NetGalley Review: The Girls At 17 Swann Street

Title: The Girls at 17 Swann Street

Author: Yara Zgheib

Published: Feb. 5, 2019

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Pages: 384

Genre: Women's Fiction

Buy Links: Amazon, Amazon.uk

My name is Anna.

I am a dancer, a constant daydreamer.

I like sparkling wine in the late afternoon, ripe and juicy strawberries in June.

I believe in the rich taste of real vanilla ice cream, melting stickily from a cone...
I am madly in love, I am madly in loved.

I believe in living life with purpose, but in floating through the day too.

I have books to read, places to see, babies to make, birthday cakes to taste. I even have unused birthday wishes to spare.

So what am I doing here?

I received this book via NetGalley and publisher to give an honest review.

When I saw this book I really was intrigued at this eating disorder and how it would affect our character.

Sadly, I just was not into the book at all. It took me almost three weeks to finish it and that was really pushing it. I think because the plot was slow and not fast-paced. I can not imagine having an eating disorder and for those that do man, it seems like a battle. We are introduced to Anna who is married without children and finds herself being anorexic. Her husband wants her to be able to be healthy and he will do anything for her. She knows this but that anorexic voice in her head is stopping her from being fully happy. She knows she needs to eat but, food just doesn't do it for her. This is when she is introduced to the girls at 17 Swann Street. A place of rehab under very careful watch. I was impressed with how the caregivers were strict on making sure these girls/women ate the proper way so they could be healthy. This will be a battle for Anna and at the end, it is up to her if she can make it, yet with love and family behind her, she can do it right?

I think what threw me off a lot of the time through the book was the back and forth between what was going on right now to the past. I hope that others can read this book and know that they are not alone with their eating disorder and that there is help out there for them. 

Yara Zgheib is a Fulbright scholar with a Masters degree in Security Studies from Georgetown University and a PhD in International Affairs in Diplomacy from Centre D'études Diplomatiques et Stratégiques in Paris. She is fluent in English, Arabic, French, and Spanish. Yara is a writer for several US and European magazines, including The Huffington Post, The Four Seasons Magazine, A Woman’s Paris, The Idea List, and Holiday Magazine. She writes on culture, art, travel, and philosophy on her blog, "Aristotle at Afternoon Tea"