The Girls at 17 Swann Street chronicles the narrator's stay at a residential treatment center for women with eating disorders, describing in detail the anxiety with which she undertook refeeding. Tales of companions and affections among the residents are revealed, as the afflicted bonded to support each other on their journeys. Although the book flashes back to the narrator's personal history, she has little insight into the etiology of her illness nor does she question for a moment the uber-centrality of her mate to her return to health.

While this book is reasonably well done, anorexia nervosa is as tedious as any other obsessive or addictive behavior. Would recommend for those with an interest. In view of the apparent ease with which the narrator attained recovery, would suggest that those afflicted with anorexia take the tales with a few grains of salt.

If you have ever known anyone with anorexia, or suffered from it yourself, you know the daily struggles to overcome and defeat this serious condition. Yara Zgheib does an excellent job of describing this struggle and making us feel the frustration that comes when people just don't understand.
Anna is a dancer. She has moved from Paris to Missouri where she knows no one and everything is different and strange. The only thing she can control is her weight, so she does. As her world keeps changing, she works her weight down to 88lbs. When she finally admits she has a problem, she moves into a group therapy home at 17 Swann Street. There she learns she is not unique in her condition and learns to take control of her life in other ways.
This book is so engrossing. Anna's problems advance slowly until she has to face her problem or die. The book is so well written you can see yourself in Anna's world. While I keep saying it is an excellent book on a person's battle with anorexia, the book is so much more. Family, friends, immediate relatives all count when a person's world is shrinking. Anna's solutions show how easily it is to let someone suffer without knowing they are. Read the book.

What an emotional, relevant debut novel! So much of what we see in the media right now is about weight loss, and we don't focus on the flip side--eating disorders. This book is a heartbreaking look at the psyche of an anorexic--Anna, a former French ballerina who enters a treatment facility. I enjoyed the character development in this book as well as Anna's relationships with the other girls. They celebrated each other's success and supported them through their struggles. A well written read you can't put down!

This book is a story about Anna, a French girl who suffers from anorexia, and her journey to recovery after being admitted to an inpatient clinic at 17th Swann Street. She is immediately distressed from being separated from her love Matthias but eventually adapts, developing friendships with the other residents, while struggling through the medical care and meals she is required to eat. The story does reflect back on Anna’s life before having an eating disorder. It is told as if she is grieving for that previous life, to be that girl again, and as a reader you are sucked in emotionally.

Clearly the author researched the disease well, and what the treatment for anorexia entails. I had no real prior knowledge of how anorexic patients behave or the effects on the brain and organs. I found the topic of anorexia to be very interesting and not a common theme among fiction books.

I did get very emotional reading the book towards the end. The author takes you deep inside Anna’s mind and her battles through every meal and the struggles of overcoming the disease for a life she wants so desperately to return to. Her love for Matthias felt very honest and real. I was anxious to find out where Anna’s journey would take her.

It was a beautiful book overall.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and #Netgalley for an advanced e-book copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Girls of 17 Swann Street is a beautifully heartbreaking debut novel. Anna, a dancer is committed to inpatient treatment for anorexia nervosa. The story follows her treatment and relationship with the other patients, Direct Care and food, along with vivid memories from her past. The result is a deeply emotional masterpiece, with no choice but to root for Anna and her future.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for approving my request to read this E-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I am little intimidated to leave a review for this book, not because I didn't like (because I definitely enjoyed it) but because I don't want to minimize those individuals out there that have struggled with an eating disorder.

I was pleasantly surprised about how drawn into Anna's story. I don't think I've rooted for anyone, been so disappointed and so overjoyed for a character until meeting Anna. Her journey with Anorexia Nervosa was a long and difficult one. It hurt to see her struggle because I know that this story, while fiction, is real life for so many out there. I loved how each of the girls at 17 Swann St. looked out for one another "because that's what they do", but I wish that no one had to experience this reality at all.

I loved the writing and think Zgheib did a wonderful job conveying what it's like to struggle through an eating disorder. Everyday food items that we take for granted, really caused these girls angst. I couldn't imagine walking in their shoes, but I am grateful for this experience.

I'm interested in hearing from someone who has truly struggled with an eating disorder, on their take of the events of this book. Is this close to a real life experience? Is the treatment plan the same? How do you feel about Anna's feelings? Matthias's feelings? Emm's feelings? So many things to pick apart here but I really enjoyed this book.

The Girls at 17 Swann Street is the riveting debut novel written by author Yara Zvheib.

The imagery is written with so poetically and emotion that it is difficult to put it down. We begin with Anna as she begins the journey to save her life that has slowly being destroyed by anorexia. She has admitted herself at the desperate coaxing of her husband in the house at 17 Swann Street, where she and other women with varying eating disorders go to learn how to cope with their disease. It's tragic and eye-opening to learn that some of these women that she can relate to have been 17 Swann Street for years, some leave because they are healing, some leave by other means less hopeful.

Anna is madly in love with her husband Matthias. And she is madly loved by Matthias, her father, and her sister. But, the anorexia has damaged those relationships. They don't understand that it is simply not a matter of Anna refusing to eat, more so that she is terrified to eat. She does not see a beautiful reflection worthy of their love when she looks in the mirror. She is not perfect enough to be Matthias wife. The anorexia has taken away most of her ability to feel anything, except anxiety.

For Anna, it's not a matter of simply getting through each day, but getting through each bite. In order to overcome her disease, she must be willing to accept that she has problem, to accept the help from the therapist, the nutritionist, the girls at 17 Swann Street, Matthias, and her family. She must realize that all of these people are rooting for her and not against her. Anna must decide, if she wants to live or let the anorexia kill her.

This is a novel that many will relate to and maybe save lives. This is a novel that has the power to bring awareness to the dangers of eating disorders, body image, body shaming, and the effects of unmourned grief. This is a novel that shows the power of women lifting each other up, the power of love, and the power of hope.

Thank you to Net Galley and St. Martins Press for allowing me to read and review this tragic, beautiful, wonderful, heartbreaking, emotional, inspirational, riveting book.

This is a character driven book that makes you very attached to each of the characters. Even a side character that doesn't even talk. I was rooting for all of them to overcome their struggles and to build their relationships inside and outside of 17 Swann Street.

I will be honest, I had no idea what this book was about. I kept seeing it on everyones list of books to read. So when I saw it on NetGalley I jumped on it. Based on the cover I actually thought this was a thriller. However, I was pleasantly surprised by that it was not at all a thriller and that it was an adult contemporary about a woman with an eating disorder and her life after being dropped off by her husband for an inpatient program.

This book stresses the importance of family/friends and appreciating the love and help they give. It isn't all easy for the woman at 17 Swan Street either. Life is messy and brutal with an eating disorder and it does not sugar coat any of it.

This is the first book I can remember being told from the perspective of an anorexic. It elicited a mix of pity, anger and confusion in me. I mean, I understood the whole control issue intellectually, but this gives it to you from an emotional front.

The chapters move between present day Anna, a history of how she arrived at needing treatment and the clinic’s assessment forms. The balance of it all works well. I would have liked to have seen a little more on how the earlier events in her life led her to succumb to this condition, but I also understand it could have made for a more awkward storyline.

The book also does a great job of showing the effects of the disease on an anorexic’s loved ones. The fear of confrontation causes Matthias to constantly look the other way, to pretend everything is ok.

The book doesn’t pull any punches. You see exactly how hard it is to fight this disease and how not all manage to do so.

This is an extremely well done debut novel and I will definitely seek out any future works by the author.

My thanks to netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advance copy of this book.

I was excited to read The Girls at 17 Swann Street, and this book did not disappoint! It is the story of Anna, a former Parisian ballet dancer, who has developed anorexia, and her road back to recovery at 17 Swann Street, a treatment program for women with eating disorders. The book focuses on the present, after Anna has moved to the states with her husband, Matthias, where he forces her to get admitted for treatment after finding her passed out, finally coming to terms with his own denial of their being a problem. However, we get a look back, in snippets, of the gradual start of Anna's eating disordered back in Paris, with comments made about her body and what she put into it by a former lover, to slowly stopping to eat more and more types of food, and her increased restriction of food after following Matthias to Missouri for work in an attempt to deal with the lonliness and self-esteem issues that she has dealt with throughout her life. It is told mainly through Anna's perspective, so you get a good sense of the thinking that goes along with anorexia, as Anna struggles to accept help for her eating disorder, and her ability to accept that it is a problem. It clearly shows just how difficult eating disorders are to treat through Anna, and the other residents of 17 Swann Street.

This was not an easy book to read. It's about a woman who was severely anorexic and her experiences in a clinic to save her. She has to relearn body images, relationships, not just with herself, but a,so her husband. It tallies her setbacks, her inner struggles, and her triumphs,

“The course of treatment for anorexia is painful but not impossible. If you really want to recover, you will.”

I strongly recommend The Girls at 17 Swann Street; this book was exceptionally authentic, emotional, and poignant. I personally have struggled with eating (binge and purge), in my teens and heavily in my early 20’s. I could relate and sympathize so much with Anna and her guilt and feelings. I loved her character and didn’t want the book to end; I would love a follow up to be written to know how she is doing.

“Anorexia nervosa makes the brain shrink; it cannibalizes itself. It must; it is starved but it must keep working. Gray matter must be sacrificed. My brain must have eaten up sections where my hope, ambition, dreams were. Thoughts like when, soon, tomorrow are fantasies I can no longer imagine.”

The residential treatment portion of 17 Swann Street was not very realistic to how residential treatment is or at least how I know it to be from working in residential myself. Insurance doesn’t like to pay for anything, stabilize and get the heck out, under the guise that the least restrictive means to treatment is the best when they may be pushing someone too quickly and the patient has not developed enough skills to move to intensive outpatient. I really enjoyed the case notes and found them to be extremely realistic to notes I have written when working in residential treatment as an addiction counselor.

“Certain words and phrases here are inappropriate here. She calls them triggering. No talk of food or exercise, no mention of weight or calories. My disease is not to be mentioned by name; a vague eating disorder is fine. If I am sad and want to die, I should say I am struggling. If I want to run away, throw myself under a bus, then I am having an urge. If I feel fat or worthless or ugly, I have body image issues. These verbal gymnastics are to be applied at all times and to every subject.”

I can’t wait to read what Yara Zgheib comes out with next.

***BIG thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for allowing me to read The Girls at 17 Swann Street in exchange for my honest review.

What I love the most about reading is that you are always learning new things whether that was your goal or not, it just happens. Anorexia is one of those taboo topics that not a lot of people talk about. It's something that is always sidestepped and glossed over. Perhaps, that's why I was completely shocked by some of the things that were described in this book. I had no idea what someone with this disease has to go through and it made me feel so naive that it shocked me as much as it did. I don't personally know anyone going through this disease but if you do then READ THIS BOOK and even if you don't know anyone going through it, you should still read it. I was completely engrossed in the story and even though you wouldn't expect a book on this topic to be a page turner, then you are in for quite a surprise. It was also an amazing love story that had me tearing up and rooting for the relationship to succeed.

The thing I love about reading ARCs is that I have a specific time to finish the book. I found the cover and the blurb interesting when I first got "The Girls at 17 Swann Street," but had it not been an ARC, it probably would have gotten buried with the dozens of other books that are on my "to read" list. I don't think I've ever read a book starring a character with an eating disorder, so I didn't have any specific expectation going into the book. The moment I started reading though, I couldn't put this book down and am very glad to have read it.

Anna Roux is diagnosed with anorexia and put into a house with other girls with eating disorders to put her own the road to recovery. The story is mostly told from her perspective, with a few clinical notes that show her progression in recovery. I enjoyed having the other perspective, as it gave a different insight into Anna.

As book lovers, we know that the beauty of books is really being able to "live" another persons's life through reading. I don't think I could ever be anorexic-- I love food a bit too much and tend to stress eat. Growing up and then living in an Asian country where being thin was the expectation, I definitely had self-esteem and body image issues. I remember a few years back seeing websites dedicated to "thinspiration" and admittedly, being a bit jealous that I would never be able to attain a body type similar to that. Yara Zgheib creates an image of anorexia that is terrifying, haunting, and lasting. She really impresses upon the reader the psychological issues involved with anorexia, and reading the struggle was eye-opening. I haven't seen much about it recently, but I remember how "Thinspiration" websites were criticized for glamorizing anorexia-- Zgheib did a wonderful job taking away any possible glamour associated with this illness.

One star taken away for a bit of an abrupt ending- I felt like that this story could have gone so much farther. Not only that, many secondary characters kind of get lost in the story- none of the characters are nearly as developed as Anna, which makes reading about them a bit boring.

Definitely a worthwhile read- Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of this book. Thank you Yara Zgheib for such an interesting novel.

Wow! What a debut by Yara Zgheib!

While the subject matter was a little out of my wheelhouse, Yara Zgheib has created characters that are relatable and complex. The main character, Anna Roux's battle with depression and anorexia and the effect it has on both her and her loved ones is one that so many of us can draw parallels with.

Ms. Zgheib writes with empathy and compassion, emotion and understanding and I can't wait to see more!

This is a very inside and raw look at what those who are battling eating disorders are dealing with. I learned a lot in this book regarding eating disorders and the mindsets of those who are struggling with them. In today's day and time and the body image that many young woman yearn for this is a very important look into a disease that can be very devastating. This is a very emotional book that you will find yourself flying through!

I got an ARC of this book.

So if you know me, you know that I love reading books about people with mental illness. I love feeling like I am not alone or broken. That my struggles really are struggles. That there are others out there that understand me. Who doesn't like feeling that way? I do not have an eating disorder, but a friend recently revealed to me that she does. I wanted to know a bit more about everything without burdening her with being my teacher. Reading this book is just one of the steps I am taking so I can learn and support her better. 

So this book was almost perfect for me. It had two major issues that got in the way of me rating this five stars. The first is hopefully going to be fixed before it is officially released in less than a month. That is the formatting. All the dialogue is done without quotation marks or designation of who is speaking, which sort of makes sense, but is also super annoying. It can be hard to keep track of who is talking at times, especially when getting used to that style of dialogue. It makes sense because everything is so blurred and unreal to Anna that it makes sense that having something like dialogue be that concrete wouldn't be fitting. So I can get behind it, but this is where the big issue is, but I need there to be an easier way to tell what is dialogue and what is flashback. They are formatted exactly the same. The whole flashback is in italics, but so is the dialogue in the flashbacks. There were points in the book where a flashback started on the same line as a dialogue so it took me forever to catch on that suddenly we were in Paris and it was years ago. So this formatting issue is huge. It often pulled me out of the story and made it so it just didn't flow. If I am constantly having to reassess where I am and when I am, then I am no longer immersed in the world. 

The second issue I had was the issue of the last chapter. I can get why it was there, but it wrapped things up too neatly for me. After all the statistics from the manual were given, I was hoping that it would be more open ended, leaving the idea of if Anna relapsed or not up to me. Leaving her in that vulnerable space for a bit longer for more impact at the end. Instead it was a HEA like you would get in a romance novel. It just felt odd and tacked on. 

The way the treatment center worked brought me back to my time in the psychiatric hospital. The way that the workers had no names only positions was YES. It made so much sense. I got so much more out of being around others in my position than I got from pretty much any professional in that setting. I remember hiding food in my room, just because I could, not because I even wanted it. The little acts of rebellion that gave me a high. I never did eat that peanut butter that I stole from the lunch room. The way that visitation worked. The way that everyone watched who did and did not have a visitor. So much of it felt so perfectly life like. It made me regress to those feelings. It made me remember every little detail of being in the hospital and what those small milestones meant. When someone you cared about, but never really expected to see again visits. The way that connecting with someone else feels, the way you feel when they relapse or when they get discharged. It was all so vibrant and fresh. It was perfectly written down to the condescending calling of all of the women "girls" in the weird power move that the professionals use to distance themselves from patients and to reinforce the power structure. It was just wonderful. 

I could go on forever about this book and what every single word did to me. I am a huge fan and I look forward to more books by Zgheib. She has a control of the story that was able to put this very intense internal struggle into light. The story us paced beautifully. It is slow, steady, often frustrating. It worked so perfectly with the feelings that Anna was having. 

I just have one question: was the name of Anna intentional? It could very easily be a play on the idea of the "my friend Ana" idea that you can find online if you are particularly into that idea (I have seen more people use it as a way to praise anorexia and encourage others to continue down the wrong path than people using it to help them heal, though I can only hope that has changed since I was last really in the eating disorder world).

I read this book in one day. This is a powerful debut for Yara Zgheib. The Girls at 17 Swann Street is a poignant and devastating look at eating disorders and how they affect one's life and their loved ones lives as well.

"I used to eat. I used to like to eat, then I grew scared to eat, ceased to eat. Now my stomach hurts; I have been anorexic so long that I have forgotten how to eat."

Anna Roux was a professional dancer who had to temporarily stop dancing due to an injury. She thought she would be able to dance again after she and her husband, Matthais moved to the United States for his job. Unfortunately, she was turned down many times and found a job as a cashier before succumbing to loneliness and depression while waiting for her husband to return home from work each day. She is anorexic and eating causes anxiety. She notes how her clothes are getting bigger and after her husband finds her unconscious on the bathroom floor, she enters a residential treatment center for women struggling with eating disorders.

Through the course of the book, the reader is shown case notes, eating plans and Anna’s thoughts. The reader is shown her past, her relationship with her husband, the ex-boyfriend who hurt her self-esteem and self-image, her family and her interactions with those at the residential treatment facility.

This is not a happily ever after book. I appreciated how the Author showed that this is something that will be a struggle for the main character throughout her life. The Author showed us the characters unhealthy relationship with food, their mental health issues, self-esteem issues, body image issues, and the serious and life-threatening health issues that arise from having an eating disorder.

I thought the author painted a very realistic picture. She showed that there will be struggles, that relapse can occur that the thoughts associated with eating will not change overnight (and possibly may not entirely change), that this can be a lifelong battle. I enjoyed how the story was told. I immediately felt concern for Anna and was invested in learning what would happen to her and how she would react to being in the treatment center.

**Fact from NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness)
Studies show that 1 in 20 people will be affected at some point in their lives by an eating disorder.

**From Mental Health America
In the United States, 20 million women and 10 million men suffer from a clinically significant eating disorder at some time in their life, including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder or EDNOS.[1] (EDNOS is now recognized as OSFED, other specified feeding or eating disorder, per the DSM-5).

Anyone can develop an eating disorder regardless of gender, age, race, ethnicity, culture, size, socioeconomic status or sexual orientation.

People are usually quick to take care of their physical health, but one's mental health is just as important. People should never be ashamed to ask for or seek help for themselves or for their loved ones. The stigma of mental health has been around for far too long and needs to stop. Eating disorders are extremely serious (as are all mental health issues) and people need to educate themselves. I don't know anyone who would look down on someone for having cancer, diabetes or heart disease, we should also not look down on or make fun of those with mental illness. We should be kind, be supportive, offer to go to appointments with them, talk to them, learn from them, etc.

Overall, an enjoyable and haunting look at one woman's eating disorder and her time in a residential treatment facility. There are many books out there the deal with eating disorders and I found this to be a very good one that tells the story with compassion. I appreciated that things were not sugar coated nor were they brutally in your face either. I am impressed that is a debut book. I found it to be well written and again, I enjoyed the style in which it was written. I found the case notes and meal plans to be a very nice touch.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. The thoughts and opinions are my own.

I'm always super cautious whenever I read fiction where eating disorders are centric to the plot due to my own years long experience with them, so one of the best feelings ever is knowing that there's someone out there who's writing an authentic experience away from the frequently exploitative lens of Hollywood/young adult novels. It's so easy to glamorize mental illness in general in fiction, but eating disorders specifically are portrayed as romantic and glamorous because "what a glamorous kind of suffering to endure."

This novel, however, hits you right in the face with the ugly bits. It shows the reader what can happen if you succumb to your illness, but it also shows what has the possibility to happen when you want to recover. Anna's journey is painful from beginning to end. The reader is taken through an entire experience: Anna as she first enters the treatment facility as a bundle of anxiety and resentment, Anna as she improves and then falls, and Anna as she makes her choice about how to proceed in her life. And what a beautiful experience it is. Painful but beautiful all at once because it feels so raw and honest, and in my opinion, that's what makes some of the must human novels.

Occasionally, the formatting of the galley got a bit weird (indentation, paragraphs, and italicized passages), and I do think that that has to do more with the digital galley than the formatting of how it would be in a hard copy book. I also got a little thrown by the first person/third person switches. Sometimes I could tell that it was a narrative choice on Anna's part, but other times I wasn't sure if the third person narration was actually third person where the readers were outside of Anna's head. It wasn't bad enough or confusing enough to make the book hard to read, but the choices were just a bit odd and not very clear in parts.

Yara Zgheib succeeds in giving us Anna. How I wish I'd discovered this book as a young(er) adult when I was at my worst. I only hope that there are others who can benefit from and connect with the novel, the characters, and its message, too.

Did you know that at least 30 million people of all ages and genders suffer from an eating disorder in the United States?

The Girls at 17 Swann Street tells the story of Anna, a young woman who suffers from anorexia and her stay at a treatment facility.

Wow. This book has left me absolutely speechless, and yet I must try to convey how amazing this book was so that you will pick it up when it comes out next month. For starters, I loved the way this book was written. There was something lyrical and captivating about the style the author utilizes throughout the story. She also includes charts, eating plans, and medical notes that give you a very intimate look at 17 Swann Street. Anna is a character that I believe many will be able to relate to. As women, we are taught that skinny is beautiful. Images from the media are constantly reinforcing this idea. This book provides an honest, intimate, and raw look at life with an eating disorder. I also loved how the author showed how eating disorders affect the lives of those who love someone with an eating disorder. We mainly see this through Matthias, Anna's husband. We also see how lonely and isolating it is to live with an eating disorder, and how it's all about control. Although this was a fictional story, it felt so real and genuine. I absolutely loved this book, and you'll want to put it on your TBR for next month! For those of you struggling with body image issues, you are enough. You are beautiful. 5/5. Thank you Netgalley for the free e-ARC.