As a survivor of both anorexia and bulimia, this is a must read for those who suffer from ED. The emotions and associations with food could not have been more spot on and it was a tough read but necessary for those who choose to live and not have a life dictated by food. Thank you for this honest depiction.

I loved this book. It was a great read. I enjoyed how the story was told in combination of flashbacks. One of the most important things for me was that the main character was not whiny or intentionally mean to those around her, trying to help. She was able to look beyond herself.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced reader's copy of this book!
I loved it. The Girls at 17 Swann Street is raw, real, heartbreaking and most of all: human. This one enthralled me!

I am a former therapy associate. Working with eating disorders was something I never aspired to because I didn’t think I could deal with the heartache. Research has shown how difficult it is to treat eating disorders and this author has painted such an accurate picture that it’s almost painful to read. Anna, the main character, has had so much unresolved grief piled on top of her, situations over which she has mostly had no control. Her anorexia began subtly, in the midst of a heartbreak, when she felt fat and ugly and ‘not chosen.’ Gradually, Anna realized there WAS something she could control-her food intake. And over time, her brain learns to lie to her and tell her she hates the food she used to love. Despite losing a lot of weight, what she sees in the mirror is a fat young woman.

This is the story of Anna and the husband who loves her, and the girls at 17 Swann Street who help her heal.

Thank you to Netgalley & St. Martin's Press for this ARC. This book was a work of art. The writing was so beautiful it inspired me to want to write my own tragic novel, to go out and take photos, to embark on a new project, to do something beautiful. Despite the heartbreaking premise of this book, it was still poetic, still beautifully sad yet inspiring. It was like reading a poem. It was tragic, touching and heart-wrenching. I found myself highlighting line after line to keep in my heart, and I will now add "Keep walking" to my list of affirmations. This book gave an insight into eating disorders that I did not anticipate, to the point that my heart broke for the author, because so much of it seemed so real and so tangible, that I hope the author did not have to experience any of the disorders she wrote about. On top of this amazing story, every time I read about Paris, I feel as if I am biting into a buttery, flaky croissant or a crisp, tart apple. A brilliantly talented author can transport you and this book made me only want to travel to Paris more, the author and narrator's love so showed through. I will be looking forward to more from this author.

The new book by Yara Zgheib, The Girls at 17 Swann Street, is a fictional account of an extremely difficult disease and the difficult path to recovery. Anna Roux is a 26 year-old former ballerina. She loves her home country of France, her husband, and her family. Unfortunately, Anna suffers from anorexia and is at the point where if she does not complete treatment she will die. At under 90 pounds, subtle bumps and bruises become agony. She has no ability to control her body heat and every bite is a battle. With no hope left, she is brought to 17 Swann Street, a light pink home that houses women who are no longer able to fight on their own. 

The Girls at 17 Swann Street is a brutal book, but anorexia is a brutal disease. Though Anna is fictional, her struggle seems very familiar. The book chiefly focuses on Anna, but also introduced readers to other characters that will relapse, be removed from treatment, and the stunning realization that sometimes when a new girl comes in, it means another girl has died. Yara Zgheib creates characters that feel like people you've met, and that makes it hurt so much more if someone is hurt. With facts about eating disorders mixed in, the book helps create a feeling of empathy for those who suffer from them.

The Girls at 17 Swann Street is now available from St. Martin's Press.

#The Girls at 17 Swann Street #NetGalley:
Wow - I tried. I tried to read this book containing a personal inside view of a girl with and eating disorder. The more I read, the more depressed I became. I decided not to finish the book. Maybe if I had I would have had a different opinion. However, this type of book and this story wasn't for me. I wanted to understand her, to feel her pain, but all I felt was depression. I apologize for not finishing the book and I apologize for not understanding and feeling the pain this type of disorder brings. I am sorry, I did not like this book!

I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley. I requested the book because I was interested in the topic anorexia. I don't have it but it is a health issue that is very serious an in too many cases leads to death. I first became aware of it when I was young and Karen Carpenter died.

I liked this book. The main character Anna was very easy to come to care about. Her struggle was real and I found myself rooting for her from the start. The way her story is told gets you into the mind of someone suffering from anorexia. Everyone's situation is unique but you get to see how they think and how they struggle with extremely strong irrational thoughts.

While to topic is heavy I did not find the book depressing. I found it very hopeful.

I found this book to be incredibly moving and engaging from start to finish. It is a reflection of what it means to live with an eating disorder and mental health issues and how this affects relationships. It was a truly worthwhile read and one I won't be quick to forget!

First of all I would like to thank Netgalley as well as the publisher St. Martin's Press for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Anna Roux a 26 year old dancer has been dealing with the eating disorder anorexia for years but after years of struggling things have finally come to a head.. Her husband Mathias convinces her to go to treatment facility at 17 Swann Street. There she meets a group of girls suffering from anorexia or bulimia. Ash she becomes friends with the girls there she also begins to discover herself.

When she first arrives and through much of the book Anna is at a loss as to why she is even at Swann Street. Sure, she watches her diet but she is a dancer and dancers need to diet to stay in shape don't they? Yes, she restricts most foods but as a vegan once again that is something that vegans do.....right? The answer is no, to both things. When she first arrives Anna is in complete denial. She remember things differently than her family does. A trip with her husband is remembered fondly as a trip with lovely hikes and boat loads of fresh strawberries but Mathia remembers it as desperately trying to find food, any food that Anna would et and that she could barely make it a half a mile before she was exhausted.

Yara Zgheib does a wonderful job of letting us hear Anna' voice while sharing Anna's medical reports throughout her stay where we have a better idea of what is really happening with her. Anna is a kind, sweet voice and you care deeply about her as you root for her to beat her eating disorder. You long for her to heal and you also find yourself rooting for the other girls at Swann Street, the Emms, Valeries and Julias. The girl lost on the grips of this disease that has a tight rein on them. The care and understanding they give one another is heartwarming and you want them all to heal.

This is a beautifully written, haunting novel full of wonderful characters and a inspiring, gripping story.

As someone with food issues I do get triggered when people discuss weight and dieting and yet I am able to read these kinds of books without being triggered. Maybe because often books like these are written by or about survivors. I do want to give trigger warning at the start if you are in recovery for an eating disorder and are sensitive to these kinds of stories. I myself did not find this triggering at all though.

There is nothing disappointing about this book. Readers experience not just being anorexic but also being human. Anna is never to be pitied, but understood as more than the entries in her treatment plan. Even the writing style, with its eloquent efficiency, reflects Anna's inner world. Don't let the topic dissuade you as too depressing or not understandable. There is so much meaning to mine beyond the face of the topic.

The Girls at 17 Swann Street is a profound book. Anna is a 26 year old Parisian who has anorexia. She is sent to in patient treatment at 17 Swann Street in St Louis, Missouri when her weight gets down to 88 pounds. This is the story of her 6 weeks at Swann Street.
This book does a beautiful job of presenting these girls as humans and not their disease but while I could never understand what they go through I am able to empathize with them. The variety of characters is great with the girls who have different needs and eating disorders as well as the family member who either support or reject them.
The book is written from Anna's perspective but it is told through different styles. There are the treatment records which give an unbiased opinion on her treatment, the flashbacks, and the current storyline. This really gives you a full view of her as a person and helps you understand where it started.
I would recommend this book to anyone. It is a quick read because the chapters are short but it helps you view people with eating disorders as persons with a disease not as someone that is just choosing to does this.

The girls at 17 Swann street are captivating and touching. At first I was finish it difficult to get into the book when suddenly I was transferred into a world struggling to be that “perfect image”. An image we are bombarded with every day through magazines, news, daily shows and just walking around shopping. This book hits deep in reality of woman struggling to be perfect and a deeply satisfying experience of seeing this disease through someone struggling. At some point this will go through every persons mind? Is this meal with the calories, worth the weight gain ? And honestly it was amazing to finish and see that life is worth it and you my darling are worth it !

3.5 Stars
The Girls at 17 Swann Street is the story of Anna, a 26-year-old dancer, who undergoes treatment at a residential facility for women with eating disorders. Through this process, we learn about the life and struggles of Anna and some of the other women at the facility.

I found Anna’s story to be gripping and very interesting. Most accounts of anorexia and bulimia that I’ve read or heard of focused on teenagers. This story provided a unique perspective of how eating disorders affect adult women and their families. The book also gave me a better understanding of how anorexia devastates not only the body, but also the mind and the spirit, and how difficult (but possible) it is to overcome it.

While I really liked the parts of the story that took place in the facility, I felt the back story was a little disjointed, and I was left with some unanswered questions. Also, the book’s nontraditional text formatting (italics instead of quotations, for example) confused me in spots.

Overall, it was a worthwhile read, and I thank NetGalley for an advanced reader’s copy in exchange for this review.

The Girls at 17 Swann Street is the beautiful story of Anna, a former dancer, and her attempts at recovering from anorexia. Going into this novel, I only had a superficial understanding of this disease. I loved learning more about Anna as well as the psychology behind what caused her illness and how she worked to overcome her diagnosis. Though this book dealt with an incredibly difficult topic, it wasn't a depressing read. Zgheib did a wonderful job of balancing Anna's recovery with happy stories from her past and humorous events inside 17 Swann Street to keep the reader engaged and entertained. My only complaint is that I wish this novel was longer-I would have loved to read more about Anna's past and the events that led to anorexia.

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

Absolutely brilliant, riveting novel about one woman among many struggling with the disease and dis-ease of anorexia. An emotionally complex and deeply realistic, moving story about life, and how we live it, how we don’t live it, and everything in between. Your heart will break, and then it will break wide open to the possibilities of the beauty of life is we are brave enough to face our suffering as well as our joys. Highly recommend.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for an advanced reading copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This book is not an easy read, but it is worth it. It is heart-breaking what a person with an eating disorder goes through. A very eye-opening book. It is very well written and once you start reading you can't stop. Thank you St. Martin's Press via NetGalley for the ARC copy of this book. This is my honest opinion of this book.

This was a short but emotional read. We follow a few weeks at a rehab centre in the life of Anna with some flashbacks to her past. Yara does a very good job of telling Anna's story, we hear about Anna from Anna herself and from the clinical notes made in her file, it is in her file that we see how she really struggles. I don't know someone and have never met with Anorexia but this book brought their struggle home to me. I shed some tears whilst reading. The only thing that bothered me about the book was that the spoken words were typed in cursive and that confused me a bit as normally a persons thoughts are typed that way. I also wanted more of Anna's story, I wanted to see if she made it, if she was one of the 33% that did not relapse. I hope so!!! I would definitely recommend this book.

Writing a book about anorexia is a delicate matter because done poorly, it can become a pro-ana how to guide,. The trick is to write compassionately without glamorizing, I began reading this novel with all my antennas up, waiting for it to be one of those surface books that exploits without illuminating. What I got instead was a novel that was so compassionate that I wept as I read it. This is not a a genre anorexia novel. It's a love story. Brava.

Full disclosure: I am an author and my first novel's main character was anorexic. It was a devastating experience, doing the research for that novel. Thank you netgalley for the ereview edition of this 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.

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.

This was a nice book, as difficult as the topic was. I liked the prose, the pacing, and the overall plot design. Each chapter had some sort of new concept that developed, causing a greater understanding of the realistic life of someone who struggled with anorexia.

There were a few issues with the book, mostly minor situations. I would like to mention that the book changes between past and present without much indication. I’d like to have something a bit clearer that I wouldn’t have to backtrack between.

I’m not sure what exactly made me want to read this book, but it’s definitely a real book with real emotions and real facts. The media has romanticized eating disorders with trending books and movies and this book does not support a romanticized look at this.

An intense read that needs to have a trigger warning in front of, just so people know what they’re getting into.