024
Shashi Bhat's writing always feels so real to me. Her characters resonate so closely with my own thoughts and experiences I want us all to be friends. This short story collection is filled with so many familiar moments, I feel like we've all been these women 100 times over. Big thanks to Penguin Random House for the advance copy.
April 12, 2024
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 the lovely Anita Chong surprised me with 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!
Thank you to the publisher for my advance review copy!
Thank you to the publisher for my advance review copy!
February 24, 2024
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. I highly recommend picking this up when it releases!!
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. I highly recommend picking this up when it releases!!
November 18, 2023
5/5
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.
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.
May 26, 2024
Shashi is a modern master of the short story. Following in the footsteps of Alice Munro and Jhumpa Lahiri, this collection speaks with such sharp precision of language to so many nuanced experiences of womanhood, domestic life, fractured relationships, and each series of small choices that amount to an identity and a life. I especially appreciated the layered portrayals of brown women in these stories - South Asian readers will find much that resonates (and maybe cuts quietly into our softest places). I cackled and I cried and I will be recommending this collection to every woman I know.
August 5, 2024
This was such a lovely collection! Some of the stories were misses for me but the ones that hit were so moving and rendered the deeply personal universal in a way that was both disconcerting and reassuring.
August 19, 2024
Note: Shashi is my colleague, and though I don't know her well, I wouldn't have posted a review here if I hadn't liked the book. But I did! A collection of wry, funny stories about being a young single woman of color, particularly dating and your relationship to your body. In the vein of "Cat People" by Kristen Roupenian or Carmen Maria Machado. "Her Ex Writes a Novel" is a hilarious and squirmy take on the Bad Art (Ex-Girl)Friend and you can read it online.
May 21, 2024
You can tell the author has mastered the short form
March 26, 2024
*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!
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!
May 29, 2024
relatable and very well-written
September 19, 2024
delightful! the writing was exceptional and the themes were so consistent and well explored. I loved it so much
September 11, 2024
not gonna give stars til after book club but very well written! I have thoughts i’ll add later.
May 1, 2024
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!!
August 15, 2024
quick, relatable, familiar.
May 24, 2024
This is one of those books where you have an internal physical reaction to what you’re reading. It’s a collection of stories, most of which are about what it means to be a woman of colour in the dating world. There are a couple of stories that don’t fit as well with the others, but there’s still plenty to learn from. It’s fiction, but I am sure women will agree that there are plenty of relatable experiences in this collection. I wonder how many stories were inspired by the author’s personal experience.
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June 16, 2024Stunningly powerful stories with complex layers of meaning that land only to veer and expand and deepen in unsettling ways. I fought back tears, hushed in horror, cheered at the courage, and for one particularly delightful moment I was overcome with the best sort of giggling.
June 27, 2024
3.5
Funny, relatable and easily digestible short story collection. I liked this one a lot and it got me out of my slump. The trials and tribulations of modern day women; dating apps, beauty ideals, misogyny, breaching consent, pesky exes and loneliness.
Funny, relatable and easily digestible short story collection. I liked this one a lot and it got me out of my slump. The trials and tribulations of modern day women; dating apps, beauty ideals, misogyny, breaching consent, pesky exes and loneliness.
August 8, 2024
south asian-canadian family dynamics? pandemic anxiety? chronic illness? relationships with white men? working in a library? living in the lower mainland? a character named aarthi? it feels like components of these stories were taken directly from my brain and i love it
April 10, 2024
Loved this collection! Reviews coming soon!
June 16, 2024
Highly recommend these fresh and humorous but also pointed short stories. Have to go find her novels now because the author’s style is wonderful.
July 30, 2024
excellent stories
July 31, 2024
what an absolute pleasure it was to read^ some of their stories,,, i had to take breaks even if i wanted to eat this book up
August 11, 2024
Friends you must read!!!
May 19, 2024
Such a fun collection of short stories! So captivating and relatable!!
May 6, 2024
4.5 rounded up. A cutting short story collection. “Her ex writes a novel” is one of my favourite things I’ve read lately.
June 30, 2024
I went into this ARC (TY Penguin Random House) blind, as I do all ARCS. No looking at other reviews, no author history, truly blind. Shashi Bhat created such painfully relatable characters, and I went through each story with empathy and an ache where my heart was. As the back copy covers, body autonomy, impossible expectations, fear, and true rage in the life of women. Nine fiction short stories, that are scarily accurate enough to be non-fiction stories from friends and family.
May 10, 2024
As others have pointed out, this short story colelction felt so relatable. Are we all living the same lives, thinking the same thoughts? I saw myself in a lot of the characters in these stories.
Starting with Dealbreaker, I'm sure so many women can relate to the cycle of disappointments and dangers of online datings. Most women of colour can probably relate to the feeling of otherness, the desire to change their appearance that is seen in Death by a Thousand Cuts. I've been especially conscous of hairfall and visible scalp recently and been inundated with haircare videos on instagram so Chicken & Egg really hit home (my worst nightmare??).
What You Can Live Without goes back into the bleak world of dating, and explores what women are looking for: love, stability, comfort? It's complicated as shown through the choices of dating a stingy white guy or accepting an arranged match with a rich Indian guy.
Indian Cooking and Giantess felt like they didn't fit as neatly into this collection though they covered some similar themes of women self-conscious about their appearances, handling it in different ways.
I loved We're All in This Together. I was rooting for a more hopeful ending for that one. Great depiction of the pandemic as well. Some favourite quotes below.
"...I can never tell right away if I find someone attractive. Sometimes there's a spark in my stomach, but within three dates it flickers into disgust. Or I'll feel nothing at the start, but then attraction ferments...In either case, the body is an unreliable narrator."
"...the body, which betrays and betrays, even when you care for it as gently as you would a baby or an orchid. The body doesn't fight for you even when you fight for it. The body has no loyalty. Even the word body is full of hollows, its letters round and unknowable."
Final two stories were great as well. I have always been fascinated by the concepts of memoir or fiction based on reality and the power of the author. How it feels for the other person to be depicted. So I really enjoyed Her Ex Writes a Novel.
"Fiction is a more suble and sophisticated revenge porn."
"Of course, it is merely her version of events. Isn't that what all fiction is? One person's point of view? The lie through which we tell the truth?"
Makes me wonder how much of Shashi Bhat's life lives in these stories.
And lastly, Am I the Asshole. Who doesn't occasionally scroll the AITA reddit sub? And it delves into consent in a very subtle and complex way.
I love how this collection of stories captures the essence of being a woman of colour in our time. Perfection.
Starting with Dealbreaker, I'm sure so many women can relate to the cycle of disappointments and dangers of online datings. Most women of colour can probably relate to the feeling of otherness, the desire to change their appearance that is seen in Death by a Thousand Cuts. I've been especially conscous of hairfall and visible scalp recently and been inundated with haircare videos on instagram so Chicken & Egg really hit home (my worst nightmare??).
What You Can Live Without goes back into the bleak world of dating, and explores what women are looking for: love, stability, comfort? It's complicated as shown through the choices of dating a stingy white guy or accepting an arranged match with a rich Indian guy.
Indian Cooking and Giantess felt like they didn't fit as neatly into this collection though they covered some similar themes of women self-conscious about their appearances, handling it in different ways.
I loved We're All in This Together. I was rooting for a more hopeful ending for that one. Great depiction of the pandemic as well. Some favourite quotes below.
"...I can never tell right away if I find someone attractive. Sometimes there's a spark in my stomach, but within three dates it flickers into disgust. Or I'll feel nothing at the start, but then attraction ferments...In either case, the body is an unreliable narrator."
"...the body, which betrays and betrays, even when you care for it as gently as you would a baby or an orchid. The body doesn't fight for you even when you fight for it. The body has no loyalty. Even the word body is full of hollows, its letters round and unknowable."
Final two stories were great as well. I have always been fascinated by the concepts of memoir or fiction based on reality and the power of the author. How it feels for the other person to be depicted. So I really enjoyed Her Ex Writes a Novel.
"Fiction is a more suble and sophisticated revenge porn."
"Of course, it is merely her version of events. Isn't that what all fiction is? One person's point of view? The lie through which we tell the truth?"
Makes me wonder how much of Shashi Bhat's life lives in these stories.
And lastly, Am I the Asshole. Who doesn't occasionally scroll the AITA reddit sub? And it delves into consent in a very subtle and complex way.
I love how this collection of stories captures the essence of being a woman of colour in our time. Perfection.
August 10, 2024
Perhaps these stories are not meant for me. The back cover of this book states that it explores "the everyday trials and impossible expectations that come with being a woman," and, being a cisgender man, I am probably not the target audience here. That being said, I cannot help but feel like this book is not exploring anything particularly profound or interesting. It feels like Bhat was able to write one main character – a single Indian woman in her 20s or 30s, trying to find her place in the world – but could not write a single compelling novel around her, so instead swapped out the character's name in repetitive, formulaic stories, which almost always begin with a first date or a long-term relationship on the verge of falling apart, and end with some kind of "contemplative" ending jumping into the future – "One day, she would think back on this moment and…," dot dot dot, repeat ad nauseam. A couple exceptions are made for stories nondescript protagonists characterized solely by some physical illness or condition which the reader is made to gawk at and lament over in a 21st-century freak show, painted with droning bleak prose to describe the struggles of these poor things, who of course never receive any kind of happy ending. Bhat employs the entire toolkit of basic tricks to make a story seem "deep", like writing one story in the 2nd person to place the reader as the main character in a manner which does not remotely help to reinforce the message of the story or add any depth. The hallmarks of being a 21st-century loser are inserted to show us just how SAD these main characters are, one especially grating example being the final story of the collection, which literally revolves around an r/amitheasshole Reddit post. Bhat also appears to be writing for people who lack basic media literacy, overexplaining things redundantly as if the reader cannot handle the slightest hint of ambiguity. For instance, in one story, a character refers to the protagonist's father by name in dialogue, although the audience has not been told his name. It is entirely clear from context clues that the character means to refer to her father, and it's the kind of thing which could easily go unnoticed and unexplained in a perfectly natural way. However, JUST IN CASE you couldn't get it, Bhat awkwardly inserts the phrase "referring to my father". Things like this occur over and over again, and combined with the uninspired prose stuffed with hackneyed comparisons and attempts at poetic-yet-plain language, reading this book feels like constantly being patronized by a self-proclaimed philosopher who's throwing basic metaphors at your face and then explaining them like you're too stupid to understand them.
August 11, 2024
I have so many thoughts about this book, they all rest around the logic of the women in some of these stories! I was fighting with so many of the women in my mind! Mentally, I was trying to shake 'em girls out of their insanity. I really do believe in women just getting up and walking away from shit situations these days. No words. Just leave. Why try to figure out the bullshit anymore. This is not the 90s, this is not Seinfeld, this shit is not Living Single; some of these dudes are really crazy and weird. I know that they were crazy and weird back then too, but in some cases, they've gotten doubly weird now, as millennial women surpass them in various aspects of success. I don't believe that women should lean into that - even when they feel like at times like they don't know what they are going to do... they want love, but in the famous words of Switch from the Matrix: "not like this". I also know that it's the rage that I felt with some of the characters, how they saw themselves, what they failed to see, some of that made me love them even more; I wanted to hold them tight and be like: Girl. Girl. GIRL!
Shashi Bhat did that!
Each story hit so many important topics and points. I can see why in my Apple Books app where I read this it was voted as a #1 pick for Canada for Spring 2024. Every story had a little bit of Reddit in it, and you know what I'm not mad at that at all, there's something to be said about commiseration, about hope, about depression and loss and being or feeling lost in interactions.
The first story, Dealbreaker, hit like a ton of bricks. I think any woman out there in the world dating and reading that story in 2024 is going to feel seen af. I have so many questions for the questionable choices made by the characters in each story, but I love when short stories leave me with questions; I feel like that's the only way I'm going to feel satisfied. I guess that's something.
Other stories in the collection that I loved were the title story: "Death by a Thousand Cuts", "Giantess" was another fave, "Her Ex Writers a Novel"made me want to karate chop a dude in the throat! "Am I the Asshole" was another great story.
Shashi Bhat did that!
Each story hit so many important topics and points. I can see why in my Apple Books app where I read this it was voted as a #1 pick for Canada for Spring 2024. Every story had a little bit of Reddit in it, and you know what I'm not mad at that at all, there's something to be said about commiseration, about hope, about depression and loss and being or feeling lost in interactions.
The first story, Dealbreaker, hit like a ton of bricks. I think any woman out there in the world dating and reading that story in 2024 is going to feel seen af. I have so many questions for the questionable choices made by the characters in each story, but I love when short stories leave me with questions; I feel like that's the only way I'm going to feel satisfied. I guess that's something.
Other stories in the collection that I loved were the title story: "Death by a Thousand Cuts", "Giantess" was another fave, "Her Ex Writers a Novel"made me want to karate chop a dude in the throat! "Am I the Asshole" was another great story.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 61 reviews