4 stars

Throughout this memoir, Amanda Nguyen makes a clear point: that this rape will not define her. Her choices after that event reflect her commitment to this declaration.

Nguyen articulates clearly that she was raped but does not provide a detailed account of the incident itself, which does distinguish her narrative from those of many peers. This may make the extraordinarily challenging central motif just slightly more readable for parts of the audience.

While this is one important event in Nguyen's life, there is so, SO much more to her, as is the case with all survivors. She's academically and professionally exceptional, had an incredibly difficult childhood (which she does talk about in some detail, so add child abuse to the TW list along with the obvious), and she is a generally driven individual. The latter comes through most obviously in the way she processes her retraumatization and further victimization through what happens with her rape kit. When she realizes the ridiculous hurdles she'll face in this arena, she doesn't give up. Instead, she begins lobbying. While Nguyen effectively shows her determination and the realities of a patriarchal system that devalues survivors of rape and sexual assault, this is also the area in which the narrative loses a little steam and the pacing feels a bit off.

Overall, this is a harrowing tale of hope, as the cover promises, of how a person can respond to the worst and take care of others and themselves (at all ages).

I loved listening to Amanda's story and I'm very thankful she is sharing it with the world. The method in which she tells her story and weaves in memories and narratives from her childhood incorporated with her journey with grief was artful and incredibly impacting. I don't think I've ever cried so hard at a book.

Saving Five: A Memoir of Hope
Amanda Nguyen

One woman’s journey through grief and pain, her resilience and strength, her refusal to be a number in a broken judicial system, all coming together to institute change worldwide to benefit survivors of rape, providing them a Bill of Rights.

I don’t know if it is appropriate to call beautiful the story of something so heinous. Saving Five is a powerful, awe-inspiring memoir that proves that (while): <i>"We can’t change the things that happen to us, but the greatest power we have is to choose how we react. And you can react to change the world. We are the architect of our life, our own experience.”</i>

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an advanced copy used in this review.

5 stars

Amanda Nguyen has done incredible things for survivors across the country as one of the activists who helped pass the Sexual Assault Survivors' Bill of Rights. This is a memoir of her journey in getting involved in this activism through the Bill's passage. It begins almost immediately after her assault, and ends with the bill's passage.

It is hard to rate a memoir of someone with such a unique and powerful story. Many instinctually give memoirs like these five stars because of the work the author has done outside of the book itself. It is hard not to compare this memoir with the most notable memoir of a sexual assault survivor, Know My Name by Chanel Miller, and I am sorry to say that this does not hold a candle to that one. The writing is fine, and the story is well told, but it feels a bit surface level. Things happen quickly, as to be expected in only 224 pages, and the reader does not have the chance to get to know Amanda deeply. I appreciate that the topic is very personal, and she does not need to go into detail about her assault itself. I think the story of her path from survivor to activist could have gone a bit deeper, however.

The book's title comes from a beautiful analogy sprinkled throughout the book of the author's self at different ages interacting with one another. This is, in my opinion, where the book shines. We are around the same age, and I loved the idea of her current self helping her past selves, because you do learn in your thirties that you were such a different person at 22 than you are now. Amanda went through more trauma than just her assault, and this story within the memoir is her way to tell her traumas without explaining them, if that makes sense. I really appreciated this, and I feel it was her best work.

This memoir will sell numerous copies because of Nguyen's activist work and because she became an astronaut afterward. These are both highly commendable, but I sadly don't think this memoir will have as much sticking power as expected.

The book is not narrated by the author, but the epilogue is. The epilogue is truly beautiful, and it did make me tear up. The audiobook is very well done and I appreciated the narrator, but that touch really added a lot for me.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.