I really enjoyed this book in which very little happens.

I used to work in an inpatient mental health facility that worked with a lot of teens struggling with eating disorders. This book did a great job depicting their reality and giving readers a glimpse into their behaviors and mindset. A sad but hopeful read, perfect for a rainy day.

Obviously, trigger warnings abound.

I had no idea what to expect from this book, but I really enjoyed. Informative and gave a real insight into the life of someone living with Anorexia and how it came about.
Some great characters and excellent descriptions.

This is a moving story geared toward anyone who can identify with anorexia and Anna draws attention to this eating disorder with her journey to battle her phobias. Her story is poignant and will have you in her corner. Having moved from another country with her husband and being a ballet dancer, she is devastated when she doesn't find work as a dancer like when she was back home. This leads to depression and then spirals into anorexia. Her husband who in my books is a hero, gets her the help she needs to battle her condition. I voluntarily agreed to receive an ARC of this story book for an honest review.

This book was amazing and it's such an important time to write about issues that people can relate to. This book shows the effects and struggles eating disorders have on people and what it means to have a support group. I recommend this book to everyone. It's written in a prose that's also fascinating.

I have to say, I connected to Anna, and the girls from The Girls at 17 Swann Street in ways I never imagined. This story pulled me in from the very first page and I could not put it down!

Anna has been a ballet dancer for years but she has also been battling a silent death for all of those years too. Annorexia. Moving from Paris, to live in Missouri, Anna is struggling when her husband Matthias brings her to live at 17 Swann Street, a home to women and girls, battling eating disorders.

Heartbreaking, compassionate, raw with emotion. Yara Zgheib paints the very true story of what annorexia looks like to Anna. It affects everyone that Anna comes in contact with and it truly is the silent killer. We get to see what someone living with this disorder goes through each day. What their brain struggles with to accept a bite of food at each meal and the triggers that formed this disease.

This was such an important story that needed to be told. To bring about more awareness to such a heartbreaking disease and to allow girls that may be going through this struggle that they are not alone, and go seek help.

*Thank you to netgalley and St. Martins Press for this free digital copy. All opinions are my own

Almost from the first page or certainly within the first 20 pages, I was, for lack of a better word, ravaged by the persona of the main character Anna. She's intelligent, exacting, lonely, and anorexic oh, and she knows it. The rest of the book about "the girls" is at times harrowing, at other times savagely funny, because I was able to see into the world in which all women live as they conduct their bodies according to standards of beauty that are impossible to meet. To see the different characters' personalities, and to live these lives with them, resonated for me, and even if I would not identify my own experiences with food and my body as disordered, I instantly recognized myself in these pages. A very impressive book on the disabling power the constructs of Western society for women, and the people we are able to become in spite of it. Highly recommended.

3.5 Stars

A powerful book about a young woman with anorexia. Anna develops anorexia after moving to the States with her husband from Paris. When her husband and family finally step in, Anna is admitted to a residential treatment center on Swann Street. There she meets a group of girls suffering from various types of eating disorders and forms bonds with them while struggling to accept and fight her disease.

Zgheib does a great job at depicting the reality and horrors of anorexia. You feel the frustration, anger, sadness, and defeat that both Anna and her husband, Matthias, feel. And you rally with them as she gains the strength and determination to fight. I felt the treatment notes seemed more like an info-dump and they interrupted the story some with the clinical way they were written, but at the same time they were informative and interesting.

Heartbreaking yet with a glimmer of hope, this book shows the crises of eating disorders and the power and love it takes to survive it.

I received an advanced copy through Netgalley in return for an honest review.

I started this novel as a part of a blog tour, but unfortunately I couldn't finish it. It had a lot of triggers in it that I wasn't prepared for and it was very depressing and sad. I had to give up halfway through unfortunately. Thank you to NetGalley for sending this novel in exchange for an honest review.

This was a really great story. Right away I was captivated by the style of writing. Readers will venture in the life of woman with an eating disorder and the pain and struggle it is to be her true self. Although tough to read at points, it is a well developed and important topic to understand. This is a definite must read!!

Beautiful yet tragic. Sad but hopeful. This novel was so hard to put down. Anna’s story was gut-wrenching at times as you see her internal monologue as she struggles with and often justifies her anorexia. It was startling to see the effect the disease has on her mind, her emotions, her body, and her relationships with her husband, her family, and the other young women at 17 Swann Street. There wasn't enough time to delve into the complicated history of Emm and her recurring presence at the home or into more of the experiences of the young women suffering from bulimia. This book doesn’t shy away from the reality of anorexia and how truly dangerous it is. This is a must-read!
Can’t wait to see what this author publishes next.

The Girls at 17 Swann Street by Yara Zgheib was a compelling story of anorexia nervosa. I grew up knowing a girl with it, but did not understand the disease until reading this book. I never realized it was considered a disease, I thought it was more of a condition. But, in reading this book, I felt so much for these patients with anorexia and came to understand more of how they really see themselves as overweight and are trying to, in their minds, get to a perfect weight. Their goal is not to starve themselves to death when the disease begins, it just ends up spiraling out of control. Also, this book is a work of fiction, but it reads like a true story, I feel that made it all the more compelling.

My only "beef" with the book, and it is a pretty big one, was the horrible lack of speaking dialogue punctuation. I was lost so much of the time trying to figure out if I was reading thoughts, if someone was speaking, and if they were, who was speaking. It was not something I got used to either, it went all the way to the end. I do not understand why the author chose to write in this style. It was also not always clear when the story would go back in time and then return to the present. The book took a lot longer than it should have based on how much this slowed me down. This took what would be a 5-star book for me and dropped it down to 3-stars.

Review posted on Goodreads and Amazon. Review to be featured on Blog, Facebook and Twitter

5 Stars

An absolutely fantastic read!

I was amazed at this author's ability to write with incredibly realistic insights of a character suffering from an eating disorder. This type of insight comes from either being a survivor or some very deep research. As an eating disorder survivor in recovery, I attached very quickly to this story and found the storyline very realistic. To boot, characters are highly approachable and well constructed.

Reviewed for honest review for publisher via Netgalley.

Wow. This unassuming book is very powerful. <I>The Girls at 17 Swann Street</I> is written with so much heart and understanding. Even if you know nothing about anorexia or the struggle with eating disorders, this book will make you feel the anguish those with the disease are living with.

Anna is a former dancer who is with the love of her life. But because she gained some poor habits and let bad social influences take over at a younger age, she struggled to find a solid hold on her body image once she moved from Paris to the States. This doesn't just effect young people or people who feel like they can't find love until they look a perfect way. The damage may start at an early age without showing itself until it's too late, which makes this whole epidemic that much scarier.

<I>The Girls at 17 Swann Street</I> can be interpreted as a cautionary tale, but also as a self-help. Although the story, location and characters are fiction, it is very easy to see this as a true story. Reading Anna's struggle with the demons in her head was extremely powerful. Distinguishing those thoughts between Anna or anorexia talking was eye-opening. I absolutely recommend this to anyone - those who know someone struggling with an eating disorder, those who don't think they know someone with an eating disorder, young adults, older adults, parents, siblings, etc.

Very well written and sensitive story. I though anorexia was an old disease but this book reminds us that it is still quite prevalent.

Anorexia nervosa is a horrible disease that touches so many people. It doesn't just take over your body and mind, but it also impacts on those that are close to you, family, friends and work colleagues. In this story, we take a journey of Anna’s life and her fight with anorexia and what a battle it really is. My heart truly went out to Anna and the other girls who she shared a room with at the treatment clinic.

After reading this book I got a much better understanding of what this horrible disease does, not only to the body, but the mind as well. For most of us, we never think too much about what we eat (well, I don’t anyway) unless we are on a diet or we suffer a health condition such as diabetes where we have to be aware of what we are eating. For people with anorexia or an eating disorder, they struggle to eat simple foods and if they do manage to consume something, then they question the calorie intake and how much exercise it will take to burn those calories. It’s a daily battle and sadly for many it’s a battle that will end their life.

Sad and heartbreaking story that will tear at your heartstrings, but it will give you a better understanding of what people with eating disorders go through. Some will win the fight and sadly some won’t. A book that will remain with me for a long time to come. With thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for my digital copy to read and review. Highly recommended.

The Girls at 17 Swann Street is a tragic, gripping look at the devastating havoc that eating disorders, namely anorexia here, wreak especially on a personal level as we get to know the girls that live in this unassuming rehabilitation house. Our main character, Anna, is a dancer who began spiraling into the often bottomless depths of severely restricted eating, dieting, and exercising before an injury that put her out of commission from doing what she loved. That topped with an international move to the States with her beloved husband, Matthias, was enough to cause Anna to cycle down into full-blown anorexia. Treatment at 17 Swann Street is Anna's chance to conquer and heal.

Anna's relationship with Matthias is a beautiful constant throughout, with loving flashbacks interwoven even in Anna's darkest moments, as a reminder of what she's fighting for. I also loved the glimpses into the lives of the other girls in the house—recurring but practiced anorexic Emm, deeply depressed Valerie, and manic bulimics Julia and Sarah—but not diving deeper into their stories too, as part of the titular "girls," is a disservice to the places this book could go with more well-rounded storytelling. Still, as women in a modern world are still constantly made to feel we're not good enough, not beautiful enough, never thin enough, this is a poignant subject that could stand a bigger spotlight. I'm glad Zgheib told this story.

Also, perhaps moot post-publication, but the ARC I received was so poorly formatted that it was frequently difficult to read where the breaks were, what was in real time and what was a flashback or inner thought. I hope this issue was corrected in the final version.

This book was really interesting & difficult to put down. I read it within 24 hours. It had my attention from the moment I began. I do not have anorexia, in fact I am very overweight. The chronicalling of this woman’s struggle & treatment was quite spellbinding—so much so that I pretty much read it in one sitting. It reminded me a little of the fellow who became famous after his supposed “autobiographical” mental illness landed him on a psych ward & he chronicled it into a story which landed him on Oprah's best of the month book club. He later was proven a liar. I was riveted into his story also. This was very good. I recommend it as a quick read.

Thank you St. Martin’s Press for granting me this ARC with nothing more than a few kind words in return.

This book guys. Wow. Such an intimate, heart-wrenching look into life with anorexia. I am no stranger to depression and anxiety, but I have never personally experienced anorexia or bulimia, so while I can sympathize with some of the thoughts and feelings, I had no idea the depth of this disease.

The Girls at 17 Swann Street is the story of Anna Roux, a young french girl with a seemingly beautiful life. She was a dancer at one time, but has now moved to the US with her husband for his job. Between the move, the distance she feels from her husband who is her best friend, and only friend in the US, and past tragedies, Anna begins to lose herself to anorexia. The book opens when Anna has checked into a residential facility that specializes in helping girls with eating disorders. She has reached rock bottom and knows that without help, she will likely not survive.

What follows is Anna’s struggle to rethink her relationship with food while surrounded by other girls who are just like her, and also completely different. The girls at 17 Swann Street form a bond that Anna is immediately welcomed into, no questions asked. This story is not a easy read. It’s hard. Anna’s struggles and pain come off the page and become a tangible thing. And while reading this is difficult at times, it is no less important for us to understand the struggles of others.

Please note the trigger warnings listed above and if you are struggling, there is help and you are not alone.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press & NetGalley for sending me this ARC.

I liked the premise of the book, but wanted more for the ending. I felt like the characters could have had more depth and the ending could have provided more detail about Anna's recovery and journey. It seemed to have skipped a huge part of her life. It was a good read for the most part and gave a lot of insight into eating disorders.

This was an awesome book. I did not know much about eating disorders before I read this book but the author brought the disorders to life. The author did a great job of making each character become a real person to me. It was like you were right with them each time they ate and you could feel their pain. I couldn't stop reading because I wanted to know how everyone was doing. I received this ebook from NetGalley for an honest review and I'm glad I did because I really enjoyed reading it.