<b>..."I learned that the world changes between heartbeats; that life is never an absolute, but always a wager."</b>

Jodi Picoult has once again reached into the hearts of her reader and not only gripped that heart, but also cradled it through <i>Wish You Were Here</i> in the way that only Picoult can. Similar to her previous novels, Picoult, takes us through the very real and very emotional novel set in New York City, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Diana, an art specialist, is ready to take her bucket list trip to the Galapagos with her surgical resident boyfriend Finn. Living in New York City, Finn's hospital is just starting to get the first hit of COVID patients and he is told he can't leave the hospital. Instead, he suggests Diana take the trip without him - and reluctantly she does.

What follows is an intensely gripping and emotional novel - about both Diana and Finn's experiences on different ends of the earth. Finn - in the hospital, writing to Diana about his experiences with COVID-19 on the front lines. And Diana, stranded on a very deserted island, experiencing and remembering her past and wondering if her future is what she wants it to be.

The plot twist in this novel itself is worthy of five stars. But even without it, I would still find myself coming back and giving the novel five stars. Diana's memories of her family, her stories about art and the history of the Galapagos -- so much of Diana and Finn's experiences are molded into the novel and give it genius sparks of life that make the reader either turn the page at breakneck speed or slower in order to savor the experience.

<i>Wish You Were Here</i> is honestly one of my favorite Picoult works to date. The amount of research the author put into this novel is incredible. And as a person with a parent as a COVID ventilator survivor, I find this research incredibly important and poignant. Ultimately, this book may honestly make you feel all the feelings -- it's thought provoking, heartbreaking, heart<b>warming</b>, gripping, draining, thrilling, and will leave you guessing. There are so many more amazing things I could say, but I would absolutely spoil the book. You must read it for yourself. I promise. It's that amazing.

Diana O'Toole is very excited for a planned vacation with her boyfriend Finn. Diana lives life by rote and she thinks it is high time for Finn to propose. Galápagos is the destination and it should be utterly romantic. However, at the very last moment, due to the pandemic Finn tells Diana that he simply cannot get away. He is a surgical resident and is desperately needed as a front line doctor. Finn and Diana put a lot of money into the trip so he tells Diana that she should go anyway.

Despite her reservations, Diana goes on the getaway, only to find herself stranded. The borders are closed out of necessity and now Diana must stay away. Diana befriends a family, most notably a teen in need of a connection. All the while Diana is dealing with life's priorities, including her relationship with Finn.

Wish You Were Here is a stellar book. A book that made me think. Ms. Picoult has a twist that I was not expecting, thus making this book an utterly compelling read. In fact, due to the times that are still so uncertain, I was a bit worried about how I would handle this book. This thrilling book is completely thought-provoking and relatable, and most definitely impossble to put down.

Many thanks to Ballantine Books and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

I absolutely loved this book. It made me feel so many different emotions: sad, absolutely SHOCKED, and most importantly, grateful. I've been a fan of Jodi Picoult's writing for years, but this book really brings it altogether for me. I would highly recommend this read.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

An artist visits the Galapagos Islands during the pandemic and the experience changes her life totally. She faces reality and the option of what might could be and makes hard choices.

I love the ending.

Diana has all of her ducks in a row: She’s working at a job she finds personally (and financially) fulfilling, she’s expecting a proposal from her very serious (and very good looking) surgeon boyfriend, and things are going well in the New York fast life. And then COVID happens. And just like in real life, it blows everything upside down. This was the first fiction I’ve read that incorporated COVID and I think Picoult got a lot of things right. She’s an excellent writer, although parts of the book moved much slower than I would’ve liked. For that reason, I’m rating it a solid 3.

NOTE: Special thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Wish You Were Here is a novel that chronicles how the world, our lives, can change between heartbeats.

While some may not be ready for a story that plunges directly into Covid-19's heart of darkness yet, especially since this one exposes our shared sense of fear, isolation, grief, and heartache when people first started dying and we went into global lockdown in 2020, I knew I couldn't stay away. I wanted to read something that would resonate. Something that would frame this unprecedented moment, this nightmare experience, in a context that might make it a little easier to process. To understand.

I think a part of me has been searching for a literary excuse to ruminate over all that's transpired over the last year-and-a-half for a while now. I've been looking despite knowing that, once I stopped, I'd be smacked with echoes of pain from the moment I opened that Pandora's Box.

Still, I was ready for this. I needed it.

Like the characters in this book, I have been touched by this pandemic, too. I've experienced the surreality. I know people who have fallen gravely ill, others who have died. I have a brother who is a doctor treating patients in the ICU. I also understand there are those out there who still believe this virus is "no worse than the flu" even though the science says otherwise. I have had to make changes in my own life. I've listened, I've learned. I've adapted in order to survive the New Normal.

We all have.

To say that we haven't would be a lie.

The beauty of this book then, at least for me, was how Picoult was able to give voice - real voice - to all the people who have been existing behind the vague face of the pandemic since it first began.

What I liked about that is how it did away with all the numbing statistics that track down our news screens every day and instead created a visible pulse that could be touched. Believed. Humanized. It provided readers with a specific personhood they could envision. They were allowed to meet, to get to know, a few people who were actively being affected by this virus in early 2020. They got to see and experience what was happening to them, almost vicariously.

The characters in this story were all real flesh and blood people who were trying to cope with the sudden, unexpected changes Covid-19 brought to their lives.

For Diana, an art specialist who thought she knew exactly what she wanted personally and professionally, that meant getting stranded in the beautiful Galápagos Islands during lockdown. Though alone there and unable to speak the language, she forms a connection with a local family and begins to reevaluate her identity. She also must work through issues she has with her mother, who is in a nursing home suffering from dementia.

While there, she's separated from her boyfriend, Finn, whom she plans to marry. He's a surgical resident who is confronting the horrors and PTSD involved in being on the frontlines, at home, in New York City. His emails to her record the overwhelming burden medical professionals face in the fight to treat sick Covid patients. They also detail how hospital resources are running thin or have been stretched to crisis level.

The insight he provides as a physician, as someone whose job it is to save lives, is stirring in a way that makes readers think but also leaves them bleeding with compassion.

There's a Sliding Doors element that pops up part way through this book as well, so be aware of that. However, to say any more would be to spoil the overall effect...which, when it hit, sent a shock across my chest like a defibrillator because it was so heartbreakingly good! So, so good! I never saw it coming.

This was one of my favorite works from Picoult so far.

Though not for the faint of heart, it's certainly a timely story that keeps readers plugged into the characters and hooked into their emotions from the beginning as they struggle to make sense of Covid, as they try try to tether themselves to something steady. It's a riveting tale of people who are orienting about all lost and adrift amid a new - and shocking - global reality.

A special thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the ARC in exchange for my review.

This is the first book I have read from this author in close to a decade and wasn't sure how to feel as I read it. I found that this is a book I have been waiting to read since the pandemic began. I think that this will resonate with so many people as a shared time, but I think the tie in works so well with this book. It did take me a while to get into this, but am so glad I kept reading. I felt so many things and appreciated so much of what was written although this was quite a departure for this author from past books I have read. I will definitely be recommending this to others. Thanks for the ARC, NetGalley.

I was happy to receive an early copy of Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult as I enjoy her novels. This book did not disappoint. She took the very difficult topic of the pandemic and turned it into a very enjoyable story that I couldn’t put down. I have to say I didn’t not expect the twist at the end of the first part of the book. I’m going to recommend this book to my book group when it comes out. I’ll be happy to read it again, taking my time, and enjoy it all over again.

Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult was everything! I was so skeptical about reading my first book that deals with Covid, but I savored every word of this stunning novel. I think you should go into this one without reading too much about it beforehand. I was pleasantly surprised by all the feelings this story brought out in me and it’s has taken a spot as one of my favorite books of the year! Highly recommend!!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the opportunity to read this book for an honest review.

One of Jodi Picoult’s better novels, I was immersed into this novel from the very beginning as we follow Diana O’Toole’s journey through the COVID-19 pandemic. Like with previous novels, Picoult takes her readers on a journey with plot twists along the way that make for a beautiful story of resilience during a time of uncertainty. Cannot say more than this because I do not want to give away anything about the story. #wishyouwerehere @jodipicoult

Unfortunately, this book was not for me. While I enjoyed the setting and it was a nice, immersive escape to an island, that’s where my enjoyment ended. I didn’t enjoy the main twist and felt it was for shock value. I think it’s probably too soon for me to be reading about COVID. Thank you to the publisher for my advanced copy.

Imagine--Diana, ready for a dream vacation to the Galapagos Islands with Finn, who she expects will propose to her there. But, it is March 2020. Finn is a surgical resident at a NYC hospital, and he has just been informed he will be needed for the expected number of COVID cases. Vacation plans are off for him, but when he tells her to just go without him, she does. Or, so the story begins.
The unfolding seemed a little different for Jodi Picoult, yet I was turning the pages quickly--and then the story surprised me in a way that I couldn't put it down.
The Finn character gives a great doctor's view of the COVID experience through medical eyes, while Diana takes us on a vacation that is far from the descriptions in her tour books.
Picoult has been my favorite author ever since I read My Sister's Keeper. She is a master of taking a social issue and seeing it in more than one light. She does not disappoint. Loved this read, right up to the last three sentences.

I thoroughly enjoyed Wish You Were Here, a Covid related story of a woman with Covid who dreams a whole different reality while she is under sedation and on a ventilator. Her dreams are a real reality to her and the people, places, conversations, and situations haunt her when she awakens and recovers. It is a curious notion to explore, that of a parallel life that feels real and elicits emotions.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I had a difficult time reading this book. It was not that it was bad it was actually very well written and quite good. I just struggled with the content. It is definitely worth the read.

Thank you to publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read this book!

Author Jodi Picoult is widely known for her #RealisticFiction on timely topics, but no title is more timely than #WishYouWereHere. Other reviewers may share more details, but I highly recommend this books for two reasons. The first is the shocking right-hand turn mid-novel. This turn served as the driving force to read the book in one sitting. The second reason to read this book is how deftly Picoult informs readers about something for which they have may no knowledge weaving it into the second half of the book seamlessly. November 30 cannot come soon enough for readers of her works and I highly recommend this to all readers who enjoy timely Realistic Fiction. Thank you #NetGalley

Wow. This was incredible. I cried, got full body chills, I loved it. This book will sit with me for a long time. This is the first Covid novel I have read and it did not disappoint.

I have never been as viscerally affected by a book as I was by Wish You Were Here
After I overcame my annoyance at the use of a Yoko Ono/John Lennon allusion at the beginning, , the book started to hit home I became the book much like Diana.
As a native New Yorker who has experienced and is experiencing the Covid -19 Pandemic currently, I was a bit leery of tackling fiction that is my current events BUT I fell into the story head first and have yet to come out of it. It touched parts of me that I haven't been able to reach since this all began

Jodi Picoult is an amazing storyteller. As this is my first read of what I expect to be a long list in the Pandemic genre, I don't know if this reaction is due to the subject or the story. or the caliber of the writer.

But it is one story I shall never be able to let go of.

I wasn't sure if I could read this book during the pandemic but somehow it gave me strength and positivity for going forward.

My social media review(s) will be on my Instagram account this week (week of 8/23 preview review; full review/pub date celebration Nov 30th).

Thank you for the chance to read such a thought provoking and moving book. I appreciate the ARC from Random House and NetGalley to read and review Jodi Picoult's new book Wish You Were Here. I took 48 hours to process what I wanted to say about this tremendously moving and thoughtful story and I simply want to say it stuck with me, sticks with me still days later, and I have already recommended it to many friends and on my Instagram stories.

It would be easy to say some won't be ready for a book set in this recent past but... that is unfair to the actual beauty of this book and narrative and shortchanges what Ms. Picoult has done: she has captured the sense of what if we leave this time in our lives as different/changed people in unexpected ways, what and who will be will and who do we want to be, and even perhaps a subtle why did this happen feeling that has been a part of how many of us have reflected on this pandemic. Ms. Picoult also captures the nuances of the confusion and uncertainty of different stages of the pandemic and does so in a way that resonates and validates small and big moments.

There is also for me the standard well researched and examined points in this book, details and richness with art history, the natural world in Galapagos, specific experiences with COVID and I appreciate the care that Ms. Picoult shows her characters, the book's settings, and her readers with these details and depth. Once the true meaning of Ms. Picoult's story and Diana's story is unearthed, there is an emotional connection and awakening that truly resonated with me. I stayed up late to finish this book just because I wanted and needed to know where Diana's story would lead me.

Diana's story is one that is so relatable to me, having a path, following it, seeking out early and steadfast success and being willing to put in the hard work and effort to achieve goals; planning for a happy and stable life with a partner and envisioning a happy life together. And yet the sense of something else, the what if this isn't what she wants or ever wanted, what is there is something else to life? Placing these questions within the early weeks and months of the pandemic... that is what this book is about at its essence. Though Diana has her life set and organized, her story still feels like a coming of age story or perhaps more a finding a way to try to make sense of this pandemic life story if this can be the start of a specific sub genre.

It is hard to say more without taking away the experience readers should have with this book, I imagine many will feel as I did (moved, emotionally connected) and others will take away other meaning and connection to this story. I can't wait to hear how reading friends and my book clubs feel about this book.

Thank you again for this ARC, it is an outstanding book and probably my favorite from Jodi Picoult.

Jodi Picoult writes books about timely social issues, and none will be more controversial than her November 2021 book Wish You Were Here. In this book, she has combined three different story lines. There is a romance with great characters that will pull at your heart strings. There is her relationship with her mother which many people will find fascinating in that love/hate drama that only families or close friends ever achieve. Finally, she embraces the pandemic of 2020 by interviewing front line workers, survivors, and families that lost loved ones. She describes the shutdowns we all experienced and the fears we still harbor. She embraces what it means to be human and describes the love, resilience, bravery, and hope that we have experienced.

Some reviewers of this arc (I received an advanced copy from netgalley.com in exchange for a review) have expressed that they think she wrote about COVID too soon. I certainly learned more than I ever knew from the first responder accounts, the descriptions of the hospital settings, the truth about vents and how they affect patients, and how long it takes for those who come off vents to rehabilitate back to where they were before they got sick. Since they were in hospital wards with no visitors, we had no personal experience seeing how they were doing. Since Delta doesn’t seem to be slowing down, COVID is not behind us over a year later and the debates about the vaccinations and the masks and the political divisions of the country still haunt us.

In New York, the ambitious Diana O'Toole is almost thirty, and on the verge of achieving all that she wants professionally as an art specialist at Sotheby's, and personally, convinced that Finn Colson, a surgical resident at the Presbyterian hospital will propose on a trip to Galapagos to celebrate her 30th birthday. However, her carefully planned life is about to be change forever when Finn is unable to go with her as a medical emergency develops with the beginnings of the Covid-19 virus. Diana arrives on Galapagos as it is going into quarantine and lockdown, leaving her stranded, her luggage is lost, she cannot speak the language, and internet is patchy. She is isolated and lonely but finds herself connecting with a local family. Like so many people, Diana is to find herself re-evaluating her sense of identity and working out what really matters in life.

I learned that COVID patients who survive may have lingering symptoms that may or may not change like sense of smell or taste. I discovered there is such a thing as COVID psychosis and that survivors may have PTSD. And I learned more about therapists and how they deal with these problems than I previously knew. I had no idea there was what we call art therapy.

Meanwhile, her mother is coping with her memory loss in an assisted living home where she can have no visitors. And having more time since furloughed from her museum job, Diana reflects on the journey of their lives during the past thirty years.

Finally, Finn gives us a behind the scenes look at what is really happening in his hospital.

As the three stories build in the book, you will meet many unforgettable characters. Some have stayed with me since I completed the book. Certainly, the COVID facts and descriptions will linger. There are many, many twists and turns in the book which I cannot discuss in this review without ruining the story for future readers. Suffice it to say that just when you think you know what is what and who is who, you do not. I will continue to make my own decision about the last chapter in the book for a long time to come.

Is this book easy to read? The answer is possibly not but I will also tell you that I could not put it down and read late in the night to finish it in about a week. Even though it may be too soon to read about COVID, I could not stop turning the pages. I have read almost all of Jodi’s books. I loved the Egyptian book, and she has done her COVID research to write this one. I look forward to reading her next book. Be sure to read her comments at the end of the book which explain the research she conducted while writing. I loved reading this book. I hope you will too. Thank you to netgalley for the ARC.