I'm the kind of person who finds reading books set during the pandemic to be comforting. It helps me process this hell of a time that we are all still living through. If you are not that kind of person, you might want to wait before you read this one.

But if you're ready, then you should not hesitate to pre-order this. Jodi Picoult has outdone herself with "Wish You Were Here." Not only does she tell a compelling and engrossing story, she manages to offer reflections on so many ways our lives have been affected by COVID-19. From patients suffering from the disease, to health care workers on the front lines, furloughed workers, couples navigating their new co-habitation realities, end of life care...there's just SO MUCH in here and I honestly cannot wait to read it again and again.

I don't want to say too much about this book, because I want everyone to experience it for themselves. I will say that this book caused me to think about my life in a different way and I'm so grateful that I was able to read an advanced copy. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

PS: If we know each other in real life, when you get to "that part" can you text me your reaction? You'll know it when you read it.

Jodi Picoult crafts beautiful stories that always, always shock me at least once; Wish You Were Here was no exception. After living a year+ of pandemic life, reading heavy pandemic fiction was a lot, but I think this book will make a great time capsule of this weird moment in all our lives. The story itself was great, as I've come to expect from her.

This book is absolutely wonderful. I loved it so much.
I have it toward the top of my list to read again. This is
one you don't want to miss out on.
I had no idea what this book was about, I went reading
totally blind, and for this book that's exactly what you need
to do. It makes it so much better.

Thank you so much, NetGalley, Jodi Picoult, and your publisher
for allowing me to read and review this amazing read!

First, let me say that you want to go into this one blind. Don’t read too much about it; just dive in. You must trust me on this.
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What happens when you are stripped of all the elements that you think make you who you are? When all of the essentials are stripped away, who are you? And is that you your authentic self or simply the version of yourself that emerges under extreme duress? These are some of the questions that Wish You Were Here evoked.

What I Loved 🌿

✨Like all of her books, this one is thought-provoking and has lingered with me.

✨I loved the elements of the book set in the Galapagos. The remarkable descriptions sent me on a rabbit hole of Googling locations and sites to learn more.

✨The boots on the ground perspective of an NYC doctor in the height of the pandemic were raw and real but also important.  

✨That plot twist I absolutely did not see coming. What?? Hold on what? I’m still thinking about it and will be for a long time to come.

✨The ending. How often do you get literal chills at the end of a book? Not so often for me.

What I Struggled With🌿

✨ Some of the doctor’s descriptions of Covid treatment are very difficult to read, and this may be too soon for some readers. I honestly felt distressed reading some of it.
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At its heart, Wish You Were Here reads, at least in part, like a love note to frontline healthcare workers. It is also very much a testament to the grief that comes from being battered and broken by Covid. Whether from suffering with the virus itself or from experiencing the isolation, division and loss of the pandemic, we all have something to grieve. Wish You Were here is a masterful exploration of that theme.

Content Warnings🌿
Self-harm, mention of suicide, Covid

My thanks to Ballantine Books and @NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book before its November 30 publication date. You’re definitely going to want to put this on your TBR.

Disclaimer: full review will be up on pop-culturalist.com

I'm a huge Jodi Picoult fan and this book doesn't disappoint! This book gave me chills and I adored Diana;s narrative in this. Full review coming closer to publication date.

I have voluntarily read and reviewed a copy of this title given to me via NetGalley. I really enjoyed this book. It was really well written and it just had you trying to solve the mystery. I look forward to seeing what’s next from this author.

I have loved reading Picoult books since I was first introduced to her writing. She we never disappoints. Her books all seem to go in a straight line so you are completely wrapped in the story and the characters and then she makes a turn that spins your head!

WISH YOU WERE HERE does just that. You are reading about a young woman and her fiancé in the very early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, before the world seem to just stop, for some.

The readers is invested in Diana, the main character from the first sentence. The places have been extensively researched beautifully described. I was so intrigued by the opening chapter, I went to Google to see pictures and read more about the Grand Central Terminal. (No spoilers. This is stated in the second sentence of the book.)

I highly recommend this book.

I almost always love Jodi Picoult books: so well researched, beautifully written, and with so much food for thought. This one is no different. Reading it now, while we're in the midst of the pandemic with a still uncertain resolution, was fascinating and heartbreaking; good to see how far we've come, but scary to think what we could return to. I imagine rereading this book again many years hence, with the perspective of that future time, and finding it equally compelling.

The first half of the book was full of wonderful descriptions of the Galapagos Islands and the people that Diana, the narrator, encountered there. The relationships were well developed and I felt quite invested in them. It was interesting to think how one would feel to find oneself unexpectedly stranded in such a remote place, with barely any contact to the outside world, and having to make do with the scarce accommodations Diana encountered there in paradise while feeling guilty about all she escaped from back home.

The twist that came at the end of part one of the book was perhaps the most surprising one I've ever read. Those last pages of the first part were SO well done; I just couldn't turn the pages fast enough. I keep wanting other people to read the book so I can see if they were equally shocked, and even if I suspect they won't read it, I don't want to tell them anything on the off chance they do, because they should be as floored as I was. I actually enjoyed the second half of the book even more than the first--just really compelling. It covers so many different aspects of the COVID experiences of different people and how it has changed all of us, probably in ways we don't even know yet.

I didn't love the final sentence of the book--seemed a bit too gimmicky to me. On the other hand, I can't really come up with a better ending, Don't miss the Author's Note, though. I once heard her speak at Book Expo around the time "Small Great Things" came out and I loved hearing how thoughtful she is about her choice of topic, how she researches, and the questions she asks herself. It makes me love her books even more.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for an e-ARC of this wonderful book.

There are some readers who might think that it's too soon to read books about the pandemic 2020. It was difficult to be reminded of what went in the world after March, 2020, and it did bring back some bad memories. This book is much more than a novel about how the world changed. It's a reminder of how wonderful the front line workers - doctors and nurses -worked in conditions dangerous to their health and were committed to keeping the Covid patients alive when possible. Primarily this is a book about bravery, love and resilience.

Diana is in her late 20s and so far her life has followed the path that she has planned. she wants to be married by 30, have her kids by 35 and move out of NYC to the suburbs. while she moves up the cooperate ladder. Her boyfriend, Finn, is a resident at a NYC hospital and they are planning a trip to the Galápagos to celebrate her birthday. It was early March and people weren't worried about Covid and believed that it would be gone by Easter. Finn comes home from the hospital and his comments make it all very real. His caseload is growing by the day and he expects the country to shut down soon from what he's seeing. Diana is a bit of a skeptic and decides to the Galápagos by herself. Her trip goes well until she gets to the island and finds out that there will be no ferry back to the mainland for at least two weeks, the hotel she was planning to stay at has shut down and her luggage was lost on the trip and there is very poor wifi and she can't communicate with Finn daily as they'd planned. The longer she stays on the island, the calmer she gets about life and her bucket plans for her future. When she does hear from Finn, he gives her information about shutdowns and how many people are dying. His emails to her really bring back the memories of what life was like in 2020 and at times, they were difficult to read. Diana's two weeks on the island becomes longer as the island stays closed down. She meets a local woman who helps her and provides a room for her as well as a man and his daughter. Since she has more free time than she's ever had, she begins to think about her life and the things that she wants to accomplish, she begins to wonder about the changes this trip will make on her life. Will her life change when she gets back to New York City?

As with all Jodi Picoult's books, it's apparent that she has done a lot of research --this time on medical issues and the beauty of the Galapagos. Her characters are very well written and they reflect how all of were dealing with the changes in our lives last year. Have tissue close at hand and get ready to read a fantastic book. Yes, parts of it are painful reminders but at the end of the book the overall feeling is one of hope and love and finding new happiness.

Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.

Jodi strikes again and presents a well-thought-out, developed and researched oasis. This one hit close to home, though, with us still in the pandemic while also trying to slowly transition out of the pandemic. As with all of Jodi’s novels, Wish a You Were Here is very thought provoking. It had me thinking how I would get along stranded on an island as well as realizing what kind of soul searching I myself have been doing over the last year and a half. Thank you, Jodi, for all of your hard work in consistently presenting your fans with such a complete package of a story; you never stop short.

I received an advance copy of Wish You Were Here, by Jodi Piccoult. I usually love Jodie Piccoult books, but not this one. Diane is a very selfish and self centered woman. Her boyfriend is a doctor in the covid era, yet she leaves him to go on vacation, and ends up sleeping with another man. I could not finish the book.

In the Galápagos Islands, where Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection was formed, Diana finds herself examining her relationships, her choices, and herself—and wondering if when she goes home, she too will have evolved into someone completely different.

Thank you NetGalley and Jodi Picoult for this eARC.

Jodi, Jodi, Jodi how you love to break my heart! No spoilers. I will say that reading about Covid and reliving March 2020 was both sad and interesting. I remember what I was doing the day the world stopped turning and how the next several months changed all of us. I loved the descriptive story telling and main character Diana so much! Fantastic story and characters. This is a must read for any Jodi fan!

A book set during COVID-19 written as only Jodi Picoult writes.I was so drawn in by the characters the story and as with all her books there is a twist one that I never saw coming.No spoilers just grab this book.#netgalley#randomhouse

This is the Jodi Picoult that I love.! An engaging and thought provoking novel centered around the Covid outbreak in New York City. However, there is such a good twist with a dual timeline in the Galapagos Islands. A gem of a novel that I devoured in two days.

A beautiful story about the tragedy and romance of life. Set during the covid-19 pandemic, it captures the experience through the eyes of an artist as she and her doctor boyfriend navigate the traumas and triumphs of the quarantine in New York City.

I won't rehash what the book is about, most reviewers already do. I didn't like Jodi's last book, The Book of Two Ways so I was a little skeptical doing into this one. I picked getting this book even though I wanted to stay away from the Covid thing, I didn't want my fiction to really blend with real life. That being said I could NOT put this book down. I got hooked very early on in it and loved the characters. I was completely shocked by the twist that Jodi usually does in her book. I never saw it coming. I thought it would be a certain thing but I never saw this one. The ending made me curious as to what would have happened if the story kept going. I really enjoyed this one.

Thank you to Netgalley for my ARC!!

** spoiler alert ** Thank you NetGalley for the free ARC. Well, I did not see that one coming. Without giving too much away, Jodi Picoult's books often have an unexpected twist. ( I remember throwing the book across the room when I was reading My Sister's Keeper.) This book deals with the Covid epidemic and how our outlook on life bas changed in so many ways.

Hitting too close to home with this pandemic. I can’t come up with 100 characters.disappointedin this book. Usually love this author works.

Full disclosure. I finished this book 3 days ago and have yet to figure out a way to discuss it without spoilers. So, rather than detailing the story, I'll talk around it. I, like many other people am suffering from pandemic fatigue. I hesitated to even pick up this book knowing that it took place in the midst of Covid-19. However, I absolutely love Jodi Picoult's books so I took a deep breath and dove in. I'm glad that I did. While the story does indeed take place during the pandemic, it is not about the pandemic. Rather it is a rich, beautiful story about love and loss, hope and despair, and figuring out how to love ourselves through it all. Picoult has crafted a book that teaches us that things don't have to be real to have a real impact on our lives. It is beautifully written with descriptions so detailed that you will feel the salt on your skin and the breeze in your hair. If you only read one book this year, read this one.

I wanted a story of hope and love and got so much more from Jodi Picoult's Wish You Were Here. Picoult masterfully weaves a story that happens to written during Covid-times, but it is about discovering who you were meant to be, surviving isolation, and love.

Wish You Were Here begins with Diana literally painting stars in the sky with her father in Grand Central Station. We learn that Diana has an estranged relationship with her Pulitzer Prize winning photographer mother, works in the private collection department of Christie's, and lives with her medical resident boyfriend. Her life is right on track according to her "list," that is until the pandemic hits. Diana and her boyfriend were supposed to go on a trip to the Galapagos (where Diana hopes he will propose!), but the hospital cannot allow him to leave. He encourages Diana to still go to keep her safe from Covid.

Diana reluctantly agrees, but she becomes trapped on the island when it shuts down to contain the pandemic. For the first time, Diana is alone. She has no place to stay when the hotel closes and doesn't know a soul on the island. (This was definitely not on her "list.") She is forced to figure out what she really needs to survive and who she truly is.

Everything changes when Diana finally gets home, because she doesn't want the same things as before. As expected, Picoult has created a meticulously researched story with such real characters. Wish You Were Here had me holding my breath, wiping away tears, and laughing out loud.

This is this book I needed to read right now, and I thank Jodi Picoult for writing it (and NetGalley for the arc!). I can only hope that I can do this book justice with my review. It gave me hope and the promise of joy.

I will be encouraging everyone I know to READ THIS BOOK!