The Girls on 17 Swann is a beautiful, well written glimpse into the mind and life of a young woman struggling to overcome a debilitating disease known as anorexia. The story follows her through her daily struggles while living in a residential treatment center for anorexia. With her own demons to fight and outside pressures at times she feels as if it is too much. This is a very caring book that will grab your heart and you will be rooting for her and the other girls at 17 Swann!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for giving me this arc for the privilege of writing my honest review.
This is definitely my honest feeling about this book...lovely.

Anna was a dancer. She wanted the soloist’s part but wasn’t good enough. She thought that, maybe, if she lost more weight, she could succeed. Eventually, however, she was down to 88 pounds. Anna could no longer eat anything but apples and popcorn. Her fear of food and gaining weight had become so overwhelming! But if she did not stop this behavior, she would die. She found she was endangering her own life. She was checked into the pink house at 17 Swann Street, a house for women with eating disorders. Together, they fight to save their lives.
This is a frank and moving account of an anorexic’s fight to eat, again, in order to save her own life. It is well-written and worth reading.

I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

A look into the life of an anorexic girl. I don't think it's really my cup of tea. It's not a bad book over all but I didn't care much for it.

This book is an inside look at the life of an anorexic and it was truly eye-opening. I knew that anorexia is a disease but never did I realize how it can completely take over every waking second of a person's life.. Through the eyes of Anna, the reader witnesses her struggles with food even though she knows that she is killing herself and could possibly lose her husband. She literally has little to no control over the disease that is ravaging her body. I loved this book from beginning to end and found myself routing for all of the characters, especially Anna. I found myself loving Anna's husband, Matthias and wondered what would happen to Anna if it weren't for him. A knight in shining armor, he is! When the book ended, I wanted to keep on reading. The struggle doesn't end at the end of the book. Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC in return for my honest review.

This book wasn’t bad. It was good. But it was a major trigger for me, personally and I had difficulty reading it. Maybe that is evidence of the book’s value.
I was received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a beautifully written book. Trigger warning if you suffer from eating disorders or body dysmorphia. This was a hard read because I know so many people go through these struggles but it was such a good read too that I read it in two days. I highly recommend reading this one.

Interesting book highlighting a topic not usually touched upon in novels. I found the interaction between the characters moving.

An inside look to the life of a compulsive anorexic shows the struggle she faced everyday to succeed for both herself and others

Anna was a ballet dancer. A relationship had undermined her confidence about her body & an injury stopped her dancing. Soon she began a battle with food. Gradually she cut out almost everything apart from apples & plain popcorn. When she moved from France to America with her adoring husband his new job meant she could hide her eating habits until it became clear that something had to be done before they killed her. She was admitted to 17 Swann St- a residential unit for eating disorders. Whilst hating the regime she found strength & support from the other girls there.

This is a beautifully written book that brings the horror & hopelessness of eating disorders into sharp relief. Whilst struggling to understand Anna's mindset I could certainly appreciate the battle she had to try and bring herself back from the edge

Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book. It is one that will stay with me for a long time.

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.

A quiet, moving story about a woman battling both anorexia and the memories of her life before the disease took hold of her, at a residential facility for eating disorders. Outside its walls are her loving husband and father, praying and pleading for her survival. Inside are the other girls who fight alongside her through each snack, each meal, each calorie. A glimpse into a terrifying world where many don't emerge, and the ones who do have only a slim chance of long-term, relapse-free health, rendered still with hope that the girls here will be among the survivors.

A stunning, emotional, inspirational, and insightful story into the lives of women suffering from an eating disorder. I opened this book late in the afternoon with the intention of reading a couple of chapters before starting dinner . . . and never looked up again until finishing it a few hours later. It's everything I could ask for in a story and more.

The Girls at 17 Swann Street is beautifully written and delivered via the intimate first-person pov of Anna, a twenty-six year old woman/wife/former dancer who is entering residential care for anorexia at 17 Swann Street. A woman who once laughed, loved, and dared to dream big. A woman who loved ice cream and strawberries and the idea of making babies with her husband. A 5' 4" tall woman now weighing in at only 88 pounds with a 15.1 BMI who can no longer bear to be touched. A woman whose body is literally starving to death because the thought of eating food makes her physically sick. How did this happen to her?

Through Anna's eyes, readers learn about day-to-day life inside the eating-disorder treatment center . . . the rules, eating plans, appointments with doctors, weekly rituals . . . the despair, the hopelessness, the struggle to face one more day . . . and one more meal. Anna's thoughts alternate between past and present allowing readers to walk in her shoes prior, during, and after treatment. While Anna's the driving force behind this story, the other girls receiving treatment play key support roles, welcoming her into their sisterhood while helping to acclimate her to "the rules". I'll go ahead and say now that I wiped tears more than once before finishing this story.

A powerful, mesmerizing story, The Girls At 17th Swann Street opened my eyes to this deadly disease and the paralyzing fear it holds over victims - taunting them with hopes of recovery and then jerking it and dreams of reclaiming their former life away. Sadly, the success and recovery rate are not great. The disease has devastating effects on victims and their loved ones - often ripping families apart as they struggle to understand "why" while watching the downward spiral of their afflicted loved one. I loved this book and all the girls living at 17 Swann Street. For a few hours, through Zgheib's lyrical writing, I became one of the girls living in the peachy-pink colored house at 17 Swann Street. I felt their pain, frustration, confusion, and hopelessness. I prayed with and for them and dared dream of a brighter future for each of them.

The Girls at 17th Swann Street is a beautiful, heart-felt read that will go on my Favorites Shelf. This book is brilliantly written - an intimate, heart-touching, and thought-provoking story of a woman's mission to reclaim her life by defeating a disease suffered by women of many ages. But more than that, it's a story and journey I promise will touch and possibly change you. I know it did me. You don't want to miss this one. I look forward to more from this talented author. A Must Read!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC for my honest review.
This was a beautifully written emotional story written about mental illness and more specifically anorexia and other eating disorders. Anorexia is the main focus as we are taken on the journey with Anna as we see how she became obsessed with her weight and how her emotional state is erroded to believing she will never be enough.
We learn about anorexia and how it is a constant struggle, how overall health and relationships are affected. You will become emotionally involved with the characters and possibly she's a few tears.
I recommend this book for those that want an emotionally engaging story and one that feels genuine.

This was such a heart breaking story of a woman's journey with an anorexia. The author did an incredible job at describing this illness. Anna an accomplished dancer in her early 20's begins the spiral into anorexia when she is reminded that she needs to lose a few pounds so she has more opportunities in dancing. When Anna and her new husband have an opportunity to move to America from Paris things just get worse for Anna. She can't find a dance studio that will take her or a job. Her husband is busy with his new job and doesn't see that Anna is wasting away until he finds her passed out in the bathroom. Anna confronts her battle at 12 Swann Street, a treatment center for women with eating disorders. She is surrounded by other women also struggling but they have a pact that supporting each other is a house rule. This is not a story where everyone gets better and goes home but a story of real life struggles with an eating disorder and how they are just trying to get through the next meal. This is a story of heart break, loss, true love and never giving up hope.

Five heartbreaking, emotional, powerful stars to this beautifully written novel!
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
The Girls at 17 Swann Street is an intimate and raw look at eating disorders. Anna enters the treatment house weighing in at an astonishing 88 pounds. This novel is beautifully written, showing the slow buildup to the disease that eventually took over Annas life, her recovery process in the treatment home, and her clinic file with assessments and stats. Through Anna and the other residents, the reader gets a glimpse into the struggles they face with food and their bodies. The author did a fabulous job showcasing how previous trauma can affect ones brain and the subsequent mental health struggles because of it. This was an authentic look at a disease that many people in the world face and I’m a better person for having read it. I’m impressed with this debut author and am looking forward to reading more from her in the future. For me, The Girls at 17 Swann Street was ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 stars. Thank you @stmartinspress for this advance reader in exchange for my honest review.

I received The Girls at 17 Swann Street by Yara Zgheib as an ARC from NetGalley. This book tells the story of Anna and her struggle with anorexia. After her health deteriorates her husband, Matthias is forced to send her to a treatment center. I don't know much about anorexia so I learned a lot from this book. The book focuses on Anna and the other girls in the treatment center and what they are going thru in the quest to beat the disease.

Not my usual genre,at all,but one I have often wondered about.
This is the story of Anna and what exactly it means to be anorexic.
There appears to be help available for those who grab hold and don't let go,but others that either don't grab for that help or no one that cares if they do.
You'll find yourself laughing crying and maybe both at the same time and praying mightily for anyone that you might know that has this condition.
Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review "The Girls at 17 Swann Street" by Yara Zgheib.

Anna Roux of Paris succeeded in her dream of becoming a ballerina, despite the fact that she didn't have the ideal body type or physique. Her lover Philippe (who she was having an affair with) scrutinized her every bite. If only she would diet a bit more, exercise harder, she would be awarded with the best ballet roles. But, he didn't really love Anna and she was never good enough. It never became more clear than when she saw Philippe saunter into a party with his arm around the perfect waist of his wife Natasha. Then one day at ballet rehearsal, light-headed from dieting, Anna collapsed and injured her knee.

It's over three years later and Anna has a loving and dedicated husband, Matthias. They have emigrated from Paris to America for Matthias' job. However, when Anna applied to a local ballet troupe she was politely turned down. She spent months getting in shape, but did not manage to find any job openings in dance. She wound up working as a cashier in a supermarket... but her real career is anorexia. And now Anna is a patient in a home for women with eating disorders at 17 Swann Street.

Because I love to eat (too much!) I had difficulty appreciating just how frightening and hard it was for patients like Anna to eat. There are strict rules at 17 Swann Street, and a schedule of vitals, weigh-ins, meals and snacks. The bathrooms are locked and you must ask permission. These girls are literally scared to death as they sit in front of the meal their nutritionist set out for them, wrapped up in plastic with their name upon it. Oftentimes the only way to get through eating each morsel is to get lured into someone's conversation or keep reciting a familiar poem in your head. Anything to get your mind off of the impossibility of eating all this food...even if it's just a half a bagel with hummus, yogurt, carrots and fruit. The guilt afterward creates a burning in the stomach. And then there's the anger at eating a bagel and cream cheese when it took so long to build up the walls to stop liking it so much. If you don't eat every bite you'll be forced to drink a nutritional supplement, and if worse comes to worse, you'll be fed by nasogastric tube. The ways that a body is adversely affected due to malnutrition is very sobering, such as loss of menstrual periods, bone and skin issues, extreme sensitivity to the cold.

So, why did I give this just three stars? Let me count the ways. Firstly, any dialogue followed the annoying trend of having no quotations with mention of who's speaking, which consistently caused me confusion. Secondly, there were italicized passages interspersed throughout the story backtracking Anna and Matthias' relationship that cropped up randomly, leaving me discombobulated as to where I was in the story. Thirdly and lastly, while I appreciate the plight of the unfortunate people with eating disorders, I just felt a detachment to this story. It's a very interesting topic, but perhaps the writing style couldn't bring it home for me. There have been a lot of positive reviews of this book, so maybe I'm just an outlier.

This book is a deeply moving look at one form of mental illness. I did not know that genesis of this story, but was not at all surprised when I learned of it. All while reading I felt that this was too real to be purely fiction. The author takes you right along on the journey with her. Each and every challenging meal, therapy session, revelation, loss and walk is as if we are there on the sidelines. Eating disorders, like so many mental illnesses are so poorly understood and not treated as other illnesses are. If it cannot be diagnosed under a microscope it isn't a disease and people just need to buck up or toughen up. That is so not the case and this author allows us a gentle, tough loving intelligent peek into the looking glass. It isn't a simple "just eat something" and move on. Mental illness is so painful, not only for the person who is ill and suffering, but for everyone in his or her orbit. I urge anyone who does not understand any form of mental illness to read this book. Not only is the story engaging, but it is beautifully written.

An acute painful glimpse into anorexia. Zgheib spares nothing by demonstrating the challenge and health ramifications from this chronic illness.

Anna is a young woman caught in the snare of anorexia. Daily she fights the battle to eat or not. Zgheib tells a tale of sufferers enduring a marathon with this condition. Anna is aloof, however, her sparse portrayal is fitting. Her back story is not a surprise as we learn of her spiral with anorexia.

Other characters were entertaining and their development felt like young ladies in a treatment center, again a feel of aloofness fitting

Good solid story. Respectfully Zgheib approaches anorexia with great consideration. A frightening condition, enlightening story filed with empathetic characters.

My only complaint- the repetition of “17 Swann Street” referenced throughout the story, grated on my nerves after a bit.

Raw story, I recommended.