My book review of Saving Five by Amanda Nguyen.
Title: Saving Five
By: Amanda Nguyen
Genre: Memoir
Pages: 224
Release Date: March4th, 2025
Rating: ★★★★☆
Summary from Goodreads:
A revelatory and powerful memoir by the Nobel Peace Prize nominee Amanda Nguyen, detailing her tumultuous childhood and groundbreaking activism in the aftermath of her rape at Harvard.
At a Harvard fraternity party in 2013, the trajectory of Amanda Nguyen’s life was changed forever when she was raped.
The American-born child of Vietnamese refugees, Nguyen had long dreamed of attending Harvard, and it had become a place of refuge from a childhood filled with turmoil and trauma. Determined to not let her rape derail the life she’d worked so hard to create, she opted for her rape kit to be filed under Jane Doe, knowing that an active court case tied to her name could hurt her odds of working for NASA after graduation, a goal she’d been working toward for years.
But she was shocked to learn this choice meant she had only six months to take action before the state of Massachusetts destroyed her kit, rendering any future legal action impossible. Nguyen knew then that she had two surrender to a law that effectively silenced survivors of sexual assault, or fight for a change.
A deeply affecting memoir of grief, survival, and hope, Saving Five details Nguyen’s winding journey of recovery and action, which ultimately led her to create the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Bill of Rights, one of the only unanimously passed laws in the history of the United States. Both a tribute to resilience and a lesson on healing, Saving Five is an inspirational story for the ages.
Review:
Saving Five by Amanda Nguyen is a deeply moving and courageous memoir that captures the raw pain of trauma while highlighting the extraordinary power of resilience and activism. Nguyen’s story, shaped by her tumultuous childhood, her dream of working for NASA, and the harrowing aftermath of her assault at Harvard, is told with searing honesty and remarkable grace. The book’s most striking aspect is Nguyen’s unwavering determination to create systemic change, culminating in the creation of the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Bill of Rights. Her ability to channel personal grief into groundbreaking advocacy makes this memoir both an intimate journey of healing and a powerful call to action. While some sections could delve deeper into her emotional interiority, Saving Five is an inspiring testament to the transformative power of hope and activism.
Received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review.
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