Saving Five is a brief but empowering & inspiring memoir - with speculative elements!

The topics covered are quite dark, but as the subtitle suggests, the tone is more optimistic. Amanda shares her story of surviving sexual assault, fighting for better legal rights for survivors (she passed the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Rights Act in 2016), pivoting from her career hopes and dreams, and also reflecting on her childhood and healing some past trauma there.

There are speculative elements. Between the bits of her college-aged journey are pieces of a metaphorical journey through 5 different realms that represent the stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Amanda has to travel with several younger versions of herself and successfully pass through each doorway. She revisits sad memories from her past and has to learn to acknowledge and grieve the trauma that she once buried. 

I found the writing engaging and easy to follow. However, I didn’t quite feel like I got to know Amanda, which is really why I pick up memoirs! This is a pretty short book, and a lot of it is spent just catching us up to speed and explaining how the legal system works and the different barriers that Amanda had to face. 

Amanda’s story is so inspiring, but I wanted more of her. The moments of the book that really moved me were the moments she allowed herself to be a bit more vulnerable, sharing her emotional process or quieter thoughts or just letting us exist in her current state instead of telling things to readers. 

There are also a lot of Harry Potter mentions, which were honestly quite tough and jarring and felt so very unnecessary. And I wasn’t quite sure where her personal story ended - is her evidence still being held or did she decide for or against pursuing her personal court case? She’s obviously sharing her story publicly at this point, so I was curious about that and understanding the more individual legal journeys that survivors go through.

I definitely walked away with a lot more knowledge about the legal side of sexual assault - and the inner workings of passing laws - and I’m very excited for Amanda to have the opportunity to go to space and lean into whatever is next now that she’s won this massive battle. She’s remarkable. 

CW: rape, child/domestic abuse, grief, medical trauma, mental health, Harry Potter references

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(I received a free copy of this book; this is my honest review.)