I got an ARC of this book.

So if you know me, you know that I love reading books about people with mental illness. I love feeling like I am not alone or broken. That my struggles really are struggles. That there are others out there that understand me. Who doesn't like feeling that way? I do not have an eating disorder, but a friend recently revealed to me that she does. I wanted to know a bit more about everything without burdening her with being my teacher. Reading this book is just one of the steps I am taking so I can learn and support her better. 

So this book was almost perfect for me. It had two major issues that got in the way of me rating this five stars. The first is hopefully going to be fixed before it is officially released in less than a month. That is the formatting. All the dialogue is done without quotation marks or designation of who is speaking, which sort of makes sense, but is also super annoying. It can be hard to keep track of who is talking at times, especially when getting used to that style of dialogue. It makes sense because everything is so blurred and unreal to Anna that it makes sense that having something like dialogue be that concrete wouldn't be fitting. So I can get behind it, but this is where the big issue is, but I need there to be an easier way to tell what is dialogue and what is flashback. They are formatted exactly the same. The whole flashback is in italics, but so is the dialogue in the flashbacks. There were points in the book where a flashback started on the same line as a dialogue so it took me forever to catch on that suddenly we were in Paris and it was years ago. So this formatting issue is huge. It often pulled me out of the story and made it so it just didn't flow. If I am constantly having to reassess where I am and when I am, then I am no longer immersed in the world. 

The second issue I had was the issue of the last chapter. I can get why it was there, but it wrapped things up too neatly for me. After all the statistics from the manual were given, I was hoping that it would be more open ended, leaving the idea of if Anna relapsed or not up to me. Leaving her in that vulnerable space for a bit longer for more impact at the end. Instead it was a HEA like you would get in a romance novel. It just felt odd and tacked on. 

The way the treatment center worked brought me back to my time in the psychiatric hospital. The way that the workers had no names only positions was YES. It made so much sense. I got so much more out of being around others in my position than I got from pretty much any professional in that setting. I remember hiding food in my room, just because I could, not because I even wanted it. The little acts of rebellion that gave me a high. I never did eat that peanut butter that I stole from the lunch room. The way that visitation worked. The way that everyone watched who did and did not have a visitor. So much of it felt so perfectly life like. It made me regress to those feelings. It made me remember every little detail of being in the hospital and what those small milestones meant. When someone you cared about, but never really expected to see again visits. The way that connecting with someone else feels, the way you feel when they relapse or when they get discharged. It was all so vibrant and fresh. It was perfectly written down to the condescending calling of all of the women "girls" in the weird power move that the professionals use to distance themselves from patients and to reinforce the power structure. It was just wonderful. 

I could go on forever about this book and what every single word did to me. I am a huge fan and I look forward to more books by Zgheib. She has a control of the story that was able to put this very intense internal struggle into light. The story us paced beautifully. It is slow, steady, often frustrating. It worked so perfectly with the feelings that Anna was having. 

I just have one question: was the name of Anna intentional? It could very easily be a play on the idea of the "my friend Ana" idea that you can find online if you are particularly into that idea (I have seen more people use it as a way to praise anorexia and encourage others to continue down the wrong path than people using it to help them heal, though I can only hope that has changed since I was last really in the eating disorder world).

I read this book in one day. This is a powerful debut for Yara Zgheib.  The Girls at 17 Swann Street is a poignant and devastating look at eating disorders and how they affect one's life and their loved ones lives as well.  

"I used to eat. I used to like to eat, then I grew scared to eat, ceased to eat. Now my stomach hurts; I have been anorexic so long that I have forgotten how to eat."

Anna Roux was a professional dancer who had to temporarily stop dancing due to an injury. She thought she would be able to dance again after she and her husband, Matthais moved to the United States for his job. Unfortunately, she was turned down many times and found a job as a cashier before succumbing to loneliness and depression while waiting for her husband to return home from work each day. She is anorexic and eating causes anxiety. She notes how her clothes are getting bigger and after her husband finds her unconscious on the bathroom floor, she enters a residential treatment center for women struggling with eating disorders.

Through the course of the book, the reader is shown case notes, eating plans and Anna’s thoughts. The reader is shown her past, her relationship with her husband, the ex-boyfriend who hurt her self-esteem and self-image, her family and her interactions with those at the residential treatment facility.

This is not a happily ever after book. I appreciated how the Author showed that this is something that will be a struggle for the main character throughout her life.  The Author showed us the characters unhealthy relationship with food, their mental health issues, self-esteem issues, body image issues, and the serious and life-threatening health issues that arise from having an eating disorder. 

I thought the author painted a very realistic picture.  She showed that there will be struggles, that relapse can occur that the thoughts associated with eating will not change overnight (and possibly may not entirely change), that this can be a lifelong battle.  I enjoyed how the story was told. I immediately felt concern for Anna and was invested in learning what would happen to her and how she would react to being in the treatment center.  

**Fact from NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness)
Studies show that 1 in 20 people will be affected at some point in their lives by an eating disorder.

**From Mental Health America
In the United States, 20 million women and 10 million men suffer from a clinically significant eating disorder at some time in their life, including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder or EDNOS.[1] (EDNOS is now recognized as OSFED, other specified feeding or eating disorder, per the DSM-5). 

Anyone can develop an eating disorder regardless of gender, age, race, ethnicity, culture, size, socioeconomic status or sexual orientation. 

People are usually quick to take care of their physical health, but one's mental health is just as important.  People should never be ashamed to ask for or seek help for themselves or for their loved ones. The stigma of mental health has been around for far too long and needs to stop. Eating disorders are extremely serious (as are all mental health issues) and people need to educate themselves.  I don't know anyone who would look down on someone for having cancer, diabetes or heart disease, we should also not look down on or make fun of those with mental illness. We should be kind, be supportive, offer to go to appointments with them, talk to them, learn from them, etc.

Overall, an enjoyable and haunting look at one woman's eating disorder and her time in a residential treatment facility. There are many books out there the deal with eating disorders and I found this to be a very good one that tells the story with compassion. I appreciated that things were not sugar coated nor were they brutally in your face either.  I am impressed that is a debut book. I found it to be well written and again, I enjoyed the style in which it was written. I found the case notes and meal plans to be a very nice touch.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.  The thoughts and opinions are my own.

I'm always super cautious whenever I read fiction where eating disorders are centric to the plot due to my own years long experience with them, so one of the best feelings ever is knowing that there's someone out there who's writing an authentic experience away from the frequently exploitative lens of Hollywood/young adult novels.  It's so easy to glamorize mental illness in general in fiction, but eating disorders specifically are portrayed as romantic and glamorous because "what a glamorous kind of suffering to endure."

This novel, however, hits you right in the face with the ugly bits.  It shows the reader what can happen if you succumb to your illness, but it also shows what has the possibility to happen when you want to recover.  Anna's journey is painful from beginning to end.  The reader is taken through an entire experience: Anna as she first enters the treatment facility as a bundle of anxiety and resentment, Anna as she improves and then falls, and Anna as she makes her choice about how to proceed in her life.  And what a beautiful experience it is.  Painful but beautiful all at once because it feels so raw and honest, and in my opinion, that's what makes some of the must human novels.

Occasionally, the formatting of the galley got a bit weird (indentation, paragraphs, and italicized passages), and I do think that that has to do more with the digital galley than the formatting of how it would be in a hard copy book.  I also got a little thrown by the first person/third person switches.  Sometimes I could tell that it was a narrative choice on Anna's part, but other times I wasn't sure if the third person narration was actually third person where the readers were outside of Anna's head.  It wasn't bad enough or confusing enough to make the book hard to read, but the choices were just a bit odd and not very clear in parts.

Yara Zgheib succeeds in giving us Anna.  How I wish I'd discovered this book as a young(er) adult when I was at my worst.  I only hope that there are others who can benefit from and connect with the novel, the characters, and its message, too.

Did you know that at least 30 million people of all ages and genders suffer from an eating disorder in the United States?

The Girls at 17 Swann Street tells the story of Anna, a young woman who suffers from anorexia and her stay at a treatment facility. 

Wow. This book has left me absolutely speechless, and yet I must try to convey how amazing this book was so that you will pick it up when it comes out next month. For starters, I loved the way this book was written. There was something lyrical and captivating about the style the author utilizes throughout the story. She also includes charts, eating plans, and medical notes that give you a very intimate look at 17 Swann Street. Anna is a character that I believe many will be able to relate to. As women, we are taught that skinny is beautiful. Images from the media are constantly reinforcing this idea. This book provides an honest, intimate, and raw look at life with an eating disorder. I also loved how the author showed how eating disorders affect the lives of those who love someone with an eating disorder. We mainly see this through Matthias, Anna's husband. We also see how lonely and isolating it is to live with an eating disorder, and how it's all about control. Although this was a fictional story, it felt so real and genuine. I absolutely loved this book, and you'll want to put it on your TBR for next month! For those of you struggling with body image issues, you are enough. You are beautiful. 5/5. Thank you Netgalley for the free e-ARC.

An achingly poignant story about the struggle to overcome eating disorders. It takes an in depth look at the emotional toll the disease takes on the individual and the people that love them. It is an eye opening tale that will break your heart, but also give you hope.

As a physician, I am aware of anorexia and its lasting effects on  the human body and psyche, but Yara Zgheib’s debut novel put heart and soul into my physician’s view of the disease. Zgheib’s prose is lyric, at times stream-of-consciousness and fully captures the Anna’s struggle. Told in present time with flashbacks to the early days of her marriage, before anorexia really set in, readers can see the contrast in Anna-before and Anna-after. When her husband finally takes her for inpatient treatment, she weighs a mere 88 pounds and subsisted on apples and popcorn. 

Anna meets several women in the treatment center on Swann Street and with their help and that of the staff—and of course, her beloved husband—Anna relearns to eat and appreciate the flavor of foods. 


The emotion in The Girls at 17 Swann Street was taut, real. This book frequently had me in tears.

Yara Zgheib has written a heart breaking, poignant debut novel that delves into the world of eating disorders and women yearning to break free.  It was difficult to read but beautifully written.  It would be an excellent book club selection. 

Anna and Matthias had a whirlwind romance in France, married quickly and with a wonderful job opportunity, Matthias moves them to the United States.  Matthias moves up the corporate ladder while Anna’s career goes nowhere.  She was an adequate ballet dancer in Paris until an accident cut her career short.  She works in a grocery store.  Her husband works late hours and she virtually has no friends.  Anna spends a lot of time reliving her past, thinking about how awful Phillip was and the difficult competitive nature of the ballet world.   She longs for children and a life much different from the one she currently has; she demonstrates her control through food.

The reader gets to see Anna and Matthias’ perspectives of their marriage and glimpses of their differing memories.  Anna’s disorder is tearing this loving marriage a part and Matthias refuses to give up on the wife that he vehemently loves.  At Matthias’ urging, Anna agrees to move to 17 Swann Street among other women battling eating disorders and seeking treatment.

This is a story about women bonding under the most difficult circumstances.  It’s about love, acceptance and freedom.

From the start, Yara Zgheib’s debut novel, The Girls at 17 Swann Street, is a seriously compelling novel. Even though the book left me feeling melancholy, I couldn’t put it down. This is a story of women battling eating disorders that are associated with depression and anxiety. It is told primarily from the perspective of a 26-year-old former ballerina named Anna Roux.

Anna’s story is center stage, and it unfolds in the past as well as the present. Present day, Anna, is a mere 88 pounds and still in denial about having an eating disorder. It was so painful to read of Anna’s illusions and denials about her health. Her drastic weight loss has left her memory hazy, but she periodically shares snippets of the challenges she faced in childhood, as an aspiring ballerina, and then as a scorned woman. Through budding relationships with the other women at the Swann Street facility, readers get a superficial glimpse at the what and whys of their respective challenges. The issues that lead to their eating disorders are maddening. Their current physical and mental states are tragic. I felt equally fearful and hopeful for the fates of each woman.

While some of the details of the circumstances of a facility like 17 Swann Street are highly fictionalized, The Girls at 17 Swann Street is about respectfully highlighting a serious mental and physical health issue. Readers get a little insight to this devastating illness through the daily weigh-ins, the anguish about eating “so much", and the fear of giving into the pleasure of eating. Not every woman will choose to try to win the battle, and those who do face the possibility of relapse after release. 

Anna’s story ends at a stated pivotal stage of the her post-release relapse period. Will she continue to choose to battle her demons or will she decide it is just too much? Eerily befitting, the first song I heard on the radio after I finished this thought-provoking book, was the Karen Carpenter hit, We’ve Only Just Begun (Ms. Carpenter died from complications related to her anorexia nervosa in 1983). That helped me decide that I was hopeful for Anna Roux and her loving, supportive family.

Received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This is not my usual type of read but I enjoyed this book for many reasons. The writing is exceptional and truthful. The characters portray actual every day people. Anorexia nervosa is a tragic illness and everyone needs to be aware of the fact that it doesn't just affect the person with the illness. I would recommend this book to all. Enjoy! 📚

It was an okay story. Read kind of slow, thought it would be more exciting, would have been nice to have more detail about all the girls, background stories. Some were told, some weren't

I do not cry over books.  I might tear up a bit, but seldom is there actual crying.  This  book made me cry, multiple times.

Anna was a ballet dancer, was living in Paris with her French husband, eating fine meals, drinking wine.  Ballerinas are pressured to stay thin, get even thinner, so eating habits had to change.  She also had lost some family members, tragically.  Anna did not choose to become anorexic; she did not consciously decide that 88 pounds was her ideal weight, or that fruit and popcorn  were her main food groups. It just happened as the disease aggressively and stubbornly took over her mind and body.

Now in Midwestern America, she goes for treatment at 17 Swann Street and so much happens in such a short time for her.  I was taken in by all the young women there and their daily struggles.  A very emotional  journey, for me at least.

A quote from the preview copy I read:  "Only 33% of women with anorexia nervosa maintain full recovery after nine months . Of those, approximately one-third will relapse after the nine-month mark."

Thank you to the publisher St. Martin's Press for offering me a copy through NetGalley. I will be recommending this one to all my reading friends.

The Girls at 17 Swann Street immediately caught my attention because of the subject matter. It's no secret that this is a book about a woman struggling with anorexia. However, the way this novel reads is unlike any other book about the subject that I've read. The book flows like a stream of consciousness coming from Anna, a 26-year-old woman with anorexia. In her words, the prose details her experience at 17 Swann Street, an in-patient facility for women with eating disorders. Anna, through her words, takes you through her story which goes backward at times to talk about her relationship with her husband, some of the factors that led to her eating disorder, and her current thoughts, fears, and dreams. Almost like a journal entry, she details how she literally had a breakdown over having to eat a bagel and cream cheese. The way she approaches food is so real to anyone suffering from the disease. The feelings and thoughts are heartwretching at times.

The book is just so real. I honestly couldn't put it down and devoured (pun intended) it in one sitting. Anna is driven by the love and dedication of her husband. Dealing with an eating disorder is hard, and this book does not shy away from that pain. However, it also provides hope. Between the interactions with the other girls at 17 Swann Street and her own life, this book grabs you and gets you invested in each of their stories.

I personally loved this book, but I think this is a book that the reader needs to know what to expect before picking it up. The expectation simply needs to be that this is a story of a woman dealing with anorexia, written in a stream-of-consciousness narration that is almost prose.

Eating disorders come in all languages and cultures.    Anna Roux is a ballet dancer from Paris who now lives in the USA with her husband, Matthias.  Matthias is a physicist who accepted an excellent position in St. Louis.  Anna, of course, followed him to America.

The couple is devoted to each other and enjoyed a lovely life in Paris and traveling to romantic places.  But now things are not good; Anna is suffering from Anorexia Nervosa.  We all have read about this and seen women in films portray the life of a person with this potentially fatal disease.

Anna agrees to enter a treatment center, 17 Swann Street. Deciding to join a treatment center is the first step, a tiny one.  The requirements, rules, agreements, restrictions, and lifestyle are challenging to say the least.

Anna's story comes together with stories of other women at 17 Swann Street.  The novel shares the experiences of these young adult women in a gentle and caring narrative.  All the tragedy presents itself, but I did not feel like a voyeur while reading their stories.  The book helped me understand what it might feel like, in real life, to face a disease that you didn't expect to have and seem unable to conquer.

I received an advanced copy of this novel from the publisher through NetGalley.

This book is really well done, but super tough. Anna is a young married woman who struggles with anorexia. This is her story about in patient care at 17 Swann Street. It pulls no punches, it is brutal in its honesty and detail. I would STRONGLY caution anyone who has struggled with their weight in any way against reading this book. I am a healthy mama of 4 and even I found myself having really dark thoughts snit my own body image and eating habits while reading. And, of course, it probably goes without saying that anyone who has actually had an eating disorder should give this one a hard pass. Mamas, do not hand this to your teenage or young adult girls. It's compelling and personal (you can tell by the author acknowledgments how personal it is), and well done, but not for everyone.

I started reading this book at 4am and finished it at 8:30am! This book is impossible to put down! It touches on a very important subject, Anorexia. I've never known anyone who suffers from it, but this book really makes the reader aware of this deadly disease. Very well developed characters and the author really did her homework.
I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley.
All opinions are my own.

I’ve read quite a few books about main character’s who have eating disorders. I find them very interesting and like to see the differences in portrayals. This one was extremely raw. At points I was very disturbed, but in the most eye opening way I ever have been in reading about this topic.

I felt like Anna was my actual friend and I was with her along her journey to beat her disease. Anna’s denial and fall backs made her such a real character to me. The other girls at 17 Swann Street were portrayed so differently, which went to show how each person is unique and has their own experiences.

Overall I thought this book was written in the most poetic, beautiful way. It was so easy to get drawn into Anna and her struggles. I was so fully immersed in this one it was hard to put down.

This is the story of Anna, a young woman who once was a ballerina. Anna has a beautiful family and an amazing husband and she also has anorexia. Anorexia ultimately takes control of her life and she finds herself at 17 Swann Street for inpatient treatment. This treatment is intense but includes the start of some beautiful friendships with other girls in treatment. I read this story with envy for her beautiful husband and marriage and pity for a disease that threatens to end all her happiness. This book educated me on what anorexia is and what it can do to a person although I will never truly understand what Anna went through. This book is a page turner and you won’t be able to put it down. I highly recommend this book. What a great start to 2019!

A very absorbing and insightful story of a woman with anorexia nervosa and her admission to 17 Swann Street, a rehab facility for women with eating disorders - both anorexia and bulimia. Anna Roux weighed only 88 pounds when she came to 17 Swann Street.  She was in her early 20's and had been a ballerina in Paris before she moved to St. Louis, Missouri with her husband who accepted a job offer there.  The girls at the facility are very supportive of each other and Anna is one of the lucky ones whose husband loves her and wants her to get well.

I liked the character development which allowed a peek into the lives of the girls and how they were coping in various ways - and how some were not really coping.  The descriptions of the routines were interesting:  gradually upping calorie intake; rules for meals and what happens when they don't follow the rules and eat everything they are fed; the various counsellors seen regularly.  The story was well written and flowed well.  I liked the progression of the story throughout.

I have always found eating disorders fascinating, so this book for me was insightful to the mental processes that can cause them and the work the patients have to achieve to attempt to conquer them.  It seems a truly difficult struggle to maintain any form of normalcy.  My heart goes out to those going through these diseases.

Thanks to Yar Zgheib and St. Martin's Press through Netgalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.  I really enjoyed the book.

The chocolate went first, then the cheese, the fries, the ice cream. The bread was more difficult, but if she could just lose a little more weight, perhaps she would make the soloists’ list. Perhaps if she were lighter, danced better, tried harder, she would be good enough. Perhaps if she just ran for one more mile, lost just one more pound.

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.

Yara Zgheib's poetic and poignant debut novel is a haunting, intimate journey of a young woman's struggle to reclaim her life. Every bite causes anxiety. Every flavor induces guilt. And every step Anna takes toward recovery will require strength, endurance, and the support of the girls at 17 Swann Street.

I have read quite a few novels about teens with eating disorders, but The Girls at 17 Swann Street was a little different. Anna is twenty-six, and 17 Swann Street is a women’s treatment center. I felt the author did an excellent job of showing how someone could suffer from these issues for many years but in some cases, the disorders may show up later.

The story is warm, heart-wrenching, and seems like a very realistic portrayal of life in treatment for someone suffering from an eating disorder. The friendships forged in treatment and the immense impact of having the support of one's family painted such a real picture of Anna's life.

This Is a very emotional read and can teach us all about mental illness and the struggle others to through to live with their illness and the struggles others go through to overcome their illness.  
I felt like Anna was one of my friends and at times I was sad, felt pain and happiness for her.  
Anna suffers from anorexia and lives in a center with other girls who are going through different kinds of illnesses.  We learn how they become friends and support each other.
This is written so great it's easy to imagine what Anna is going through each day.  I felt her pain, sadness, happiness and the different emotions she goes through.  It shows how an illness effects your family and the hard work it takes to rebuild those relationships.  
This is a book once you start you just can't stop reading.  
I was given a free copy through NetGalley but it was so good I purchased a copy to support the author.