The Girls at 17 Swann Street by Yara Zgheib appealed to me immediately because of the premise involving mental health, specifically eating disorders. As someone who struggles with depression, anything mental health related will probably get my attention, especially if the story is crafted in an intriguing way which this one is thanks to the main character’s backstory.

Take a look:

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 down anorexia and depression till she weighs a mere eighty-eight pounds. Forced to seek treatment, she is admitted as a patient at 17 Swann Street, a peach pink house where pale, fragile women with life-threatening eating disorders live. Women like Emm, the veteran; quiet Valerie; Julia, always hungry. Together, they must fight their diseases and face six meals a day.

This book looks at anorexia and what contributes to this disease. Anna’s story will bring tears to your eyes, it’s very emotional and incredibly well written. A heavy subject matter, yes, but this book is a must-read.

Due out in February 2019

This is a raw, authentic (and, at times, heartbreaking) look at the struggles one goes through when battling anorexia. Anna is realistically drawn. The parts pertaining to her residential treatment didn’t feel as accurate, however, at least not in America with the way insurance tends to work. Treatment plans and case notes added to the story and were realistic. The author definitely sheds light on a rarely discussed eating disorder, educating the reader along the way. The author also shows the impact anorexia has on loved ones.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy from NetGalley, but I wasn’t required to leave a positive review.

THE GIRLS AT 17 SWANN STREET is an aching — at times uncomfortably so — portrait of a young woman in the throes of a debilitating eating disorder. On her journey back to health (or something like it), she struggles mightily with herself and learns lessons from the other women in her recovery center. The ending was wrapped up a little neatly for my tastes, but Anna's story will stick with me.

Such an emotional book that really showed the depths of eating disorders. So many people I feel look at an illness such as anorexia and thing “why don’t you just eat?” There is such a stigma around eating disorders and this book is exactly what those people need. It shows how severe the illnesses are. This book flowed well, was emotional, and the characters were relatable. An awesome book that will definitely have an impact in 2019.

Anna is wasting away. Her husband has ignored that she is starving herself to death until he finds her passed out in the bathroom. When she goes to the Dr at his urging, Anna weighs only 88 lbs. At the Dr’s urging, Anna is sent to an inpatient rehabilitation center. Her time at 17 Swann Street is eye-opening. Can Anna let the staff and therapists, along with the other girls, help her reclaim her life? Or will Anna be destined to be a regular?

Anorexia has always been one of those disorders that people dislike talking about. It isn’t talked about enough. Anorexia and bulimia (as well as compulsive overeating and other food/exercise related disorders) need to be talked about. They shouldn’t be swept under the rug. This disorder needs to be front and center. It needs to be talked about.

I sat and read this book within 2 hours. I didn’t plan on sitting and reading it in one sitting. It just happened. The Girls at 17 Swann Street is a fast read. It is an emotional read too. At one point, I was mad at myself because I didn’t have a box of tissues on hand to wipe my eyes. What got me was how raw Anna’s emotions were.

I will point out that the book is written in a way that might annoy some people. It would have annoyed me if I wasn’t so taken with how the book began. The book goes between past and present with little warning. I would normally moan and groan about that but not this time. It actually worked with this book. The author was able to flawlessly go between present and past. The only issue I had was reading the clinical observations. I want to say that they were supposed to be the beginning of chapters. But because the formatting of the book was off, they ended up being in the middle of the book.

I liked how Anna’s time in the program was realistic. She had her good days and her bad days. She made progress and she regressed. There were times in the book, mainly when the stuff happened with Valerie, that I thought she wasn’t going to make it. That she was going to be a regular.

The girls in the program touched my heart also. The background that was given on some of them was heartbreaking. I also felt for the staff. They had to counsel the girls. They had to force them to eat. They had to insert feeding tubes for the ones that refused. It must have been so draining for them. But they came back day after day to help those girls.

I liked the statistics that were sprinkled in throughout the book. There were some that I didn’t know. There were some that made my heart hurt.

I also liked how the author showed how Anna’s progression into anorexia was. From the impossibly high standards that the ballerina world holds to the ex-boyfriend who was cruel about how much Anna ate to the anxiety and guilt over her brother’s death, it was all there. It also showed that Anna’s husband chose to ignore how skinny she was getting. Chose to overlook her only eating apples and lettuce. Chose to overlook her excessive exercising. Chose to overlook those things until it was almost too late.

The ending was what kept this book from being a 5-star review. It seemed too perfect. I am not going to get into why it seemed too perfect. All I have to say is that I was kinda “meh” about it. It was not real life.

I gave The Girls at 17 Swann Street a 4-star rating. This was a fast, emotional read. While I didn’t mind the way the book was written, I do think that some people would have an issue. I would suggest reading with a box of tissues nearby. The only thing I didn’t like about the book was the ending. It was too perfect.

I would give The Girls at 17 Swann Street an Adult rating. There is sex (not graphic but there). There is language. There is no violence. There are trigger warnings. They would be mental illness, eating disorders, talk of rape, the death of a sibling.

I would reread The Girls at 17 Swann Street. I would also reccomend this book to family and friends.

I would like to thank St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review The Girls at 17 Swann Street.

All opinions stated in this review of The Girls at 17 Swann Street are mine.

**I chose to leave this review after reading an advance reader copy**

This is an interesting book but unfortunately I just couldn't relate to it. I felt sympathetic towards the girls but it felt unreal to me.

I received an arc copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for my honest opinion of it. It was just okay for me. I found myself skipping parts because it just seemed to drag on. The storyline of women with anexoria was good and they truly cared about each other but I really didn't care for the parts where Anna was looking back.

When I got this book, I thought it sounded interesting, but had no idea what I was in for. I let it sit on my "To Be Read" shelf for WAY too long. Once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down.

What a wonderfully written book. I was immediately connected to the main character, Anna, even though I had very little, if anything, in common with her. I was curious to understand her and what she was going through as she dealt with anorexia nervosa. I didn't understand the disease-at all- and the author did an amazing job of educating the reader without seeming academic. I wanted to keep reading to learn and understand more.

Educational, entertaining, emotional... I loved it and would definitely recommend.

I just finished an ARC of The Girls at 17 Swann Street by Yara Zgheib. It was heartwrenching & painful, but you cheer for the girls with every victory, big or small. Possibly a trigger for those suffering eating disorders, but an in depth look to help readers understand the challenges of both anorexia and bulimia. The author has applied her own experiences to her writing, giving the story authenticity.

A harrowing novel about a twenty-six year old Parisian girl battling anorexia. Once I started reading this book, I could not put it down.

It opens up with Anna, the main character, as she checks into 17 Swann Street, a residence that provides treatment to women with eating disorders. The name "Anna" is not random, many sufferers refer to anorexia as "ana".

The illness, the center, and the characters are depicted in a complex and compassionate light. The author did and excellent job describing the emotional process, I felt connected and captivated by this story.

Overall, I loved this book and recommend it to readers of contemporary fiction as well as those interested in subjects dealing with mental health.

Received ARC from the publisher via Netgalley

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book and hesitated in starting to read it because of that uncertainty. I am so glad I read this book! It is difficult to explain how compelling the characters are in this book. They are young women...they have a debilitating disease. In very real terms we learn just how eating disorders affect the person and those around them. What we THINK we know.....and what we learn are different. The main character is Anna who was a Parisian ballerina, which in itself is a very demanding profession on a body, and so while living her dream, she begins a nightmare. She marries Matthias and they are very much in love. One problem and another after another brings her finally to a rehab facility to deal with her anorexia nervousa. What she discovers while there makes her face the hardest decisions of her life...to live....to love. The way the author takes the reader back in time and into current time to better understand is great! A very emotional read, well worth the tissues needed! I was given an ARC of this book by NetGalley, author and publisher in return for an honest review, which this has been.

This was a sometimes sad look into the life of a woman suffering with anorexia. It sometimes seems everything works out a little too perfectly but it was still a good story. It is an important look at an issue that needs to be discussed.

The Girls at 17 Swann Street is an in depth look at anorexia. The thought process and the struggle is written out so well that you can actually feel what they feel. While at times, it is a hard read, you can't help but cheer for them with every bite. Anna and Matthias signify what "in sickness and in health" truly mean. This was a great story with some very interesting characters.

Quite a difficult read in some ways. I cannot imagine what anorexia is like. This book goes some way into describing the mental anguish behind this terrible disease. I did not really feel that this was a novel in a lot of ways, more a guide.

What attracted me to this book was the fact that it was about a ballerina. Anna, the ballerina suffered a knee injury and had to be sidelined for a while and was suffering from anorexia. Anna and her husband, Matthias, were living in Paris and he was offered a job in the United States which he accepted. Once in the US, Anna enters a residential treatment center for eating disorders at a weight of 88 pounds. There are 6 other women in the center with eating disorders. I was disappointed in this book. I did not care for the characters and/or the people working at the facility. I had a hard time getting into this book and I am not sure how accurate the treatment delivered at the center was. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

As a parent whose daughter struggled with an eating disorder, this is a book I wish I would have read before my daughter turned 13. With the sensitive strokes of one who has lived through anorexia, the author paints another layer onto my portrait of understanding this often misunderstood disease.

Anna Roux, a former ballet dancer, has checked into an eating disorder’s facility on 17 Swann Street. At 26, she feels as if she’s 62, and her starved brain no longer makes rational decisions. When she joins the girls at 17 Swann Street, the answer to the question of whether or not she’ll live hangs in the balance. No every girl will make it.

Anna’s telling of her story is interwoven with clinically dry reports from her care providers. On the intake form, she lists her occupation as cashier at a supermarket, but acknowledges that her real occupation is anorexia.

This is a must-read book for those who have a family member that struggles with an eating disorder or anyone who has a family member with a high ACE (Adverse Childhood Experience) score. Knowledge is power—and learning about the psychology behind anorexic thinking through the eyes of one who suffers helps us understand our role in helping someone recover.

Pretty Bummer: Yara Zgheib’s debut novel The Girls at 17 Swann Street Cuts Close to Bone

Like many writers, Aristoleatafternoontea.com blogger Yara Zgheib writes from experience. Her self-published 2012 memoir, Biography of a Little Prince, is about the seven years she spent with her little brother before he died. Her debut novel, The Girls at 17 Swann Street, is based on her life (according to her publisher) and it reads like the short story/memoirs that come out of creative writing college courses–which I know sounds like a dis but what I mean is her work rings true in way that only a writer having lived through it could.

Although there are many female characters in The Girls at 17 Swann Street, the story centers in the sadness that is Anna Roux in bedroom five, what she calls the Van Gogh Room. An ex-pat, ex-dancer, ex-eater, and former lover of life, she’s down to 88 pounds and prone to fainting when she checks in to the eating disorder facility at 17 Swann Street in St. Louis, Missouri, a place where women go to unpack their illness, receive help and monitored meals, and learn to survive in their skin.

Parisian Anna and her scientist husband Mattias moved to the midwest when he was offered a job and she just sorta lost her way, her purpose. After not getting hired by the local ballet company, she started running to lose a few and by trying not to eat all day out of boredom, she controlled the little she could control in her life and this coping mechanism turned into behavior she could not change. The willpower to starve diminishes your body then your brain and then You Just Can’t Eat.

“There were signs: foods I slowly stopped eating, dresses I slowly stopped putting on. They got too loose, and I have nowhere to wear them anyway. Waiting for Matthias to come home from work so I would not have to eat alone. When he did: Any luck today, Anna? He eventually stopped asking. Eventually, I also stopped searching. And Dairy, and answering the phone. And wearing makeup, but at least I wasn’t fat anymore.”

“Then bones stick out. Hair and nails fall out. Everything hurts and it is cold. Past the hundred-pound mark. Ninety-five pounds. Ninety-three. Ninety-one, eighty-nine.

Eighty-eight.”

Lyrical with formulaic drama involving the other patients and LESSONS LEARNED, of course, and some oddly untouched trauma that floats into the story and remains unpacked (when it would seem to be rather important), The Girls at 17 Swann Street is a solid retelling of the recovery story.

Wendy Ward
http://wendyrward.tumblr.com/

"She just looks very sad. And like most anorexics she looks like she is trying to starve the feeling out."

The Girls at 17 Swann Street was a heartbreaking and eye-opening book on the subject of eating disorders, anorexia to be specific. The book starts with our main character, Anna entering into a home for people that need the most help. They have people fighting for them in their corner, Or at least some do. Anna has her husband, Matthias that wants her and wants her healthy. The woman he fell in love with. And he will do anything to get there too. Even give her up and put her in a home 45 minutes away from their home together. Unfortunately she has programmed herself when it comes to her feelings of food. And that is the part that is hard to watch and be a witness to.
This story is hard to review and was hard to read, but it was thoughtfully and carefully written by a debut author that obviously has a good knowledge of the subject matter. The home at 17 Swann is filled with other women in the midst of different steps to their recovery. Some have been there months, years and some just want death to take them away. To see their health disintegrate before by eyes by the words on the page? Horrifying in the most sad of ways.
A few issues I had were the way the dialogue was represented. It was always in italics which confused me a little. Nothing was in quotes and I felt like when the dialogue was in italics it was almost like a thought as opposed to something said out loud. That is just something small, but something that didn't feel right, yet didn't take away from the story too much. The other thing was the speed of Anna's recovery and the way the Care people moved her on to the next Steps when I honestly didn't feel like she was ready for it. Perhaps this was for the pace of the story, but again, just a small issue.
But there were more parts that stuck with me and that I thought were unique to this story. I liked that they included blurbs of the doctors notes at certain points throughout the book. It helped us see Anna's process and the way the doctors felt her progression was going.
Anorexia is a difficult disease and it's ugly. Yara Zgheib did a good job of writing it in a way that was real and still held a light at the end of the tunnel. Even if you are doing it for someone else rather than yourself, we got to see the way one might want to cure themselves. Overall a solid debut. 3.5 stars

The Girls at 17 Swann Street tells the story of woman who is admitted to an inpatient facility for those struggling with eating disorders. I have a (perhaps strangely specific) love for reading books where characters are confined together in an unusual setting, so I was instantly drawn to the description of this book.

It was easy to quickly become invested in Anna's story as you follow her progress as she becomes acclimated to her new surroundings. I enjoyed reading about her relationships with others in the house and the unspoken rules for survival.

The writing style may take getting used to for some, but I found it fairly comfortable after a few chapters. And while I enjoyed the pacing of the the first three quarters of the book, I found the ending a bit rushed. Overall, this was a quick and interesting read for me. I'd definitely pick up another book by this author.

Thanks to Netgalley for offering me an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

The Girls at 17 Swann Street was very intense. Although I have my own issues with food, I could never get a grasp of what an anorexic person was going through. This book gave me a much better understanding. There was so much to be sad about for these women, I was happy when they were happy. I loved the little things they did to help each other get through another day. I highly recommend for anyone who needs to improve their understanding of anorexia.