I loved this book!!!!
This book takes the you into the world of eating disorders and body images. It is a beautiful work that captures the reality of fear of food, cognitive thoughts, coping skills, the rules we set for ourselves to cope with change, going down "the rabbit hole", seeking help, and fear of losing the 1 thing you can control. I laughed, I sighes.
Wonderful and realistic character development
I could not get enough of this book the whole way routing for all of the girls at 17 Swann
"I am not cured, I am not ready, I am terrified of what is coming. But I lift my chin higher. Keep walking Anna....
5 stars

"I tell people I am a dancer. I have not danced in years, though. I work as a cashier in a supermarket but my real occupation is anorexia."

First of all, this book needs a trigger warning! If you feel unsettled or triggered by eating disorders, mental illnesses like depression, and self harm, please skip this one! It's a great book but does not sugarcoat anything.

This book was sincerely good. At first, it feels a little choppy in the writing, but you quickly come to realize that it's just following the way someone struggling with these mental illnesses may be thinking. In actuality, the way it is written starts to flow and you consider that the choppiness is working for the book instead of against it. The representation of mental health (sub category: primarily eating disorders) is done really well and respectfully here. The author doesn't make things look better than they are, but she writes about the harsh reality in the right way. Some of the chapters seem a bit repetitive at times, but I think that's simply because progress isn't linear, and this book is supposed to be showing the struggles a woman goes through while suffering from an eating disorder. In real life, some days really are repetitive.

The book goes back and forth between past and present but in a way that always uses the past to highlight or add context to the present moment. We also get to see the forms that Anna's recovery team put together, so readers get a look at what is happening to her outside of her own mind. The characters in the book are all the kind that you want to hug their pain away, so it's easy to get attached and emotional in this one. However, I really loved that the author included these friendships and relationships. It truly shows the way that spouses, friends, and family cope with their loved one's mental illness and how these relationships can be impacted. It was a great addition to the book to include so much of Matthias. Everyone has a reason to keep fighting, and sometimes they need to put that into another person. Matthias is that for Anna.

Overall, the book was just really good and real and honest and raw and I feel like it's 110% worth reading.

This is the most honest description of eating disorders I have ever read. I know nothing about the author but I feel she has invited the reader into to her world of fear and her very real struggle with death. It's hard for most people to understand anorexia. Those people might ask how can a person not eat? How can a person look in the mirror and not see their bones sticking out? This is the book they can read to answer their questions. No one ever starts out wanting to starve themselves. It's just like the person who takes their first drink never wants to become an alcoholic. It's a disease that hides inside some unlucky people waiting to be triggered.

The writing is captivating as the author describes what it's like to be in a treatment facility where eating is mandatory. The characters are well written and their loneliness is palpable. Their daily battle with the disease that is killing them rings true. This is not an easy book to read because the experience and characters are so realistic. My compliments to the author for an amazing book.

I received an Advanced Reader's Copy from St Martin's Press through NetGalley for the purpose of review. I was happy to voluntarily write an honest review. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.
#TheGirlsat17SwannStreet #NetGalley

People with eating disorders are often dismissed as having made a "choice" and that they should just stop. This book brings to light the real struggles that are present as Anna and the girls at 17 Swann Street work to recover (and it is work!). The author gives what seems like a very authentic look into Anna's mind and the difficulties she experiences in trying to overcome her disease. I think anyone who reads this book will see anorexia and bulimia for the diseases they truly are. You will feel Anna's pain and rejoice in her victories.

This book was provided by NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy.
This book was so good, raw, touching and so real. I really enjoyed it. My heart breaks for these women as they fight their disease. Highly recommend reading!

Wow. That is what I thought as I finished 'The Girls at 17 Swann Street'.
Eating disorders are often whispered out, hinted at, gossiped about, and rarely truly talked about.
Yara Zgheib's DEBUT novel broke my heart soo many times and gave me such insight into trying to understand people who struggle with eating disorders. Yes, trying as every person who struggles with an eating disorder is different.

Anna's story into the how and why she became anorexic and how she ends up at 17 Swann Street is probably one of the most true, deep, moving, thought provoking pieces of fiction I have read in a long time.

17 Swann Street is a treatment center for women with eating disorders. There is a full realm of them amongst the supporting characters. You are also brutally aware that choosing to accept the treatment MUST be for yourself not someone else as Anna struggles with that due to feeling like she failed her husband and her family. It is also a choice that can mean the difference in life or death. The mental health aspects are discussed in a way that did not make me feel like it disparaged those who suffer from eating disorders.

I thank Netgalley for the ARC.

The Girls at 17 Swann Street is a heartrending look at the life of an anorexic and the struggle to get back to some sort of normalcy. Anna was a professional ballerina, who married and left Paris with her husband for a life in the Midwest. With him working crazy hours, and Anna not able to find a job dancing, she started to control her diet to stay in shape. With each food item she eliminated from her diet, she lost a little more control until anorexia became her way of life.

Her husband and family saw the toll it was taking on her body and intervened. But will this intervention be enough to save her, or is it too late? For so many autistic patients, there is no way back to health and this novel is difficult to read at times, but that is what makes it so good. I highly recommend The Girls at 17 Swann Street. Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for making this ARC available for my honest review.

A haunting look into eating disorders that gives the reader an idea of what this disease can do to a person. This book made me cry, cringe, and feel hopeful all in one sitting.

I was fortunate to be asked by the book publisher to head to NETGALLEY and check out this book. I am so very glad that I did. The main plot is driven by the fact that the main character, Anna Roux, a professional French dancer, married for three years, is battling anorexia nervosa. Now, I have read a few books and watched a lot of movies about anorexia and bulimia and they are mostly portrayed by teenage girls. So it was very refreshing to see how this disease gradually takes over an adult woman's life.

Like Anna, The Girls at 17 Swann Street are battling eating disorders and this book doesn't sugarcoat the treatments and offers a realistic portrayal of how people think and feel. Yara Zghieb invokes plenty of emotion in the writing of this novel and her various characters show us the many layers and complexities of living with an eating disorder. We see women who lose the battle and those who have struggled with it for many years. What I thought was so realistic is that although we see Anna supported by her beautiful husband, Matthias, this is contrasted by others who have no one. This just makes the book all more realistic and genuine in tackling such a subject that is rarely touched upon in women's fiction.

Trigger warning: I do not recommend this for people who are currently suffering from an eating disorder or are just starting recovery simply because it feels so realistic and relapsing is a thing.

Wow. I’m not sure where to start with this book. It hit me really hard.

As the trigger warning indicates, this is a book about eating disorders. The girls at 17 Swann Street all suffer from a toxic relationship with food. Most of the 7 girls (or women, really) are anorexics but there’s also a couple of bulimics.

We follow Anna, a young French woman who has followed her husband Matthias to the States, where had to move for work. Matthias spends a lot of time at work and Anna is stuck at home in their apartment in a foreign country with little else in her life than waiting for her husband to get home.

Anna used to be a ballet dancer until she had an injury. And of course as a dancer the environment was already extremely competitive and there was a lot of focus on weight. So she started even then to shrink from being a real person with a full life to being someone who obsesses about food and cutting out more and more from her diet, losing more weight, training harder, and she’s still not good enough. She pushes herself too hard and gets injured.

With the injury and the ensuing move to the US, Anna loses the last bit of herself that was not a food obsession: the joy of dancing and the relationships with her family (to a large extent her husband as well as he’s working a lot). Things start to completely unravel. And at the point where she is admitted to Swann Street she is barely alive, surviving on apples and popcorn, doing extreme workouts and with a BMI of – I think – 15. Severely underweight.

The book switches back and forth between Anna’s past both in France and after the move to the US, and present time in the treatment facility. This switching back and forth and the use of italics gets confusing, as it’s often not clear what time we’re currently in or if someone is speaking. Though it’s possible this is only a problem with the digital ARC that I have received. And once you sort of learn to go with it, it doesn’t put a dent in the power of the story.

And that power lies partly in how real it feels. Compared to Anna I have only “dabbled in” eating disorders, and was never institutionalised for it, but I remember so well the exhaustion, the obsession and compulsive behaviour, how your world shrinks to just thinking about what to eat (or mostly what not to eat). I believe the author must either have personal experience with eating disorders, or that someone very close to her went through something like this, to get it to ring so true.

This book was not only believable, but also incredibly beautiful and touching. Not just in the language but in the sweet moments of fractured hope, and in the strong love between Anna and her family, and the bonds between the women at 17 Swann Street. I found it heartbreaking that these women who are so cruel to themselves and their own bodies are so kind, understanding and fiercely loyal to each other.

There is a lot of sadness and despair in this novel, but there is hope and beauty too – and that for me is what elevates it. It made me cry from both sorrow and joy (even when retelling parts of it to J in a café..), it made me reflect on life and be grateful. It has been a long time since I struggled with anorexia now, but I still remember it vividly. And my relationship with food is still fraught. But I am grateful that I have come this far. That I can genuinely enjoy food (a bit too much at times..) and feel that it nourishes me. I can appreciate the miracle that is my body, appreciate my strength, my health and my mind.

And I am grateful for this beautiful book, for reminding me of the struggle and that despite it there is always hope, love and kindness.

An incredible read following the life of a dancer from Paris that has anorexia. It starts with day one of her treatment at 17 Swann Street. The book is well written with flashbacks to her history. Amazing details of what life is like with anorexia - the thought processes and the feelings. Well done!

Yara Zgheib's heartbreaking and lyrical debut takes us into the world of eating disorders, how they can arise and the devastating impact on both sufferers and their circles of friends and family. It begins with the 26 year old Anna Roux entering 17 Swann Street, a residential medical treatment house inhabited by vulnerable and fragile women. As the narrative goes back and forth in time, we learn of Anna's dedication to her career as a professional ballet dancer in Paris, an ex-boyfriend who damaged Anna's self esteem, her wonderfully loving husband, Matthias and her injured leg. Matthias is offered a opportunity to work in Missouri in the United States which Anna is happy to support. However, an isolated and lonely Anna is plagued by her insecurities and fears as her life spirals out of control with depression and anorexia, and she weighs a mere 88lbs.

A young Anna feels more like an old woman as Zgeib outlines the struggles of the women, their stories, their setbacks, and their support of each other. We get insights into their complicated and distorted relationship with food, their inner world of anxieties, self destructive impulses, esteem issues and more. Matthias finds himself out of his depth and feeling helpless but he loves Anna, and it is this love that drives Anna's desire to get better. Zgeib writes with humanity, compassion, knowledge and authenticity in her character driven portrayal of the mental health issues surrounding eating disorders. I found this a raw, intense and emotional read which is brilliant in its characterisation and the medical issues it examines. An excellent book which I recommend highly. Many thanks to Beatrice and St Martin's Press for an ARC.

" I am a child in a body that grew up too soon, found adulthood and real life a scam, and now is trying to lose enough weight to lift off the ground, fly away."
It is a wonderfully written novel of a young woman who finds herself in a self-destructive situation that becomes a matter of life or death and how she fought to regain her life, her marriage and her family, one minute at a time.
Heartbreaking at times, yet friendship and love definitely prevail for Anna.
This is definitely not an easy read, but could be any woman with the pressures in today's world.
It is an excellent book and well worth the time!

This was a difficult book to read, due to the subject of anorexia. It gave me more insight into the issue and was overall a good book. I would read this author again.

Yara Zgheib has painted such a detailed, realistic picture of life with an eating disorder. The story is of Anna, an injured dancer trying to find her place. Anna doesn’t think she has a problem but her illness has caused significant pain for her family.

Zgheib showed me that there’s a fine line between what I thought anorexia was and what it truly is. It’s more than being obsessed with caloric intake and finding the right balance of nutrition and exercise. It’s so much more than simply starving yourself because you think you look fat. She tells of how
women with life-threatening eating disorders live.... how they work together to fight their diseases and face six meals a day. How each bite causes anxiety and guilt. It shows the bigger picture of how it impacts friends and family as well.

The Girls at 17 Swann Street is well-written and realistic. The novel was emotional and enlightening, and the story brought me to tears more than once. I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to reading more from Yara Zgheib.

This one was not for me. The topic was interesting but the book didn’t do it justice. I wasn’t engaged at all with the characters. I really wanted to like this one.

This book was well written and interesting enough in content, however, I just was not able to connect with any of The Girls at 17 Swann Street.

Many thanks to Netgalley and St Martin's Press for this advanced readers copy.

I thought this was an interesting novel and true to form regarding the subject of eating disorders. It was well written and easy to follow. I thought it was targeted towards young adults. I found the character and plot of the story interesting and educational. I highly recommend this book.

Beautifully written. Hauntingly sad book about the effects of anorexia on a young woman and the people she loves. The story is set at a rehabilitation center for eating disorders and briefly touches on the lives of many of the women that stay there. Raw and hopeful, this book will stay with me for a long time.

A special thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Anna Roux was a professional dancer who followed the man of her dreams from Paris to Missouri. There, alone with her biggest fears—imperfection, failure, loneliness—she spirals downward into depression and anorexia until she weighs a shocking eighty-eight pounds. Forced to seek treatment, she is admitted as a patient at 17 Swann Street, a peach pink house where women with life-threatening eating disorders live. Together, the women fight their diseases through six meals a day. With every bite causing anxiety and guilt, the women struggle to gain control.

Through the support of the other girls, sheer strength, and resilience, Anna begins her long journey of recovery.

Heartbreaking, haunting, and poignant, this intimate look into eating disorders is a somewhat strong debut for Yara Zgheib. Her writing is quite good, but the characters were underdeveloped. I wanted more of Anna's and the other residents' backstories. Some of the staff are just referred to as "Direct Care" and it is never explained who they are. For these reasons, the book feels unfinished.

Zgheib juxtaposes Anna's unhealthy relationships with men against her eating disorder. She is a woman that is reliant on a man to save her when she needs to save herself—her relationships with men are unhealthy as is her relationship with food.

My main criticism is that the both the dialogue and past events are set in italics. I'm not sure why some authors choose to not use quotation marks for speech—it is confusing and hopefully this will be corrected in the final version. I also found it trite that the main character was named Anna and she has anorexia.