I DNF'd this one. I couldn't get past the stupidity of the MC, and the errors on the medical issues (just to be clear I'm in the medical profession, so I know). I'm usually willing to allow literary license in some areas, but from the start when a resident (a Dr. in training) performs a tracheotomy when an anesthesiologist (an actual M.D.) is present was so ludicrous I couldn't continue.

This is an outstanding book. I initially put off reading it because I wasn’t sure I was ready to read about the pandemic yet. Once I started reading I was immersed in the book. The “Picoult twist” in the middle took me by surprise, as it was intended. If I could give it more than 5 stars, I would. It’s one of the best books I’ve read this year.

Diana and Finn have a plan for their careers and their lives. Diane works for Sotheby’s and Finn is a surgical intern at a hospital in NYC.

They have planned a trip to the Galápagos Islands down to the last day. When people start getting sick from Covid, Finn can’t take vacation because the hospital is filling up fast. He tells Diana to go, and she does, arriving just as the islands shut down for quarantine.

Her hotel is closed and she ends up renting a room. There’s no cash, so she barters using quick sketches as currency. She meets a young girl and becomes her confidant, and gets very close with her father Gabriel. Email is spotty, but she gets communications from Finn about the severity of the pandemic so she’s slightly informed. She’s removed from reality as she knows it, and it forces her to examining her choices.

Gabriel says to her “You can’t move forward without losing something” and that quote made me think about the changes Covid has wrought. Some of them may be temporary, some permanent, it’s too early to tell what we’ve lost as we’ve moved forward from a global pandemic. He was talking about an animal on the Galapagos, the cradle of evolutionary theory, but it applies as a general theory too.

This was a tremendously moving book, I think everyone will find something personal to relate to. 5 stars.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I read so many Jodi Picoult books in high school, during the time of juicy couture tracksuits, going out tops, and low rise jeans. So let’s assume the last time I read anything by her was around 2006.
This book is so different than her writing that I remember, there were no Amish teens or kids being born to provide bone marrow. But, in typical Jodi Picoult fashion, she hits on current issues, Wish You Were Here takes place during the height of the pandemic.
Half of this book felt like such a departure from my expectations based on previous experience with her work, and then the second half was comfortably familiar. It hits that poignant issue while still being sensitive. It was so well done, the concept was weird but in a good way.
Jodi Picoult does emotional depth like no one else, but I can’t say much more because this book is so unique I’m scared to post anything that could spoil it. But, I do wish that at the end it came out that the trip to the Galapagos was inspired by Schitt’s creek.

Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult is the book I needed to read after more than a year of frightening uncertainty. What started as an interesting story about coping with being stranded alone in another country during a pandemic lock down shifted to exploring important relationships with others -- family, friends, co-workers, lovers, caregivers and strangers.

The characters were fully developed and increasingly became more real to me as the story progressed. The book was impossible to put down after the unexpected u-turn in Part 2. The best part was the introspection about what matters most to us and the tough decisions and changes needed to make that happen in our lives. The Epilogue brought the story to a satisfying close, but the Author's Note was the part I liked best. I predict this book will be another bestseller for this amazing author.

I love Jodi Picoult’s books and looked forward to reading this one. While I really did not like the major plot twist in this book, I still enjoyed it. Part of the reason I didn’t enjoy the twist is that I enjoyed that angle of the novel a lot. I’m trying to review this without a spoiler.

Thank you Jodi Picoult for creating a wonderful story filled with many enjoyable characters. Happy Reading!

I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and the publisher ~ Thank you ~ !! This is my honest and personal review.

Man. I wanted to throw my kindle at 60% but I’m glad I kept going. I was really enjoying it and it’s hard to not spoil anything but I can say it was a good way to tell a Covid story. If you’re ready for a Covid story. Maybe a little too soon but ir was my first Jodi picoult book and it definitely won’t be my last. The audio narration was fantastic as well.

Wow, I highly recommend! This was the gentle hug that I needed after the past year and a half. Reading Diana & Finn’s experiences was soothing and therapeutic and gave me permission to exhale after being stressed and frustrated with how the unknown has become the norm in all of our lives.
The first part of the book was a bit cringy knowing what was coming and how we all thought it was “just two weeks,” but it all became clear as the book continued. I was completely thrown by the twist but loved Diana’s growth throughout the entire book, Such great perspective on the chaos of this pandemic and an encouraging example of human resiliency. I love Picoult’s passion and ability to accurately capture the emotion of a situation with so many unique experiences. Thank you for writing this book and for the arc copy! I am sharing this with all of my reader friends! Now off to research a trip to the Galapagos...

If you want a book to give you all the feels you need to read WISH YOU WERE HERE. I know for some the COVID-19 pandemic is still very fresh. Picoult does amazing job giving what we have been through a voice through. Picoult's main character Diana O'Toole and her boyfriend Finn are both impacted by the pandemic in different ways. WISH YOU WERE HERE shine a light on how we can get through so much by sheer force of will, some resiliency and a whole lot of human spirit. A must read and an story that will leave a mark on your heart.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced digital copy of this book in exchange for a review.

Diana O'Toole has her life all figured out. She has the perfect job, is living with the perfect man, and they have planned their perfect life together. But just as they are to embark on a perfect, planned down to every detail, vacation, when Finn, her fiance and a surgical resident, is told there is an epidemic coming and it is all hands on deck at the hospital.

Should Diana go ahead without him? After all, they will lose all their deposit money and they have saved for this vacation for a while. Finn urges her to go, if for no other reason than that he won't have to worry about her while he works at the hospital. So she heads off to the Galapagos alone. BUT, when she gets to the island, it is about to shut down because of Covid, her luggage is lost and there is little or no wi-fi. For some reason, she decides to stay anyway.

Thus begins the first of no doubt many novels based around the worldwide pandemic which we are all still experiencing and digging out of.

This was very enjoyable and a good read to help figure out what exactly is important in this world.

Jodi Picoult is known for her stories that features characters who confront ethical, sometimes life or death, decisions. Wish You Were Here does not follow that format. Diana O'Toole believes her life is headed in exactly the right direction. She is working in her dream field, with a boyfriend (soon to be fiancé) who is a surgical resident, and both of them believe they know what the future holds. However, COVID quickly changes that when she finds herself on their long-planned trip to the Galapagos islands....alone. As the world shuts down, she finds herself stranded on the island with no idea when she will be able to go back to her life. But, is that what she wants?

While many readers may not yet be ready for books based on COVID scenarios, Picoult uses the pandemic as a way to explore the ways in which people used that time to reevaluate many of the decisions in their lives - partners, jobs, homes, etc. Often when we are forced to remove ourselves from certain situations, what we find on the other side is more than we ever imagined.

Plain and simple - as if Jodi Picoult could get any better......she does. Best book of hers - and this book will still be this great in 10 years!

I loved this book. Once I started it was hard to point down. I certainly fantasized about being stuck on an island unable to go back to work during Covid…. The plot twist was fantastic.

This is a NO SPOILER review. “Wish You Were Here” is filled with surprises that readers should just find out for themselves. Diana O’Toole is twenty-one and works as an art specialist at Sotheby’s; she and boyfriend/roommate Dr. Finn Colson have booked a trip to the Galápagos. The travel agent told them it would be life-changing; little did they know. It is March 13, 2020, and the world is about to change. New York City suddenly has nine cases of Covid, and Finn’s hospital will not let him leave. The trip has been paid for, so Finn suggests that Diana get out of the city and go alone to the Galápagos.

The story continues in Diana’s first-person narrative. She had her life planned, milestones for her and Finn together. No one ever thinks that the entire world will change between heartbeats, but it does. Readers understand as Diana agonizes over traveling alone, something she had not planned. She is in the Galápagos, but the islands are shut down. There is no way in or out; the hotel is closed, and she is stuck on an island where she does not even speak the language. Phone and internet service is spotty at best, but she occasionally receives messages from Finn detailing the disasters befalling him in a pandemic-stricken New York hospital, vastly different from her experience being quarantined in a sparse but exotic tropical paradise.

The first day of the rest of her life begins in “Part Two.” (Remember, no spoilers here) There are lots of things that people do not know about how the brain works, about how the world works, but people do persevere, do move on. They may feel like they are lonely soldiers returning from war, but return they do.

I received a review copy of “Wish You Were Here” from Jodi Picoult, Ballantine Books, and Random House Publishing. It starts as a casual, fun, entertaining story but rapidly becomes a compelling, world-changing, cautionary tale. Picoult tells the stories that no one else can. “Life is never an absolute, but always a wager.”

This was my first Jodi Picoult book and I wasn't sure what to expect. I was also hesitant because the plot involves the pandemic which is still very raw for some. I was blown away by Jodi's writing and how she delicately handled the subject. Jodi paints such a detailed picture of the locations you truly escape to the Galapagos islands with Diana. Her writing is intellectual yet accessible, I can not reveal too much but would emphatically urge readers to pick this up, everyone will identify in some way with Diana's journey and experience.

Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult is a novel about Diana, an associate specialist at Sotheby's, who has her life planned out. But then, the pandemic hits, and her trip to the Galapagos with her boyfriend Finn is in jeopardy. Finn, a surgical resident, tells her to go on the trip without him, and she does. She ends up stuck there, but she gets to experience everything the island has to offer. But then, Picoult throws a twist at us that I did not see coming. I enjoyed this book, but the details about COVID were too much too soon for me. Thanks to NetGalley for the free digital review copy. All opinions are my own.

Raw and gripping, this story made me relive every moment of the beginning to now of the COVID-19 pandemic.

*SPOILERS*
What could have been better?
I still am unsure how I feel about the whole first half of the book being a dream and the break up between the MC to Finn. I feel like there wasn't enough time to see all the growth the character had to make this decision. I just wish there wasn't the "dream" sequence or they stayed in it, not the split.

What I enjoyed?
I think the author captured the pandemic really well.

I loved all the descriptions and the emails from Finn in NY describing the pandemic at the time. It all felt very familiar and real, especially the disbelief and egotism of the US.

I also loved the character Beatriz and Gabriel, as well as all the descriptions of the Galapagos islands.

I would recommend this to people who love books that hit close to home!

I recommend. Keep me engaged and interested, thank you for the advance chance to read this. I’ve already told family and friends about it

Disclaimer: Big Jodi Picoult fan.

I wasn't sure how I would feel about this book nor did I really think I was ready to read anything COVID related, but .I am glad I did. I loved the twist mid-story. I didn't see that one coming. It was a reminder that even through a pandemic we are resilient and we will get through it.

Thank you to Random House, NetGalley and the author for the #gifted copy of the book.

Yet another banger by Jodi Picoult. I saw so much of myself in Diana and no one captures the breadth of human emotions and the beauty of grey areas like Picoult!