That was a very heartfelt walk through someone’s trauma. Being a survivor as well it really hit home and even informed me of things I wasn’t aware of. Mostly due to the way my situation played out. I appreciate everything she’s done to try and improve the odds and rights of survivors. I think it will also be helpful for anyone reading it to feel the walk-through. Amanda helped us see how things spiral emotionally in the aftermath.

Thank you so much Macmillan Audio, Amanda Nguyen, and Netgalley for the opportunity to listen to this ARC/ALC. This book hit me straight in the gut, helping my own "Five" work through some healing, and bringing much needed advocacy to incredibly important topics. Nguyen is not only a world-changing advocate for survivors and a political force, but she is a STEM superhero and someone I'm proud to teach my 5 year old future "space-scientist who travels to the moon" daughter about. Having women in STEM to look up to is more important now than ever, but having one of those very women also be someone who fights for change and advocates for survivors rights is next level critical. There aren't enough stars in the solar system to rate this book high enough. This is a must read, a must listen, a must own. I've already recommended this to anyone who will listen, and I'll keep doing that for as long as it takes.

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the Audio ARC!

It's hard to 'evaluate' something so deeply personal with any sort of objectivity. The author has dug deep into the worst day of her life and turned it into something beneficial, not only for herself, but others as well. I can't even imagine how difficult this has been for her, and all that I can say is that I hope it has been therapeutic as well. Thank you, Amanda!

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the advanced audio book.

Sadly, Amanda Nguyen's story of being raped in college is both devastating and too common. While the content of the story is inspiring, the structure of the storytelling--30 year old Nguyen riding in a car with her 5 year old, 15 year old, and 22 year old selves--didn't quite work for me.

I was not familiar with Amanda's story but I have a new hero now! The work she has done and continues to do is amazing for women and POC everywhere.

The book is narrated by Sura Siu. My guess is that some of this would be hard for Amanda to speak out loud herself. Sura has a pretty voice but at times, it felt more juvenile than I was expecting. Throughout the book, Amanda goes on a journey with her past self (ages 5, 15, 22 and 30) as she works through the stages of grief following the rape. While I totally understand why she chose to include this, it kept throwing me out of the story and I would've enjoyed it more without that. It definitely has a more poetic vibe to the imagery than most memoirs have. Nothing wrong with me just not my favorite. I'm sure it was cathartic for her and that's ultimately all that matters.

She has accomplished so much and been through more than most people twice her age. I think her voice is an important one. I definitely recommend checking out Saving Five. Thank you to NetGalley, Amanda Nguyen, Sura Siu, and Macmillan Audio for the opportunity to read it. I have written this review voluntarily and honestly.

This memoir was amazing to listen to. So inspiring to see her work through her trauma, to fight for women's rights, everything. WOW i was amazed. I really like that Amanda Nguyen came on audio in the very end with her voice to address her audience. This is such a good memoir. Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for sharing this audio arc with me in exchange for my honest opinion.

Amanda is a Harvard graduate who put her dreams of becoming an astronaut on hold while she came up with and fought for the establishment of a sexual assault survivor’s bill of rights at the state and federal level. What she experienced while a student, but her career plans in jeopardy and the underlying trauma even impacted her performance when interviewing to become a spy for the CIA.

My thirteen-year-old daughter is currently working on an assignment for her 8th grade Civics class to come up with a bill and write a speech to defend its merits that she will need to present in front of her class’ “Mock Congress”. I think this is an important reminder that any citizen has the right to bring forth an idea to a political committee to gain sponsorship from legislators and has the potential to be an amendment and be voted on. Personally, as a child in the 80’s, I learned how a bill becomes a law from watching Schoolhouse Rock, so I’m glad to hear that a young woman had the courage, patience, and persistence to make this happen.

This memoir not only talks about all of the author’s recent efforts to defend victim’s rights, but alternates with an imagined journey of a group of girls, that are the author at various ages (5, 10, 14, 22) and how each girl is vulnerable and needs protection to achieve whatever her heart desires.

I also appreciated the mantra that is repeated throughout the book to “Never, Never, Never Give Up!”

A uniquely structured memoir by Nguyen detailing her tumultuous childhood, her SA in college and the activism that followed. It’s hard not to be touched as she had conversations with herself at different ages, battling to save her five year old selves’ hopes. I really enjoyed this one on audio, narrated by Sura Sui.

This is a beautiful and difficult story about moving on after rape. The author uses a mix of literal truth and a metaphorical experience of different versions of herself at different ages healing together

Being extraordinary was a method of survival.”

“Patriarchal conditioning built a scaffolding around our thoughts toward shame— directing them, framing them, stunting their growth.” (In the context of feeling guilty after being rape despite not being at fault.)

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

((Please note that the quotes may be subject to change as I listened to the ALC via NetGalley before the publication date.))

This is a heavy book topic. I cried multiple times while listening and I hardly ever cry when reading. Her words and conviction for justice felt so genuine. I learned a lot about how to show up rape victims, but also just generally about going through trauma that alters the course of one’s life. While the topic was discussed, the author did not go into detail about her specific experience so there is no graphic descriptions of violence.

**light spoilers ahead:**

The only part of the book I didn’t love was the metaphors related to the stages of grief. It confused me as a listener because I mistook it for real scenes, especially the taxi driver scene.

I am so impressed with this author and feel inspired to revisit some of my dreams that have seemed too daunting.

4.5/5 stars

TW sexual assault

Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan, Macmillan Audio, and AUWA books for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Amanda’s story is one of resilience, triumph, and systemic change. Her story is one that happens far too often unfortunately. The fact that she was able to channel that to change the way our country systematically handles sexual assault is incredible. Rape kits are no longer destroyed after 6 months thanks to her hard work.

Amanda did not only stop there but went on to pass an international sexual assault survivor’s bill of rights and will soon achieve her dream of going to space.

There is also an emphasis on familial and generational trauma throughout the memoir. The “sub-plot” of the journey her younger selves endure reminded me of Inside Out.

My only “critique” is wanting to hear more of her story! I’m not sure when this manuscript was written but I would have loved to have heard more about her experience passing the U.N.’s international sexual assault survivors bill of rights and the events leading up to her soon-to-be space flight.

While the memoir is not narrated by the author, the epilogue was. It was beautifully read aloud, I really enjoyed hearing her share her story in her own words.

Overall I would definitely recommend this book!

Absolute 5 star read for me! I love the way she told her story. It was beautiful and moving, speaking to my soul in a way I didn’t expect. I thought this would just be about her story as an astronaut, but she is so much more than that. Highly recommend this! Thank you, NetGalley, for an ARC of this book!

Excellent. This memoir is brilliantly written and powerfully portrays a woman’s absolute resilience, drive, and passion for making a difference. This intensely vulnerable memoir highlights the many ways in which the American criminal justice system fails rape survivors. Fortunately, people like Amanda Nguyen have stepped up (even though they should not have ever had to), make their voices heard, and actively fight for the basic civil rights survivors should already have.

Amanda’s story is so empowering. She took terrible things that happened to her in her life and shifted the narrative by using those experiences to not only make herself a stronger, even better person, but to help others also become stronger, have their voices heard, and give them protections the system failed (and continues to fail) to provide.

Told in a captivating and almost poetic way, Saving Five held my attention from beginning to end. The only thing that keeps this from being a five star read for me is that I really wish Amanda herself had narrated the audio version. Unfortunately, I found that the narrator sounded far too juvenile, almost detracting from the story at times. I think the memoir would have been all the more powerful if Amanda had done the narration herself.

Thank you to Amanda Nguyen, Macmillan Audio, & NetGalley for the ARC! All opinions are my own.

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.