I was ready to DNF after the first chapter: the thinly veiled characters portraying John Lennon and Yoko Ono seemed so wrong. Deciding to press on, I found a better group of characters and interesting plot with good information about Covid. However, without faulting her research, it seems like Ms Picoult created characters around Covid situations so the book sort of wrote itself. Perhaps it was cathartic for her to document that first year of lockdown and loss that we all experienced.

Thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the ARC to read and review.

4.5 stars
Thank you to Random House for the ARC of this book as part of the Summer Open House Program. Like many others, I wasn’t sure how I would feel about a book focused on COVID as it is still such a major part of my life, especially as a teacher. I have read only one other book that dealt with COVID and it just focused on mask wearing within the plot, not the emotions behind it. I loved Picoult’s storytelling and was not at all expecting the twist, but loved the story even more because of it. Thanks to a rainy weekend, I didn’t have to put this one down and am left thinking about the characters after the last page. This is easily one of her best!

Wish You Were Here is a story written about the pandemic. It starts with Diana and Finn who have a trip planned to the Galapagos in March, 2020. Diana works for Sotheby’s and Finn is a resident at a New York Hospital. Diana ends up going on the trip, since Finn has to stay back because of the virus. There is such a plot twist that you will be blown away. At times the details of the Galapagos and of the virus are too much but it does work for the story. Also read the author’s note at the end of the book and why she wrote this novel. Thank you to NetGalley for the E-ARC. This my own opinion.

3.5*
The is a covid/pandemic story, the first I have read.

Thank you netgalley and publishers for the e arc.

Synopsis: "A tale of longing and discovery from the bestselling author of The Book of Two Ways, Wish You Were Here follows a young woman whose carefully planned life is thrown off course by a pandemic, as she finds herself on a romantic holiday – alone."

Jodi Picoult is an excellent writer. The story was good, but not my jam. I appreciated the unique twists this novel took. If someone wants a pandemic tale, this would be a good one to read.

I gave this book a solid 3 stars. I really loved the premise of it but sometimes I felt like it was moving a bit too slow for me. I did like how relatable Diana and Finn's situation was to many others COVID experiences and was sad to see them split but it seemed par for the course of 2021.

Wish You Were Here is another amazing read from one of the best, Jodi Picoult. Picoult takes us to New York City to meet Diana and Finn, a couple on the rise. they are in the middle of creating the perfect life together. Diana works at Sotherby's and has landed the sell of her life! Finn is in the middle of his surgical residency. The time has come for the trip of their lifetime, The Galapagos Islands. They have saved and planned every detail. Diana can't wait to get to paradise. But as the day approaches, a virus begins to take over the world. Finn has to stay behind but he urges Diana to go by herself. Reluctantly, she goes and finds the world is beginning to go into quarantine and all the borders are closing. She is literally stuck in paradise. I don't want to spoil anything for anyone, but Picoult's imagination takes you on a wonderful trip!
Maybe it is because I am an ICU nurse and have lived a life so similar to Finn but this story resonated with me on so many levels. Picoult definitely did her research on the medical end of this story. She was spot on and put me right back at the beginning of the pandemic.
I will forever love Jodi Picoult's work. I will always recommend her work to others and will always look forward to any new work by her. Special thanks to Jodi Picoult, NetGalley, and Random House- Ballantine Books Publishing for the advance digital copy in exchange for my honest opinion. 5 Stars!!
#WishYouWereHere #NetGalley

Jodi Picoult wrote this while in lockdown during the pandemic and gave it her full treatment. Lots of research is her hallmark and it's extra apparent in this title. It is not my favorite by her - it felt a little light on characterization - but it was many of the things she does best, as well.

I adored this book! There were parts that were uncomfortable, heartbreaking, and terrifying. Diana and Finn are embarking on a dream vacation to the Galapagos Islands and the world shuts down. Yes, she went there!!! MARCH 2020!!! Finn is a medical resident in New York City and all leave is denied. He encourages Diana to go without him. She arrives and is stranded. What follows is making lemonade out of lemons. I don't want to give anything away but the emails from Finn will bring back emotions from that spring and offer a perspective of a frontline worker. I highly, highly recommend!

oh my gosh all of you cool cats and kittens absolutely NEED to read this one when it comes out (on my birthday holla!) 🥺 I am quite seriously so emotional

this is my first real pandemic story - and I’m very glad that I got the chance to read this one before all of the other thrillers and dramas set in a pandemic time period emerge from authors’ brains. it was raw and emotional and so so real.

diana is an art specialist, working in auctions and private collections, and has her life mapped out for her. her and her doctor boyfriend, finn, are going to the galápagos islands for a well deserved vacation, and she’s pretty sure he’s going to propose - that is, until the pandemic hits and finn is forced to stay home. diana, against her wishes, takes the vacation by herself anyway and finds herself … stuck on an island with nothing open and no way home for a foreseeable future.

I spent the first half of the book crying in the club. it brought back so many memories of thinking that this was only going to last a few weeks, and that it couldn’t be as bad as they were predicting overseas. diana had the same mindset as I did - well, I might as well be somewhere I enjoy while I have a two week vacation. and then, shit hits the fan (per usual) but seeing diana grow into her own on that island was absolutely tearjerking.

and then I reached the halfway point in the book - which promptly had me throwing my iPad across the room screaming WTF. I won’t give spoilers here but let me just say that this book is as emotional and roller coaster like as the world itself right now.

the writing is beautiful and believable - and I wish I could just sink into a black hole and think about this book over and over again. bring your tissues folks!!

thank you to netgalley and random house for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

wine pairing: new zealand sauvignon blanc
rating: 5 stars

What a timely and moving novel, one that focuses on the beginning of the pandemic in early 2020. Jodi Picoult definitely deals well with projecting how that initial phase of the pandemic affected virtually all of us -- especially the fear that it instilled, the overcrowded hospitals, and the challenges of living in quarantine/lockdown. The storyline was humming along, seemingly pretty fine, when all of a sudden BAM! Everything changed, yet the story progressed. I cannot really say more because I do not want to include any spoilers to to give anything away. This was really an interesting and emotional read!

This book was out of this world! I've been a fan of Jodi Picoult since I read "My Sister's Keeper" in middle school. She wrote this story about COVID that also touched on trauma, grief and assumptive loss, and the shared experience of everyone living through a pandemic. I felt so many raw emotions while reading this book. I felt like this was SO different from every other Picoult book I've read, but I loved it nonetheless. She did a great job of giving a description of so many different perspectives through the pandemic--a survivor, a family member whose loved ones they were separated from, a doctor/nurses and other frontline workers, and just everyone in general. Overall I thought it was a really really great read, but I think a little close to home for those of us still feeling the effects of the pandemic, directly affected, or are STILL working through the pandemic (ex: I'm a teacher so I am in the thick of it still).

Read this if you:
*like to plan
*have a bucket list
*want to go to the Galápagos Islands

Okay this book talks about covid & how it impacts the MCs life in detail. Do not read this unless you are in the right place. It’s a beautiful yet heartbreaking story. I don’t think I was fully in the right place to appreciate the book. Maybe it was still too soon for me to read something about the pandemic. I ended up enjoying it and I know I would’ve enjoyed it ever more had it been the right time and place for me.

Thank you NetGalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review. Pub date: Nov 30

Jodi Picoult tackles Covid.

That's really all you need to know. This is about the worldwide shut down, storylines from an ER doctor's point of view, a storyline from someone who has Covid and is on a ventilator and how they recover and how it changes their life.

I loved part of this book. I found it original and riveting. But then there was a big shift (of which I can't detail) and it changed the whole book. I still found value in the second half but it is not the book I wanted. This is going to be a book everyone will discuss.

Please read it and tell me what you think! I'm not sure if I'm ready to read a bunch of books about Covid yet but this one will be one that I will remember.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advance readers copy. Scheduled for release 11/30/21.

Wow! She did it again. I’m an avid Jodi Picoult reader and have been for years. This book really grabbed me and brought me in immediately. Focused around the pandemic, which can be a tough subject, the author talked about it in a way that was real but also something I could take away from it. 4.5 stars for me.

Note: there will be no spoilers in this review. Try not to read too many reviews because this book does depend on you not knowing a big twist halfway through.

I have a mixed relationship with Jodi Picoult. Some of her books I love -- Larger Than Life, The Pact, Small Great Things, The Storyteller. Some of her books have really irritated me -- Spark of Light, Book of Two Ways. Her writing CAN be pretentious, and sometimes she goes down really weird niche paths. Wish You Were Here falls somewhere in the middle of her books, for me: patches of irritating writing, but a nice unexpected storyline, particularly effective at telling a story that I thought I had no interest in reading right now: a fictional take on the pandemic.

And a supporting role played by Yoko Ono, fictionalized here as Kokomi Ito, the controversial wife of a murdered rock star, still living in their iconic NYC apartment.

As the book begins, Dianna's life is right on track: she's about to get promoted at Sotheby's because she landed them the auction of Kokomo Ito's signature painting; and on her upcoming vacation to the Galapagos, her perfect boyfriend, a surgical resident named Finn, is definitely going to propose to her. Dianna has built her life around being not her mother, a photographer who abandoned her as a child; Dianna is going to do everything right.

Then, just as her vacation date approaches, so does an odd virus. Finn, a doctor, has his vacation cancelled, but insists that Dianna go on her own. So she does: traveling to the Galapagos even as the world shuts down around her. By the time she arrives on her tiny island, it has shut down completely: no hotels, no restaurants, and, yikes, no way out. She is stranded, all alone, in a beautiful, dangerous place.

Slowly, she starts to make friends on the island; Abuela, the woman who offers her a place to stay; Beatriz, a teenager who arrived on the same boat as Dianna and is clearly troubled, and Beatriz's father, a prickly farmer. As Dianna starts to find a place for herself in paradise, mostly cut off from the rest of the world, she is traumatized only by the intermittent emails and phone calls that sputter through from Finn, stories of a world falling apart.

I will say no more, because of the plot twists. Except to say that the book ends up being a book about questions: what makes life meaningful? How do we construct our reality? How do we handle unexpected plot twists, when the world we have built around us falls apart completely?

I thought I had NO interest in reading a novel set in the pandemic. Turns out, I was wrong.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult that I read and reviewed.
This book was not one of my favorite books by Picoult but I did like it for the most part. The twist she threw in there blew my mind and had me going “oh my”. Overall, this was a good book but I think I am just sick of Covid as a whole and really don’t enjoy reading about it in my books for enjoyment and that is just my personal thing. When I am reading I want you to avoid mention of Covid as much as possible because I have to deal with it everywhere I turn in the real world.
I am giving this book four out of five stars.

Jody PIcoult is an extraordinary writer. This is the first novel I’ve read that takes place at the very beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, in March 2020. Diana, who works at Sotheby’s, and her boyfriend, Finn, were to take a vacation in the Galápagos Islands. Diana goes alone, as Finn is a physician and he is needed at the NYC hospital where he works.
Picoult’s wonderful descriptions of the Galapagos islands has me looking at pictures and so wanting to visit! This is one of her best novels, as she once again tackles challenging subjects so well. Highly recommended!

Jodi Picoult is an amazing writer of books that are easy to read and normally spark my interest. That being said, this book was one that I came very close to not finishing. I found the main characters - Diana and Finn - extremely self absorbed, negative, overly dramatic, and germophobic. The only characters I liked were Rodney and his sister! I did enjoy learning more about the art sales industry and Sotheby's. It certainly didn't help that the author chose to inject politics into the narrative by making derogatory comments about our former president; those comments were unnecessary and certainly did not add to the storyline. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of the novel in exchange for an honest review.

NO SPOILERS IN THIS POST - Diana is heading towards all her goals, her dream life. She is an assistant buyer at Sothebys in line for a promotion, is in love with the good doctor, Finn, who is about to propose. She has her life all figured out. Then comes March 2020, and Covid comes crashing into the world. Diana and Finn had a trip planned to the Galapagos Islands, but Finn cannot go as he must stay on the frontlines fighting the virus. Diana decides it will do her some good to go ahead and go, and why waste the money?
Diana heads to the Galapagos on her own, and soon everything is shut down. She has no where to go as her hotel is closed up, and she cannot make it back to NYC. She is taken in by a local family, and thus begins Diana’s journey of self-discovery. Alone on the island, Diana has all the time in the world to question her “plan”, her relationships and rediscover herself.
Diana is forced to make some tough decisions and re-think everything she knew about her life. With a jaw-dropping twist, this is one book that anyone who is grappling with the fallouts from Covid, have lost a loved one, or even have had to re-examine their path in life.

Special than you to #Netgalley and #Random House Publishers for my Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.

Solid 4 stars!

I've always been a huge fan of Jodi Picoult so I was super excited to be approved for this book on Netgalley! Like all of her other books, she is able to write a story that completely pulls you in and this one was no different.

The story follows Diana who is on a vacation in the Galapagos while her boyfriend Finn has stayed home to work in the hospital which is overrun with COVID patients. They keep in contact through emails and postcards. In the emails from Finn, he describes what he is experiencing in the hospital and it brings you back to everything that actually happened in our lives when COVID hit. In the middle of the book, there is a huge twist that I didn't see coming.

This book is a pretty heavy read because of the emotional topics it covers with losing family members, making huge life changes, and second chances. Also, because of how it is all about COVID as well. Overall, I thought it was a great book and I look forward to Jodi Picoult's next book!

Big thanks to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for providing me an ARC in exchange for my review!