The Girls at 17 Swann Street by Yara Zgheib is a portrait of one woman’s life as she battles anorexia nervosa in an in-patient treatment facility.

The Girls at 17 Swann Street was a tough but incredible read. Startling real, this book rubbed my emotions raw and had me reaching for the tissues on more than one occasion. Beautifully written and well-paced, this book provided an intimate look into a terrible disease.

I think what I liked best about The Girls at 17 Swann Street was how realistic it felt. It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t cute. It didn’t glamorize the disease. It painted a picture of the struggle–the daily struggle–of an anoretic who wants to be a little smaller, a little slimmer, a little less fat. The book shows firsthand the internal struggles someone with the disease might face–the dilemma over something as simple as a bite of yogurt or a scoop of ice cream.

The main character, Anna Roux, is strong. She’s battling a vicious monster, but she’s still strong. Supported by a wonderful husband (seriously, this guy should be everyone’s husband goals), she fights the internal dialogue that plagues her. When she first checks into in-patient care, she’s resistant. She likes the disease–finds comfort in it. But soon she realizes she has a life worth fighting for.

Anna’s struggle isn’t easy. It’s messy and heart-wrenching. Along the way, Anna befriends other women in the treatment center who face similar battles. She finds strength where she can and keeps herself moving forward.

I liked the book’s ending. It provided a good sense of closure, while at the time not being all “puppies and rainbows,” which would have felt out of place. I think this was a very suitable ending.

The audiobook execution was spot-on, narrated beautifully. I think the narrator did a fantastic job capturing the emotions of the book.

This book is one big trigger warning for eating disorders, but I’m so thankful I read it and would highly recommend it to others. Both the book and audiobook were wonderful.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing the Kindle version of this book and Macmillan Audio for providing the audiobook version of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What an emotional, relevant debut novel! So much of what we see in the media right now is about weight loss, and we don't focus on the flip side--eating disorders. This book  is a heartbreaking look at the psyche of an anorexic--Anna, a former French ballerina who enters a treatment facility.  I enjoyed the character development in this book as well as Anna's relationships with the other girls. They celebrated each other's success and supported them through their struggles. A well written read you can't put down!

Certainly not a light read, The Girls at 17 Swann Street deals with anorexia; a disease that is very real and can take your life if you aren't careful. 

The Girls at 17 Swann Street is an honest, unflinching, but fundamental hopeful portrayal of anorexia and the struggles of recovery. Anna enters treatment at the beginning of the novel primarily at the persistence of her husband, who is at the end of his rope and fearful that he wouldn't be able to keep her alive on his own. She is resistant to the idea of treatment at that time, filled up with fear and denial.

Anna doesn't feel the treatment center really knows what she needs. After all, she's been fine up till now. So what that she doesn't eat. So what that she doesn't find anything fun anymore because she's so worried about the food she isn't eating. She can handle it on her own. That is just the attitude she goes in with but what comes after will bring tears to your eyes. For Anna's bravery, is beautifully written and portrayed by the author. 

I fell hard in love with this book and the writing style. The emotional connection I felt toward Anna was instant. There was no judgement towards her; just sorrow, encouragement, and joy. Everyone from the staff to Anna's husband, Matthias, as well as the other girls,  were all so supportive of each other. They really looked out for one another and that made me smile. Through all the emotions you feel as a reader while reading Anna's story, you also feel joy and happiness at all the things she goes through. Every mountain she climbs is just another reminder that anything is possible if you just give yourself a chance. 

Such an amazing story I will read over and over again.

This book is a story about Anna, a French girl who suffers from anorexia, and her journey to recovery after being admitted to an inpatient clinic at 17th Swann Street. She is immediately distressed from being separated from her love Matthias but eventually adapts, developing friendships with the other residents, while struggling through the medical care and meals she is required to eat. The story does reflect back on Anna’s life before having an eating disorder. It is told as if she is grieving for that previous life, to be that girl again, and as a reader you are sucked in emotionally. 

Clearly the author researched the disease well, and what the treatment for anorexia entails. I had no real prior knowledge of how anorexic patients behave or the effects on the brain and organs. I found the topic of anorexia to be very interesting and not a common theme among fiction books.

I did get very emotional reading the book towards the end. The author takes you deep inside Anna’s mind and her battles through every meal and the struggles of overcoming the disease for a life she wants so desperately to return to. Her love for Matthias felt very honest and real. I was anxious to find out where Anna’s journey would take her. 

It was a beautiful book overall. 

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and #Netgalley for an advanced e-book copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Girls of 17 Swann Street is a beautifully heartbreaking debut novel. Anna, a dancer is committed to inpatient treatment for anorexia nervosa. The story follows her treatment and relationship with the other patients, Direct Care and food, along with vivid memories from her past. The result is a deeply emotional masterpiece, with no choice but to root for Anna and her future.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for approving my request to read this E-ARC in exchange for my honest review. 

I am little intimidated to leave a review for this book, not because I didn't like (because I definitely enjoyed it) but because I don't want to minimize those individuals out there that have struggled with an eating disorder. 

I was pleasantly surprised about how drawn into Anna's story. I don't think I've rooted for anyone, been so disappointed and so overjoyed for a character until meeting Anna. Her journey with Anorexia Nervosa was a long and difficult one. It hurt to see her struggle because I know that this story, while fiction, is real life for so many out there. I loved how each of the girls at 17 Swann St. looked out for one another "because that's what they do", but I wish that no one had to experience this reality at all. 

I loved the writing and think Zgheib did a wonderful job conveying what it's like to struggle through an eating disorder. Everyday food items that we take for granted, really caused these girls angst. I couldn't imagine walking in their shoes, but I am grateful for this experience. 

I'm interested in hearing from someone who has truly struggled with an eating disorder, on their take of the events of this book. Is this close to a real life experience? Is the treatment plan the same? How do you feel about Anna's feelings? Matthias's feelings? Emm's feelings? So many things to pick apart here but I really enjoyed this book.

The  Girls at 17 Swann Street is the riveting debut novel written by author Yara Zvheib.  

The imagery is written with so poetically and emotion that it is difficult to put it down.  We begin with Anna as she begins the journey to save her life that has slowly being destroyed by anorexia.  She has admitted herself at the desperate coaxing of her husband in the house at 17 Swann Street, where she and other women with varying eating disorders go to learn how to cope with their disease.  It's tragic and eye-opening to learn that some of these women that she can relate to have been 17 Swann Street for years, some leave because they are healing, some leave by other means less hopeful.

Anna is madly in love with her husband Matthias.  And she is madly loved by Matthias, her father, and her sister.  But, the anorexia has damaged those relationships.  They don't understand that it is simply not a matter of Anna refusing to eat, more so that she is terrified to eat.  She does not see a beautiful reflection worthy of their love when she looks in the mirror.  She is not perfect enough to be Matthias wife.  The anorexia has taken away most of her ability to feel anything, except anxiety.  

For Anna, it's not a matter of simply getting through each day, but getting through each bite.  In order to overcome her disease, she must be willing to accept that she has problem, to accept the help from the therapist, the nutritionist,  the girls at 17 Swann Street, Matthias, and her family.  She must realize that all of these people are rooting for her and not against her.  Anna must decide, if she wants to live or let the anorexia kill her.

This is a novel that many will relate to and maybe save lives.  This is a novel that has the power to bring awareness to the dangers of eating disorders, body image, body shaming, and the effects of unmourned grief.  This is a novel that shows the power of women lifting each other up, the power of love, and the power of hope.

Thank you to Net Galley and St. Martins Press for allowing me to read and review this tragic, beautiful, wonderful, heartbreaking, emotional, inspirational, riveting book.

This is a character driven book that makes you very attached to each of the characters. Even a side character that doesn't even talk. I was rooting for all of them to overcome their struggles and to build their relationships inside and outside of 17 Swann Street.

I will be honest, I had no idea what this book was about. I kept seeing it on everyones list of books to read. So when I saw it on NetGalley I jumped on it. Based on the cover I actually thought this was a thriller. However, I was pleasantly surprised by that it was not at all a thriller and that it was an adult contemporary about a woman with an eating disorder and her life after being dropped off by her husband for an inpatient program.

This book stresses the importance of family/friends and appreciating the love and help they give. It isn't all easy for the woman at 17 Swan Street either. Life is messy and brutal with an eating disorder and it does not sugar coat any of it.

This was a very good book. I was impressed with the author's ability to show the reality of eating disorders.

The Girls at 17 Swann Street is the haunting story of Anna, a former France dancer, who developed anorexia after moving to the United States with her husband. The book painstakingly captures Anna's journey through treatment. At times recovery seems hopeless, but it is up to Anna to find something in her life worth fighting the disease and living for.

This is a heart-breaking, yet beautiful story about recovery from a serious that is not often talked about.

This is the first book I can remember being told from the perspective of an anorexic.   It elicited a mix of pity, anger and confusion in me.  I mean, I understood the whole control issue intellectually, but this gives it to you from an emotional front.  

The chapters move between present day Anna, a history of how she arrived at needing treatment and the clinic’s assessment forms.  The balance of it all works well.  I would have liked to have seen a little more on how the earlier events in her life led her to succumb to this condition, but I also understand it could have made for a more awkward storyline.

The book also does a great job of showing the effects of the disease on an anorexic’s loved ones.  The fear of confrontation causes Matthias to constantly look the other way, to pretend everything is ok.  

The book doesn’t pull any punches.  You see exactly how hard it is to fight this disease and how not all manage to do so.  

This is an extremely well done debut novel and I will definitely seek out any future works by the author.

My thanks to netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advance copy of this book.

I was excited to read The Girls at 17 Swann Street, and this book did not disappoint!  It is the story of Anna, a former Parisian ballet dancer, who has developed anorexia, and her road back to recovery at 17 Swann Street, a treatment program for women with eating disorders.  The book focuses on the present, after Anna has moved to the states with her husband, Matthias, where he forces her to get admitted for treatment after finding her passed out, finally coming to terms with his own denial of their being a problem.  However, we get a look back, in snippets, of the gradual start of Anna's eating disordered back in Paris, with comments made about her body and what she put into it by a former lover, to slowly stopping to eat more and more types of food, and her increased restriction of food after following Matthias to Missouri for work in an attempt to deal with the lonliness and self-esteem issues that she has dealt with throughout her life.  It is told mainly through Anna's perspective, so you get a good sense of the thinking that goes along with anorexia, as Anna struggles to accept help for her eating disorder, and her ability to accept that it is a problem.  It clearly shows just how difficult eating disorders are to treat through Anna, and the other residents of 17 Swann Street.

This was not an easy book to read. It's about a woman who was severely anorexic and her experiences in a clinic to save her. She has to relearn body images, relationships, not just with herself, but a,so her husband. It tallies her setbacks, her inner struggles, and her triumphs,

“The course of treatment for anorexia is painful but not impossible. If you really want to recover, you will.”

I strongly recommend The Girls at 17 Swann Street; this book was exceptionally authentic, emotional, and poignant. I personally have struggled with eating (binge and purge), in my teens and heavily in my early 20’s. I could relate and sympathize so much with Anna and her guilt and feelings. I loved her character and didn’t want the book to end; I would love a follow up to be written to know how she is doing. 

“Anorexia nervosa makes the brain shrink; it cannibalizes itself. It must; it is starved but it must keep working. Gray matter must be sacrificed. My brain must have eaten up sections where my hope, ambition, dreams were. Thoughts like when, soon, tomorrow are fantasies I can no longer imagine.”

The residential treatment portion of 17 Swann Street was not very realistic to how residential treatment is or at least how I know it to be from working in residential myself. Insurance doesn’t like to pay for anything, stabilize and get the heck out, under the guise that the least restrictive means to treatment is the best when they may be pushing someone too quickly and the patient has not developed enough skills to move to intensive outpatient. I really enjoyed the case notes and found them to be extremely realistic to notes I have written when working in residential treatment as an addiction counselor. 

“Certain words and phrases here are inappropriate here. She calls them triggering. No talk of food or exercise, no mention of weight or calories. My disease is not to be mentioned by name; a vague eating disorder is fine. If I am sad and want to die, I should say I am struggling. If I want to run away, throw myself under a bus, then I am having an urge. If I feel fat or worthless or ugly, I have body image issues. These verbal gymnastics are to be applied at all times and to every subject.”

I can’t wait to read what Yara Zgheib comes out with next.

***BIG thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for allowing me to read The Girls at 17 Swann Street in exchange for my honest review.

What I love the most about reading is that you are always learning new things whether that was your goal or not, it just happens. Anorexia is one of those taboo topics that not a lot of people talk about. It's something that is always sidestepped and glossed over. Perhaps, that's why I was completely shocked by some of the things that were described in this book. I had no idea what someone with this disease has to go through and it made me feel so naive that it shocked me as much as it did. I don't personally know anyone going through this disease but if you do then READ THIS BOOK and even if you don't know anyone going through it, you should still read it. I was completely engrossed in the story and even though you wouldn't expect a book on this topic to be a page turner, then you are in for quite a surprise. It was also an amazing love story that had me tearing up and rooting for the relationship to succeed.

First, thank you to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for an ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review.
'Perhaps if she were lighter, danced better, tried harder, she would be good enough.'

 The book is about a 26 yrs old girl, Anna, suffering from anorexia nervosa and her past and present circumstances that led to this path, how her family, her husband are in denial until it is almost too late. This, intertwined with her present struggles to get better makeup for the plot of the book.
This is not an easy book to read. It has none of the candy floss you associate with the holidays, and yet I found it beautifully apt to reading in the new year. A book about wanting to start over, it is not easy to process and it does not glide over the unpleasant parts. I also ended up web researching food disorders - it is more common than we might assume. We can only guess at the past trauma (family tragedies, loss of career, upheaval to new country and the loneliness) and the social pressure to be thin, waif like that contributed to this disease. 

Anna and her friends at the house at 17 Swann Street make this a compelling read. It has the full cycle of initial Shock, despair, denial, guilt, acceptance, and subsequently, healing that any illness brings. We also can commiserate with Mathias, and how he blames himself for ignoring all the symptoms and hence, his wifes condition. He is a character I loved to see return(literally). The end wraps up the tangents as cleanly as possible in real life. And I was left wondering if I can also face my personal demons well in the new year. 4 stars!
#TheGirlsAt17swannStreet #NetGalley

The thing I love about reading ARCs is that I have a specific time to finish the book. I found the cover and the blurb interesting when I first got "The Girls at 17 Swann Street," but had it not been an ARC, it probably would have gotten buried with the dozens of other books that are on my "to read" list. I don't think I've ever read a book starring a character with an eating disorder, so I didn't have any specific expectation going into the book. The moment I started reading though, I couldn't put this book down and am very glad to have read it.

Anna Roux is diagnosed with anorexia and put into a house with other girls with eating disorders to put her own the road to recovery. The story is mostly told from her perspective, with a few clinical notes that show her progression in recovery. I enjoyed having the other perspective, as it gave a different insight into Anna. 

As book lovers, we know that the beauty of books is really being able to "live" another persons's life through reading. I don't think I could ever be anorexic-- I love food a bit too much and tend to stress eat. Growing up and then living in an Asian country where being thin was the expectation, I definitely had self-esteem and body image issues. I remember a few years back seeing websites dedicated to "thinspiration" and admittedly, being a bit jealous that I would never be able to attain a body type similar to that. Yara Zgheib creates an image of anorexia that is terrifying, haunting, and lasting. She really impresses upon the reader the psychological issues involved with anorexia, and reading the struggle was eye-opening. I haven't seen much about it recently, but I remember how "Thinspiration" websites were criticized for glamorizing anorexia-- Zgheib did a wonderful job taking away any possible glamour associated with this illness.

One star taken away for a bit of an abrupt ending- I felt like that this story could have gone so much farther. Not only that, many secondary characters kind of get lost in the story- none of the characters are nearly as developed as Anna, which makes reading about them a bit boring.

Definitely a worthwhile read- Thank you to Netgalley and  St. Martin's Press for the ARC of this book. Thank you Yara Zgheib for such an interesting novel.

Like any disease, anorexia sneaks up on tiptoes. Quiet as a lamb. Anorexia is not wanted and most patients express surprise that they have fallen victim to such a hideous illness. Once diagnosed, the patient is usually very near death. It takes no less than a miracle to “beat” anorexia, all the odds are in the opposite direction.

THE GIRLS AT 17 SWANN STREET is one of the most affecting stories I’ve ever read. It’s not just a tale of eating disorders, it’s a tale of women fighting for their self-identities. You may not have ever struggled with eating or body dysmorphia, but, I will go out on a limb here and suggest most readers will relate to the characters in the book. We all have those daily emotional battles fought in our own head, right?

Yara Zgheib has captured the emotions so beautifully, the book can only be read through the tears in your eyes. The language is delicate and poetic, it’s completely mesmerizing. This is not to say it is a sad book. I found it to be a story of hope, love and discovery. Absolutely riveting from the first page, I could not put it down. I would wholeheartedly recommend it to lovers of contemporary fiction or even self-help mental health fans.

Wow! What a debut by Yara Zgheib! 

While the subject matter was a little out of my wheelhouse, Yara Zgheib has created characters that are relatable and complex. The main character, Anna Roux's battle with depression and anorexia and the effect it has on both her and her loved ones is one that so many of us can draw parallels with. 

Ms. Zgheib writes with empathy and compassion, emotion and understanding and I can't wait to see more!

This is a very inside and raw look at what those who are battling eating disorders are dealing with. I learned a lot in this book regarding eating disorders and the mindsets of those who are struggling with them. In today's day and time and the body image that many young woman yearn for this is a very important look into a disease that can be very devastating. This is a very emotional book that you will find yourself flying through!