Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for access to this title in exchange for my honest feedback.

I went into The Girls at 17 Swann Street with no background on the story, so it was rather surprising. I'm not sure I would have picked it up if I had known it chronicled a young woman's struggle with an eating disorder. The topic is difficult, but the story was not ultimately bleak. I did enjoy getting to know "The Girls." Sometimes it can be a good thing to go into a book without preconceptions, as it can open your eyes to stories you might not have explored otherwise. I would not recommend to anyone with any triggers around eating or eating disorders, however.

This was a really powerful and personal look at eating disorders, and I appreciated the nuanced portrayal of the women trying to recover. This is not an uplifting, happy ending book, but it was well worth the read.

Unfortunately I have been unable to finish this book and so a 3 star was the fairest rating to give.

I am not leaving a review due to the fact that this book did not interest me enough to finish the story.

This reads very much like a non-fiction book at times. There’s a ton of information about anorexia intermixed with the story. I liked having the background information tied in. It really made me get a better grasp on what Anna was going through. I think putting a face (or faces) of the girls at 17 Swann on the disease is helpful for those who have a difficult time grasping the struggles they go through.

I loved Anna’s interactions with the other girls. You could tell how kind and thoughtful she is. I was a little sad at how the girls were treated by staff. I can empathize with what they must go through and how cyclical the routine of it must be like, but it doesn’t make it any easier to read about.

Overall, it was a good, solid read. It definitely made me walk away with a little more compassion, empathy, and understanding about anorexia.

An honest and gut-wrenching look into the life of what it's like to struggle and recover from an eating disorder. We follow Anna as she is checked into 17 Swann Street which is an inpatient eating disorder clinic and see first hand her thoughts, emotions, and struggles. It was powerful watching all the girls in the house support and encourage each other as they all battle their demons. This is one of the truest to form look at the mind of someone who struggles with this illness that I have read. Wonderful story.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to read and review this book.

After losing and replacing my broken Kindle and getting a new phone I was unable to download the title again for review as it was no longer available on Netgalley.

I’m really sorry about this and hope that it won’t affect you allowing me to read and review your titles in the future.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
Natalie.

This book is a guy-wrenching depiction of eating disorders and the way young women are inundated with pressures. I was looking forward to it and it didn’t disappoint!!

This was a very interesting book. I really enjoyed feeling like I was a fly on the wall of it but also as if I was the one experiencing everything going on. I think eating disorders don't get a lot of attention and they should because the world we live in forces that life style down our throats. I would have liked to have seen or experienced more from the girl who was an over eater. I think that would be another interesting look at eating disorders to see the other end of the spectrum in more light. The treatment was a bit disturbing to me that they threw the girls right in forcing them to eat without doing some sort of evaluation first to try to see the underlying root of the problem but all in all it was a really good book.

The story about a girl dealing with the loss of her love of dancing and dealing with anorexia was emotionally difficult to absorb. The back-and-forth story line from Anna’s current time in the 17 Swann Street residential recovery program and her past was well written and flowed smoothly. The relationships Anna develops with other women in the recovery program are healing and allows her to see that others are experiencing the same thing she is. The support of the women is touching and crucial to their recovery.

This is an emotional and heart wrenching exploration into the lives of those battling eating disorders. While I have not personally experienced this, I have known several girls/women who have. It is a difficult journey for them as they learn to overcome their “disease.” Anna is very blessed to have her husband and father to support her. It is definitely something that helps her in her struggles.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

Anna isn’t eating, and she’s so weak that she faints from time to time. Her husband, Matthias is afraid for her; this isn’t the life they envisioned when they moved from France to the States. She is admitted to a facility for women with eating disorders, and it is that address that gives the book its title. Big thanks go to Net Galley and St. Martin’s Press for the review copy, and my deepest apologies for being so late with my feedback.

I never would have expected to want to read a novel about an anorexic protagonist. In real life, Anna would have offered me her fries and her dessert, and I would have cheerfully accepted them. She in turn would inwardly shudder, my stocky grandma body providing her with a cautionary example of what happens to those that eat such things.

When I was a sweet young thing growing up in the 1970s, there were rumors that some of the girls at school kept their figures slender by throwing up after they’d eaten; a friend and I commiserated over our own lack of self-discipline. We had scarfed down our Halloween candy and not even considered ralphing it back up in the bathroom. Now we could barely fasten our jeans, while those classmates were smaller than we were.

We thought that some girls have all the luck.

It wasn’t until the death of singer Karen Carpenter that anorexia became well known, and even then, it took us awhile to clue in on the details. Because it’s about body image, and yet it isn’t. And Zgheib does a wonderful job of educating the reader using that approachable medium, fiction.

In Paris, Anna was a dancer. When she and Matthias married, she planned to go on dancing professionally, at least until they had children. But when he was presented with a prestigious promotion that required him to relocate to the United States, they packed their things; Anna had expected to continue her career in America, but she was never chosen.

The in-patient facility where she is treated has strict, clear rules about every aspect of daily life, and most of the privileges hinge around timely consumption of the food that’s provided. Anna’s struggle is profound, and her story is moving. Because it’s about food, but not really. She has buried a trauma involving the deaths of her brother and her mother, and she’s channeled her self-hatred into this eating disorder. We catch glimpses of this as she expertly dodges questions raised in therapy. One of the most moving moments, strangely, has to do with a bagel and cream cheese. She’s supposed to eat it, and she throws a pluperfect hissy. She never eats dairy, she says. She wants the vegan option! No dice, honey. But as time moves forward and this difficulty continues, she finally reveals that actually, this might have once been her favorite food. It was so delicious, and it took her such iron self-control to forget its taste. All that work, she thinks, and now it’s ruined. And she is genuinely shattered by this.

Only one sufferer in three recovers from anorexia.

Due to a backlog of galleys, I checked out the audio version of this book from Seattle Bibliocommons, and the voice actor that reads it is perfect.

Highly recommended.

Touch topic of eating disorders. I had a hard time getting into this one though.
I hope others like it..just wasn't for me

Thanks to the publisher and Net Galley

The Girls at 17 Swann Street is the story of Anna, a young woman with anorexia who enters a residential treatment program at the titular address. I gave the book 3 stars and wish I could give it a higher score but there are parts of the book that I found to be lacking. i would have liked more of Anna's backstory--more details bout how and why she developed her eating disorder. More of the backstory of the other residents at 17 Swann Street would have been nice too--I didn't really feel a connection with any of them. Overall, it was just OK.

It's a great story about eating disorders and how they affect your life and the lives of your family. It's very informative.

What a wonderful book! With a subject as sensitive s as eating disorders, it would be easy for a book like this to fall short. But not this one! I loved the character development and the little but of romance. The relationship between the main characters and her husband is so sweet and authentic. Loved this book!

A compulsive read that takes you by surprise and drags you under. An emotional ride that was sad and complex. Deals with eating and mental disorders. Thank you to St. Martins press for my copy to review. All opinions are my own.

This isn’t the first novel to get “real” about eating disorders, and it won’t be the last. But it might be the most hopeful while still painting an accurate portrait such diseases, and that’s something to write home about.

Yara Zgheib gives us the story of Anna, a French ex-pat living in The U.S. and entering in-patient treatment for anorexia nervosa at the start of the novel. At the eponymous 17 Swann Street, we meet the caretakers and fellow patients who will become much of Anna’s world during her journey to recovery.

I was impressed by Zgheib’s thoughtful yet brutally honest depictions of both life in an in-patient program and the tribulations of eating disorders that are visited not just on the patients but also upon their loved ones, caretakers, and medical staff. (Full disclosure: I am by no means any sort of expert on eating disorders. I do not suffer from one nor am I medically trained to treat one. However, my mother is a psychotherapist specializing in anorexia and bulimia, so I know enough to recognize an accurate portrayal of the topic when I see it).

Zgheib did well in writing Anna’s character. She is in some ways one-dimensional, but that’s not the result of poor writing here. It’s because that’s exactly what Anna’s disease does to a person. It reduces them to no more than the disease, until they can begin to take steps toward recovery.

Also compellingly drawn were Anna’s husband Matthias, fellow patients Em, Valerie, and Julia, and of course, the tireless “Direct Care.” Though we know more about Anna than the others because we are privy to her inner monologue, the guilt Matthias suffers over Anna’s health as well as Em and Valerie’s personal struggles are equally heartbreaking yet poignant.

Though this isn’t an easy topic to read about, it’s an important one. And Zgheib has given us a story that, despite its raw and honest heartbreak, also leaves us feeling hopeful in the end.

Zgheib spares us some of the worst indignities that go along with eating disorders, but includes others, so readers who may be triggered by such content should be aware.

As a professional dancer, Anna Roux always thought that being just a little bit skinnier would give her her big break. Anna finds herself seeking treatment at 17 Swann Street where she forms relationships with the other women there.

Yara Zgheib's debut novel is emotional and well written. The characters are very real and genuine. The dialogue is well written and realistic. I highly recommend this novel.

I enjoyed this book. Although a fictional novel, it tells an important story of an anorexic young lady and her journey into treatment and healing. This is an important discussion for people to have, and more people should read this to bring awareness to this disease and the shame its sufferers endure.

This book was so good, it hurt.
The subject matter is definitely not for everybody as it deals with girls battling eating disorders and the traumas that led to them. I found myself wanting to finish the book quickly to meet a goal for 2019 but also not wanting to read it any faster because every line was just that good.

I wish I had read it back when I was approved to review it but life gets in the way sometimes. I am glad that I've now been able to read it even though it was an emotional ride and I can't wait to see what else Yara Zgheib brings to the publishing world.