This was out of my normal suspense genre, but I was intrigued by the subject and decided to give it a try. I'm glad I did - it was very interesting to get that kind of a perspective. This was definitely my first book where the narrator was anorexic. While it's not "suspenseful," it is a very interesting read, especially for anyone who has known someone with an eating disorder. The narrator is as likable as she can be, and it's interesting to see the damage that the disease can do, both physically and to her relationships.

I absolutely loved The Girls at 17 Swann Street. If I could I would give it 10 stars. Eating disorders is not an easy or pretty disease to depict and I think Yara did a fabulous job of dealing with the subject with both compassion and authenticity. This is not an easy read, however it was tender story that will leave you with a better understanding of the mindset of an person suffering with anorexia. I am looking forward to the next book that Yara Zgheib writes.

A look into the thoughts and struggles of people with eating disorders. This was a very interesting and I think true account of what these girls go through. This would be a great book for anyone with a family member with this problem- to gain insight into the problem.

Thank you to NetGalley for an Advanced Reader copy of this book.

What most drew me to this book was that it was about mental illness and an eating disorder.
I must admit, I just found it unbelievable. I've read other reviews that indicated how real it was - but it wasn't in my experience.

Anna (I'm not sure if it was on purpose, but it seemed an odd choice of name for an anorexic), a ballet dancer already came from a very cut-throat experience, gets hurt and is anorexic.

I just felt that it was stereotypical, I'm not sure if this was what turned me off to the story.
It also seemed that the author switched from past to present within the same chapter - I am not sure if this is because it was an advance reader copy, or if it was meant to be that way, but it was confusing and made it difficult to read.

What I was happy to see in this book, was that Anna was an adult. Almost all stories about eating disorders are about teenagers.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book sucked me right in and I had a hard time putting it down. It was a heartbreaking portrayal of anorexia. and one character's struggle with treatment. This story mainly focused on Anna, the main character. Although there are other girls at the treatment center you really don't get their stories. I thought it would be nice to get more backstory on those girls as well. One of the only things that bothered me about this book was that the main character was focused on getting better for her husband, didn't have much of a life beyond her husband and it felt a little like the book was saying that without a husband she'd have no reason to try to get better. Overall this was a well-written book and I would recommend it.

*Thanks to NetGalley and St Matin's Press for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.* At first I found the author's way of punctuating dialogue frustrating. Instead of using speech marks, when characters spoke, it was italicised. However, once I got drawn into the rhythm of the story, I completely forgot this annoyance and got caught up in the beauty of the words. Young French dancer, Anna, follows her husband Matthias to the United States. She develops anorexia and becomes so unwell that she requires residential care. And so begins a delicate story of Anna and the other women living with her, as they struggle to fight their demons and reclaim their lives. A touching and engaging story.

17 Swann Street is a residential facility for those battling eating disorders and some of them won’t make it out alive – literally. Anna Roux is diagnosed with anorexia and wants to “lose a few pounds” to find happiness, although she’s nearly starved herself to death. The story is told by Anna and we get a glimpse into what this disease does to a person’s mind and body and those close to them and how hard it is to battle back.
I was totally captivated by this story and rooted so hard for Anna. She is lucky that she has a supportive and caring husband and family – some of the other girls seem to be missing those supports. The girls bond with one another and offer support and guidance within the rules of the facility. There are some grim moments in the book and at times I found it hard to read. The chapters alternate with happier days for Anna and her husband Matthias when food wasn’t an enemy. There are also some clinical reports that show the medical side of dealing with anorexia.

I found this to be a realistic story and very well written. It doesn’t shy away from the brutality of anorexia but offers hope and the chance for recovery. The main characters are well developed, and I wanted all of them to beat this terrible disease. I highly recommend this book to women and to fathers and husbands, or anyone who knows someone touched by eating disorders.

The story of anorexia and the devastating impact on those leaving with the disease and the people that love them. Extremely well-written.

From the beginning this book made me uncomfortable. In the end I liked it but it was tough to get through because of the subject matter and because of the way it was written. The characters in the book were so real and yet so very hard to connect with and in the end I figured out that was a deliberate and real choice by the author.

To pick this very difficult topic for a first book and then make the readers be a part of the struggle was not easy to do - I am sure we will be hearing more from this author for a long time!

This book was an amazing book on eating disorders. It was informative, gut wrenching, an sad. It was also about support for a very real illness. I really liked the book. I was shocked to learn of the illness, but so glad to see inside of each girl and how she dealt with the illness. I also saw it as a book of hope. Hope to overcome ...

An interesting in depth look at a serious illness that isn’t discussed enough. I was glad that the outcome ended on a uplifting note rather than leaving the reader feeling depressed. Having personally known people who have suffered from anorexia, the story accurately represented their lives.

I liked the journey of Anna's recovery, but the writing was so bad that i had to force myself to continue reading it, because i was holding out hope that the writing would get better. Sadly, it didn't but the characters were phenomenal. I liked the way that it showed some of the girls personalities gradually instead of all at once in a group therapy session. It felt more realistic to me to slowly find out more about these girls that Anna was living with.
I also would have liked to see maybe a little more background as to why Anna started starving herself, besides just simply that it was "a disease". Of course, it's a disease, but there's always some starting point or trigger that sets it off and I don't feel like Matthias not paying attention to her or eating with her was the root of the problem.
I honestly thought Matthias was going to either cheat on her or leave her, but i'm glad my predictions weren't true in the end.
There were a few problems i had with it, mostly just the lagging/poor writing, as well as not really capturing my attention all that much, but overall, it was a good story with great characters.
I just would have liked to see more of a detailed explanation as to what triggered her eating disorder and better writing, but that's just my take.
~ I recieved this book for free from the publisher for my honest review ~

This is a smart, tender, heartbreaking, and insightful novel that takes us into the world of eating disorders–the denial, the dangers, the suffering, the treatment–touching on both hope and despair. It is masterfully portrayed with just the proper amount of realism for the lethality, the camaraderie that often occurs in such settings, and the chronicity that can be draining for patients and their families.

As a psychiatrist who has spent many years in the past few decades working with these disorders, I was initially reluctant to read this novel — after all, for me this is work and I read to escape. But Zgheib miraculously wove a story that took me completely out of that mindset and instead staying up late in the night to turn page after page, engrossed in this novel. I really have no idea how she did it except to say that the protagonist is compelling and insightful, and it is a true delight to spend time in her head despite (or maybe because of) her struggles. Zgheib’s pacing is perfectly executed and the writing is tight.

Prior to reading this debut novel, I knew nothing about the author. But when I later discovered that Yara Zgheib is a Fulbright scholar with a Masters degree in Security Studies from Georgetown University and a PhD in International Affairs in Diplomacy from Centre D’études Diplomatiques et Stratégiques in Paris, the intelligence, kindness, and insight with which this novel is written made perfect sense.

I want to thank NetGalley, the publisher, St. Martin’s Press, and the author, Yara Zgheib for providing me a complimentary copy of THE GIRLS AT 17 SWANN STREET in exchange for my honest review. I look forward to her next novel.

</b>4.0 Stars</b>
This was an excellent piece of fiction that provided insight into the experience of eating disorder recovery. Written in lyrical prose, the novel was a beautiful read. In terms of pacing, the narrative is quite slow, yet I found the story immersive because I am personally enamoured by the topic.

From all my research and personal experiences with disordered eating, I believe this to be a very accurate protrayal of restrictive anorexia disorder. The author understood that the anorexia stems from anxiety, control and disordered self image, rather than simply an obsession with weight. The story goes into great detail about the treatment centre appearance, which closely matched with the personal accounts I have heard. After reading the acknowledgements section, I suspect this may be an own voices story.

Given the topic, this novel could be triggering to someone in the throws of their own ED struggles. The descriptions of treatment were very detailed with frequent mentions of specific weights, BMIs and calories numbers. Yet, the tone of the novel itself was quite positive, since the story was focused on recovery rather than the toxic thoughts of a disordered mind. Over the course of the novel, we follow the protagonist's mental healing process as she strived towards weight restoration. This could be a very uplifting novel to someone suffering from an eating disorder or an informative read for anyone who wants to better understand the personal experience of anorexia.

I requested an ecopy from the publisher, St. Martins Press, via Netgalley.

Yara Zgheib's novel is a poignant tale of the private pain which drives a young woman to anorexia. "The Girls at 17 Swann Street" captivates and immerses readers in the world of inpatient behavioral health care for eating disorders. Anna, a young former ballerina, has struggled with anorexia for several years and has finally admitted she needs help. As her story unfolds, we discover that while her dysfunctional relationship with food clearly defines her view of herself and the world, the issue is not really about food at all. Anna is masking pain from various wounds by exerting control over her intake of food, and as she undergoes treatment for her eating disorder, she begins to face her demons rather than run from them. We get glimpses into other women's lives, as well, as Anna interacts with other patients.

While I have never struggled with an eating disorder, many years ago, I walked beside several friends who did. Another friend became a licensed counselor who specializes in eating disorders. This book re-immersed me in their worlds and took a hard, honest look at the dysfunctional relationship some people develop with food. While I enjoyed the book, I found some of the narrative and internal monologue disjointed. (Some of that, however, may have been due to the formatting of the e-book, which was an Advance Reader Copy and not a finished copy.) I also wish the author had allowed Anna to open up more with her therapist and begin a deeper process of healing. Anna begins to understand the roots of her disorder, but she refuses to acknowledge them or share her pain with others. She even continues to conceal much of her struggle from her beloved husband and refuses to share the underlying sorrows which drove her to anorexia.

"The Girls at 17 Swann Street" was an excellent immersion in the world of eating disorders, but I would not recommend it for readers who have struggled silently with anorexia or bulimia. The graphic expose of Anna's thought processes may be too great a temptation to revert. For those who want to understand the struggle, however, or for those who are openly dealing with their struggle with the support of family, friends, and mental health professionals, this book may be an excellent read.

I received an Advance Reader Copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

4 1/2 stars. What an enthralling story. At first I was put off buy the lack of quotation marks. I thought it might be an editing issue you sometime get in an ARC. But the deeper I got in to it, I realized it's because the whole story is in Anna's head. The whole book is a gut wrenching mental dialogue into her struggle with anorexia. I felt her pain and anxiety. I was invested in all the girls at 17 Swann Street. In fact, I was wishing for a fuller ending into what happened to all of them. However, I had two sore points with the plot. I didn't get enough of Anna's past. Clearly there was multiple issues that helped contribute to her slide into an eating disorder, but some were merely mentioned and not really covered in depth. And I felt that she progressed a bit too quickly through the treatment stages. That being said, this was a truly compelling story and I recommend reading it if you get the chance.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This will not be an easy read for some. It does deal with eating disorders. That said, this is one of the best books I have read dealing with this issue. It is raw and gritty. It is also so she opening of how the illness can destroy the person and the family around them. An absolute beautiful story.

The Girls at 17 Swann Street by Yara Zgheib

An interesting and close up look at eating disorders, The Girls at 17 Swann Street all suffer from one illness or another. Some make it, others don’t, but there is no cure for any of them. These diseases are life- long battles.

Yara Zgheib gives us a window to the perils of anorexia nerviosa in particular, as the protagonist, Anna, reaches for help to overcome her illness. We feel her pain and isolation as she goes day by day suffering in virtual silence as each girl there fears to reveal too much of herself.

Zgheib educates us in an easy to read-and-learn format, pulling on some emotional strings as Anna pays her dues at the Swann Street facility.

I suggest this as a good story for an introduction to the difficulty and pain of eating disorders. You will cheer for each girl as she struggles for the strength to win the war over her specific eating related problem.

Genre: Fiction
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Pub. Date: February 5, 2019

Due to the Goodreads blurb (The chocolate went first, then the cheese, the fries, the ice cream. The bread was more difficult, but if she could just lose a little more weight) the reader knows right away that the story will revolve around a young female with an eating disorder. Author Yara Zgheib is a Fulbright scholar which explains her intelligent yet poignant prose. Her novel is inspired by her own experience with the disease. The story is eerily similar to the movie “Girl Interrupted,” the true story of Susanna Kaysen (played by Winona Ryder). Different mental disorders, but both are heartbreaking stories of girls living in a treatment center fighting a disease that can take their life. Both characters are at a crossroad between deciding to live in such a facility forever or to attempt to re-join society—like all addictions, easier said than done.

Since I skipped the blurb, I wasn’t aware of the book’s subject matter. I probably wouldn’t have picked this novel to review because I am someone who has lived long enough to have heard and read countless female celebs who have talked of their anorexia/bulimia during interviews and/or read of their disorder in their autobiographies. Plus, I grew up in the age of Twiggy. Back then all of us girls starved ourselves to look like her. In the 1960s, at least where I grew up, no one had ever even heard of the term “eating disorder.” For me, the disease didn’t seriously enter my consciousness until 1983 when singer Karen Carpenter died due to heart failure brought on by her unpublicized anorexia. On a personal note, for someone who survived the “Twiggy look,” it was disheartening to observe the skinniness fetish make a comeback in the “heroin chic” look of the 1990s.

With that said, I applaud that the author frequently mentions the inpatients who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTS). In real-life, experiencing some sort of brutality, mental as well as physical, is how PTS can manifest itself into an eating disorder. These are the unlucky girls and young women who usually die from starving or binging or both. I was similarly impressed that the author, in a debut novel, tackled using a complicated writing style. The story is told in different fonts. One for internal thoughts and another for external words, there is also a third style. It is used as the sort of commentary that you would find in a medical journal. This is how Zgheib weaves education into the plot to enlighten the reader throughout the novel.

In a nutshell, I can safely write that if you are struggling with the disorder yourself, or if you are unfamiliar with the topic, this story will make you cry (skeletal women gasping to breathe), and learn (the causes of the disease) and hopefully grow (in the tradition of other addictions one is never considered cured, but may learn to live a good life). However, I suggest that you skip this one if you have read the many other titles out there on the subject, such as, “Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia” or “Brave Girl Eating: A Family's Struggle with Anorexia.” “Swann Street” is a good novel, but I didn’t find anything new in the story that wasn’t said before.

This was an amazing book written by an author who bares her soul in this fictionalized account of a young woman with anorexia and her painful recovery. Anna, a Parisian ballerina injures her knee and must come to terms with the fact that she won't dance again. In spite of the love of her husband, Matthias, father and sister she continues to lose weight and reaches a dangerous 88 pounds.. Her husband finally faces the severity of her illness and helps her check in to 17 Swann Street, a group home/care center for women trying to overcome eating disorders. Not all are as lucky as Anna, who has the support of a loving father and a husband who visits her daily. And Anna is not willing to face her problems at first, nor deal with the tragedies of her youth. It is with the help of the girls at 17 Swann Street that Anna is able to admit her problems and work to become a healthy, functioning adult. We realize she will never be completely free of the disease, but Anna is finally willing to work to be healthy.