Review: Saving Five by Amanda Nguyen
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Content Warning
Of course, please make sure you check content warnings before reading this book. While it is a story of hope, it is also about the story and legality of sexual assault survivors, so please proceed accordingly. Take care of yourself.
Review: Saving Five by Amanda Nguyen
Thanks so much to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for getting an advanced reader copy of this book! I was really interested when I heard about this book on social media, and thankfully got to read it ahead of its publication date. Saving Five by Amanda Nguyen is, just as the subtitle says: A Memoir of Hope. While the story (as we know, we’re living in the story) does not wrap up with a picture-perfect bow, the entire story is one that inspires hope — something I believe we all need.
There were two elements of this book that I didn’t expect, but really love.
First, the book featured much more about the law than I expected, which I really loved. I didn’t know a lot of the information or about the processes that Nguyen discusses — and the author dives into why that’s by design. While challenging, I believe the author did a great job recounting her experiences while dealing with the government.
The second unexpected element was her journey with grief. The title — Saving Five — comes from Nguyen’s five-year-old self, who plays a key role in this book and this journey within it. Several versions of Nguyen — 5, 15, 22, 30, each named for the age they represent — embark on a journey together, making their way through each stage of grief. Of course, the journey is not always pretty, but they make it through by relying on one another.
One of my favorite lines from this section of the book is: “We ride together in silent understanding, knowing that throughout the pain we are never alone, that we have one another, every version of our past and future selves we’ll ever be.”
Final Thoughts on Saving Five by Amanda Nguyen
I absolutely loved this book. It was devastating and hopeful, a powerful dichotomy.
Finally, please make sure you read the epilogue!! I know some people love to read the meat of a book while leaving out the extras (acknowledgments, epilogues, etc.), and while I’m (for the record) always against that, this epilogue is a non-negotiable.
Prior to reading this book, I didn’t have much (read: any, really) information on who Amanda Nguyen was. And, honestly, that made the epilogue even more powerful. At the end of the book, I learned Nguyen is now an astronaut — a dream of hers that’s put on hold throughout the story she tells in Saving Five. It was so wonderful to read that at the end of the book, and learn more about her! If you want to read more about Nguyen’s upcoming spaceflight, you can find some info here from CBS.
Want more book recommendations? Find my 25 TBRs for 2025 Bookshop list here.
