This is the second Covid-era novel I've started, and the first I've finished. I think it's a little soon ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, but that doesn't mean I wasn't fully engrossed in the story. There is a lot I can't address without spoiling the novel, but let's just say there is some coronarealness.

We meet protagonist Diana O'Toole when she's living her best life. She's on track with her personal and professional goals when the virus begins to shut things down. She gets out of NYC before the pandemic fully hits, leaving her surgeon boyfriend, Finn, behind before either of them can fathom what life will be like for him, working nonstop against devastating odds. "[Healthcare workers] don't give a fuck about the Empire State Building [lit up red and white this week for healthcare workers], or about people banging pots and pans at 7 P.M. Most of us won't ever see or hear it, because we're in the hospital trying to save people who can't be saved. What we want is for everyone to just wear a mask."

It's hard to identify with Diana at first. She's not the most likable narrator, making rash decisions and enjoying a tropical paradise, "Suddenly it feels juvenile and entitled to be upset about not staying in the hotel I booked, or being hungry. There is no way in hell I'm going to complain to Finn." Um, yeah. Good idea. Not that she really has a clue, as the internet connection in paradise is wonky.

Wish You Were Here is my first Jodi Picoult novel, despite or because of her being so prolific and successful. But you know what? She can write. I admired rich language like "arthritic tubes of acrylics and the palette with layer after layer of dried moments of inspiration."

This part is not super relevant to the book, but I have to mention it--a covid patient fantasizes about having a job in a palace where her job is to interview courtier cats.

Thanks, NetGalley for the digital ARC! And thanks to my sister, Danna, for the recommendation.

Thank you to NetGalley for this wonderful ARC. It has been a while since I have fallen in love with a Jodi Picoult novel and this one threw me a curveball that I did not predict. I love that Picoult tackles the pandemic and how it has affected health care workers and those who contract it. There is so much more to the story than COVID - friendships, mother/daughter relationships, trying to figure out who we are and who we want to be, love, etc. Well written and definitely worth reading.

What if you were supposed to take a bucket list vacation in March 2020 before anyone knew what the impact of COVID-19 would be on the world? What if your boyfriend was a surgeon and needed to stay back to help but told you to go without him? What if now you are stuck in paradise while the world is locked down and battles with the first wave of this new disease? That is how Wish You Were Here starts out. Although this book is literally about our post-pandemic world, I did not find reading it upsetting but please know going in that this is what it is about. It may be particularly triggering for New Yorkers and/or medical workers. The book took a turn part-way in and I'm glad it did. I rather enjoyed the latter half of the book rather than where I thought it was going (which felt predictable) at the midpoint. As usual, for the author, this is a well-researched book.

Hey all you cool cats and kittens! Tiger King was a generational staple of the shelter-in-place order and I would like to commend Jodi Picoult on including it in her book. Unfortunately, that’s the only part I will be commending. The story begins with Diana unnecessarily getting herself stranded on an island just as the COVID-19 pandemic hits America and then the second half of the book becomes so unrealistic and confusing that like many New Yorkers who noticed empty subways and minimal traffic around March 13, 2020 I just had to ask myself, “what in the actual hell is happening here?!” It’s certainly been a year of firsts and since I’ve never encountered a Jodi book I didn’t like, I guess it was bound to happen eventually. I’ll still gladly be making my way through her backlist, yet I just wish my Pfizer vaccine could have protected me from this one.

This book brought so many emotions to the surface for me and made me really look at things from a different perspective. I was initially mad when I realized that this book was set during covid as I had enough covid related experiences to be able to write my own book, but in a very strange way it helped me heal a little while also making my anxiety worse, so let that be a small warning if you're thinking of reading this book with any bad covid related experiences in the back of your mind. I truly enjoyed following Diana's journey and the ending. I'm glad I stuck with this book even when a plot twist made me want to chuck my kindle across the room halfway through. Thank you Jodi for another wonderful, thought-provoking read!

Excellent as usual, Jodi Picoult tackles a tough subject and does it well. This book is set early at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. The main characters are Disna and her significant other Finn. She shows both sides of the story, Finn's and Diana's. I totally was pulled right into the story fully. I could tell a lot of research must have gone into writing it. I think it made me really think about several decisions made and wonder if I would have done that or not. Complex story but not going to give away any spoilers.
Thank you to Net Galley, the Publishers and author for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Jodi Picoult never fails to surprise her readers. The story is focused on a Gen Z couple Diana and Finn. Diana is working at Sotheby’s and Finn is a surgical resident at a hospital in New York City. They have their lives planned out and are scheduled to go on a trip to the Galápagos Islands when the Covid pandemic hits. The reader will be amazed by the different realities of the characters and how it changes their future. This is a well written story in the author’s unique style that will capture and hold the attention of the reader throughout the book.

I loved this book. The entire plot centers around Covid and the pandemic, so if you aren’t ready for that, put this book on your “not right now” list. Wish You Were Here made me feel better about my anxiety around the pandemic since it showed others feeling the same. The ending of Part I and beginning of Part II is not something I saw coming!! The ending was perfect and I wish I could read more about her story 🥲

I wasn’t sure I was ready to read a book dealing with COVID, or if I even wanted to, but this was a great read. Very quick to get through, tugs on your heart strings and it really made me wonder if anyone who has had COVID has been through this same type of situation. Well done!

The reader definitely needs to be ready to relive the early days of Covid through this book - Jodi Picoult does an excellent job of conveying the denial, uncertainty, and anxiety of March 2020. Diana and her boyfriend Finn are preparing to go on the trip of a lifetime to the Galapagos Islands, when Finn, a surgeon at New York Presbyterian Hospital is "strongly discouraged" from going, though encourages Diane to enjoy the non-refundable trip on her own. She does, her luggage is lost, and she gets stranded on an island where she doesn't know the language, and no cell service to communicate with Finn. Diana is befriended by a local family who takes her in, and eventually able to access her emails from Finn, detailing his endless days of treating ICU Covid patients. Picoult's clearly extensive research on this is impressive, but a very tough go. It's been a while since i read a Picoult novel, and always found them quick yet thought provoking reads, so the first half felt very unfamiliar, a little meandering and slow, wondering where it was going. Then the second half hit me like a ton of bricks- and more the Jodi Picoult pace and perspective I was expecting. While on the one hand, I'm firmly in the "too soon" camp for pandemic reads, I did not regret this read. An unexpected and memorable read that I suspect will stand out as one of Jodi Picoult's best.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is the best book I have read all year! This was a such a bittersweet story from the beginning. I did not want to put his book down as I could not figure out which way this book was going to go. Let me say that I happy and sad at the same time. The author's message at the end really tied it together. Again, pick this book up if quarantine had you question your priorities and question your future.

I received an electronic ARC of this very timely and relevant novel from Netgalley, Jodi Picoult, and Random House Publishing Group-BallentineBooks. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read this novel of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this novel. As always, Jodi Picoult brings us a tale taken right out of the newspapers and makes it understandable and definable. I am pleased to recommend her to friends and family.


New York City, March of 2020 sets us right at the beginning of the earth-shattering rumblings of the Covid 19 Pandemic. Rumors are rampant, the news changing day by day from Steven-King-scary to Mary-Poppins-positive. We didn't know what was really happening, who to believe, or what tomorrow would bring. Picoult gets it just right, the disassociation from the news, and deep-seated fear for family and friends, the uncertain continuation of work and school and home life that dragged us down deeper into despair every day. Our president telling us it is just the flu as refrigerator trucks are lining up at NYC hospitals to house the dead overflow the morgue and funeral homes can no longer handle.

twenty-nine-year-old Diana O'Toole had at the beginning of 2020 her life right on track. An Associate specialist at Sotheby's, her career was advancing as planned, Her housemate and lover Finn Colson, a doctor doing his surgical residency at New York/Presbyterian Hospital, has stashed a diamond engagement ring in his underwear drawer which he probably plans to spring on her on their annual vacation so her two children by the time she turns 35 are also possible. This year they will spend two weeks in Galapagos on the island of Isabela and it can't happen soon enough for Diana. She needs a break from work and responsibility. The nursing home housing her mother, an Alzheimer's patient for the last several years, has a 'no visitors' policy with the pandemic, and she can call her from the hotel on Isabela as she does from here at home. It is, for her, perfect timing. Finn, not so much. All the personnel at the NYC hospitals are pulling 60-hour shifts, and there is no way he would ask to get away, but the trip is all planned and paid for, and the airline tickets and hotel are not refundable. Finn encourages her to go on her own.

She arrives on Isabela on the very last ferry. No more going out, nor coming in, until the pandemic is under control. The hotel is closed, the bank, as are government buildings, and the library. ATMs have not been serviced since before the ferries stopped, internet reception, and cell phone coverage for the whole island are down, with no possibility of repair until the ferries are back in service. Diana hates to be isolated from Finn and her Mother, but she can do without all of the touristy things. She finds a small apartment, or rather it finds her, and she tries to make the best of the situation. It can't last long, after all. She didn't bring a lot of cash, but that is all the islanders can take without the bank or ATM. And she needs to be back at work in a couple of weeks, there are auctions to prepare for, art to be collected. Surely life will return to normal over the next few days. Or will it?

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sharing this title. All opinions are my own.

While normally a fan of Jodie Picoult's work, this one I had to set down (but hope to pick up again someday!) Did not finish! I realized I'm not ready to read book set during the pandemic.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
I have always wanted to read a book by Jodi Picoult & I was finally given a chance to review "Wish You Were Here".
I really enjoyed this book,
the plot had an unexpected & an interesting twist, it was very relevant, relatable & heart-wrenching.
After reading this book, I decided to buy 1 of her earlier titles, "The Storyteller", to read at a later date.

This one different than I expected going in. But I enjoyed it.

I was also nervous reading a book about the Covid pandemic when we haven’t fully left it. But I think this was done in a way that touched on all the hard elements about those early days without making it too hard to read.

I enjoyed seeing how Diana came to discover new elements of herself and what she wants from her life after her life-changing experience.

This wasn’t my favorite of Picoult’s books, but there were some really great lines and the overall theme was lovely.

Oh man, I so badly wanted to love this book. Jodi Picoult is an auto-buy author for me. However, this story just didn’t work for me. I’m not sure if it was because the whole COVID storyline was a bit too soon. I had major anxiety at times while reading. It reminded me of the state wide quarantine and brought back so many emotions. I felt as though I was reliving 2020 all over again.

And that twist, oh man, I didn’t see it coming and I certainly wasn’t a fan of it. If I’m being honest, it made me not want to read the second half of the story. I’m sure others will love this book, but it wasn’t for me.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved Wish You Were Here. Not only did the plot have a pretty dramatic twist, it was so relevant and relatable and interesting and completely heart-wrenching.

To start, I actually live on a tropical island right now and experienced Covid on it. Now, it’s not the remote island that any of the Galapagos islands are, but the lockdown and closure of most businesses and lack of supplies was definitely relatable. Even the curfew aspect. I actually bought a paddle board in order to be outside because the governor (and the base I live on) locked down parks and beaches for awhile and we could only use them if we were exercising. Paddleboarding was literally the only way to be stationary near the beach.. I could stop paddling and float or anchor out, but I could NOT just sit on the beach. But in a lot of ways, experiencing Covid on a tropical island was nice because the outdoors wasn’t really closed, you could hike, walk along the beach, and appreciate the beauty of the island without the tourists once the beach/park restrictions stopped being enforced. It may have seemed like the pandemic wasn’t reaching us, but it did in its own ways, yet it also made me appreciate what was in front of me a lot more.

My parents were actually visiting me in March of 2020 and we watched the mainland US freak out on social media about toilet paper..and we were not taking any of it seriously until the first couple of cases reached the island and concerns about flights being cancelled became a worry the day they were leaving. My parents barely made it back home before my island and the other island and cities they had to fly through completely shut down all flights. I felt like I could totally understand Diana still going on her trip because.. well.. my parents still went on theirs and had their flight back home been their flight out to see me or if they’d have had a few more days on their itinerary, they’d have been trapped on Guam for much longer than expected! It only seems crazy now.. but at the time we didn’t really know what would happen.

I didn’t really enjoy the main character at first, but I loved her journey and the way she grew as a character. I was heartbroken for her so many times.

The book does take a pretty dramatic turn, but I don’t want to give any spoilers. Just when I thought this book was going to go the route of The Book of Two Ways with senseless relationship drama, it didn’t.

I will add that the first half of the book may seem slow to some people. I tend to be the odd one out with Jodi Picoult books and I love when she goes off on tangents about a subject.. I didn’t like The Book of Two Ways much, but my favorite parts were the ins and outs of being a death doula and the delve into Egyptian history, two of the things most reviewers hated. I enjoyed Diana’s adventures in the Galapagos and loved the way her character learned to connect with other people and tried to cope without a real plan or a connection to anything familiar. Even though I’m not really trapped on an island, learning to go with the flow and embrace what you have is a huge lesson of island living and I think she needed to experience it to grow as a person.

It may have seemed like she had her head in a clouds a bit, but the reality of the pandemic is a lot different on a tropical island, especially since the government likely has more opportunity to shut the island down and halt tourism in a way that a larger land mass cannot. Whatever may have happened in the book, I felt that Picoult actually portrayed it in a realistic light.

I can’t really say much about the parts of the book I want to talk about the most because it’s all huge spoilers, but I was so impressed with the twist and the way all of the characters were so well fleshed out. I loved how it captured so many aspects of the pandemic while still remaining a story about being human and finding our way in a stressful time.

My only complaint was that I really didn’t like Finn and I thought he was super immature. I wished that he wasn’t the primary voice of healthcare workers during the pandemic because I thought he was stuck up. I’m glad that, in the end, other healthcare workers had a bit more of a voice in the story to even it out and kind of show that things were the way that Finn was describing and it also kind of showed us how various people cope with the stress of the pandemic.

Wish You Were Here is my second book by Jodi Picoult, this was a book that I was a little hesitant to read because I really didn't want to be reading anything about Covid, which is not a topic that I really dig BUT I'm glad I read it.

it was nothing of what I was expecting, I didn't feel any burden or heavy feeling reading about the situation where are still going true, it was more of a light-hearted situation between two people who were going through terrible situations during these times. how they felt, how they survive, the reality each character was living.

I like how we get to travel so far away from the crowds and see the beauty of the world even if we're going through some chaos.

for me, this book was an internal battle with the characters as they were trying to assimilate what was happening and how that was determined the situation that change their lives forever even the way they feel and acts towards others.

it is also very enlightening and interesting to read how some of the patients going through similar situations live other realities while they're sedated or in a coma, I've read some of these situations before but never to this extend and it was very pleasant to learn more, it also gave so much reality to the book and the story of the characters. I felt like I was reading a biography like Diana and Finn were real and we were now learning about their journey during this pandemic.

another thing is this book really makes you see things from a very different perspective, I'm glad I read this book because is not what I was expecting I really thought it was going to be very depressing reading about covid but it was very deep at times, it makes you think more about how we're dealing as humans with all these traumas and situations that we never knew or anticipated.

what I like about this story is that has a lot of hope, love, empathy, and understanding.

what I didn't like about the book was the ending, I was expecting something else entirely, I was not expecting what happened but I don't want to give anything away. so that is the only reason I'm giving 4 stars to wish you were here.

This book is great, I really enjoy it and definitely recommend it.

Very thankful to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Ballantine Books, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this amazing book

Thanks to Random House Publishing Group and Ballantine Books for the invitation to read an ARC of Wish You Were Here in exchange for my honest opinion.
It had been a while since I read a Jodi Picoult novel, and I could not put this one down once I started it, staying up way too late reading it and then finishing it the next day while traveling. I knew before starting that this book's plot centered around the COVID pandemic and chose to read this book with that in mind. I think it's important that readers are aware of this before starting, as some readers may not be ready for a pandemic plotline yet.

Diana and her soon-to-be-fiance, Finn, are about to take a bucket list trip to the Galapagos in mid-March 2020. Finn, an emergency room doctor in New York City, decides to stay home to help attempt to handle the pandemic's effects in NYC and suggests that Diana still go on their vacation on her own. Diana hesitantly arrives in the Galapagos, after her luggage is lost, as the island is shutting down and, instead of taking the ferry back to the mainland, decides to brave the two-week shutdown on her own in paradise. As you can imagine, things are not quite paradise when a global pandemic is raging! The book includes email messages detailing Finn's work back in NY in the emergency room of the hospital, but Diana does not have reliable internet or phone service to receive these.
This premise sucked me in immediately and even though I didn't like Diana's character, I wanted to know what would happen to her. Her job working at an art house was also really interesting to read about. I had trouble reading Finn's very detailed descriptions of his trauma-filled work in the emergency room. There is a twist that happens over halfway through the book that I absolutely did not see coming - which was another reason that I could not stop reading it!
If you're ready to read about the pandemic, I recommend this one. And if you're planning a trip to the Galapagos, I want to come with you!

Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult is a highly recommended novel of two alternate realities set during the pandemic.

Diana O’Toole is an associate specialist at Sotheby’s and knows she and her boyfriend, Finn, a surgical resident, will soon be engaged. They have planned to leave NYC for a two week vacation to the Galápagos in March of 2020. Just before they are scheduled to leave, Finn breaks the news that he can't take the time off from the hospital due to the pandemic. He encourages Diana to go without him, so she does and is subsequently locked down on an island with little to no WiFi access. She ends up having a woman offer her a place to stay. Diana proceeds to make friends with the locals and even manages to see and experience the local sites. While there some of Finn's email messages get through and she reads about how overwhelming and trying his experiences are while working at the hospital in NYC during the increase of hospitalized Covid patients. Then something happens and Diana's perception and reality completely change.

There is no question that Picoult can write novels that will hold your attention from beginning to end and introduce some contemporary penitent on-topic subject in them. It's what she does best and she is known for her issue-driven plots. This time out it is Covid. Wish You Were Here is an emotionally complex, perceptive, and though provoking novel as it covers several issues. The first half of the novel is a stark contrast from the second half, and is also a very different narrative although some of the issues occur in both the first and second half. Characters are well developed, flawed individuals but sympathetic and vulnerable in both halves of the novel.

The twist in the middle of the novel changes everything and makes it a vastly different novel from the first half of the book. Variations of the big twist in the novel have been done numerous times before this in TV shows, books, and movies. Certainly it was a shocking surprise, but also an eye-rolling experience as it has always been in every other time it has used. The new variation on this well used plot device was setting the story during the pandemic and lock down. (It was too soon for this novel and quite frankly most of the novel read like pandemic porn to me, someone who was working throughout the whole lock down.)

Most fans will love it, and it would make for lively book club discussions, but for others this may not resonate as much as some of Picoult's other novels.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Ballantine Books.
The review will be published on Barnes & Noble, Google Books, Edelweiss, and Amazon.