Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult is a great fiction that is quite unique and kept me interested throughout.

This book is much more then a romance novel or a novel about COVID19. It is about finding oneself, questioning the fundamental aspects of life: who we are, who we want to be, what matters, what is love, where is home, and how do we want to get there?

These questions, and many more, are what Diana grapples with while isolated on what was supposed to be a joint vacation with her boyfriend Finn, but what ends up being a moment of clarity and awakening while on the Galapagos Islands.

While preserving the twists, turns, and surprises, I will say no more as the novel continues on in ways I was not expecting, and will forever remember. Let me just say it will bring out plenty of emotions and will stay with you long after you finish.

5/5 stars

Thank you NG and Ballantine Books/Random House for this wonderful arc and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon, Instagram, and B&N accounts upon publication.

The very best fiction helps us process our world in ways we are not yet able to do for ourselves. Author Jodi Picoult is a master at turning mirrors in different directions and sending prisms of light back at readers, always illuminating our worlds in ways we hadn’t seen before. WISH YOU WERE HERE is just such a novel and very timely. I offer no secrets about the book; I refuse to ruin it. I read it quickly because I couldn’t put it down. A 29 year old woman whose life is planned out is faced with going on her vacation on the eve of the Pandemic or losing all the money they paid for it. Her physician boyfriend is on emergency room rotation. They live in New York. Obviously, it was hard to predict what to do before COVID began. It’s still hard to predict what to do. The book is excellent. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

I'll be honest: I wasn't sure I was ready to read a novel about the pandemic quite yet. But I quickly found that I'm ALWAYS ready to read anything Jodi Picoult feels compelled to write—and I tearfully turned the final pages of this book filled with gratitude that she chose this topic, these characters, this time. There is so much here that deserves to be chronicled, and yet in Picoult's insightful, thoughtful hands, the 2020 landscape isn't just familiar ground, but a foundation for something new: One character's soul search for what really matters, what we really want out of life, and how clarity can come even—perhaps especially—in the midst of life-altering chaos. What a treat to receive a Netgalley copy ahead of publication: Do not seek spoilers, do not ask questions, just add this to your must read list for fall.

Diana is about to turn 30 and she is finally going to land the promotion she has been working for. She and her boyfriend,Finn, a surgical resident, are going on a long planned trip to the Galapagos.
Suddenly Finn is stuck in the hospital helping with a virus that has the city on alert. He persuades Diana to go on the trip without him.
Upon landing Diana is faced with no hotel and no internet. She feels very isolated. The island is in quarantine. There is no way out.
Diana meets a troubled teenage girl on the island and with her help she is able to explore the island and herself.
Diana is learning that everything is not what it seems. Will she come home the same person? Wanting the same things that were so important.
Readers of Jodi Picoult will not be disappointed in this unique account of the pandemic.

I don't know how she did it - but this book is the BEST yet! I couldn't put it down. She put into words what so many of us have gone through this past year - engaging, engrossing - just wow.

This is the COVID-19 book I didn't think we were ready for yet. And yet it's so much more than a COVID story. The interweaving of the letters from Finn and the account of her situation by Diana make for a brilliant balance of perspectives. And ultimately it's about making choices that honor your dreams and celebrate small wins.

As usual, this was a Jodi Picoult book I loved, it what else would you expect? This one centers on Diana, who, at 29 years old, is living a steady and organized life that was going exactly as she planned it. Lo and behold, COVID hits and disrupts the vacation she had planned with her boyfriend, Finn, where she expected him to propose. Finn insists she goes anyway, as he is a doctor and will be working nonstop due to the pandemic. Diana embarks to the Galápagos Islands on her own, where she goes on an unexpected journey of self reflection and re-examining what she is looking for out of life.

Reading about COVID felt too soon but was actually really interesting, as I could picture what it would be like to read this book 25 years from now and be transported back to this crazy time in our history. I found Diana herself to be well characterized- she felt human and real throughout the story. The only thing I questioned a bit was how easily she dealt with all the things that went wrong as soon as she got onto the island- I felt that someone as tightly wound as as was would’ve freaked out a lot more than she did. Minor nit, though. There’s always a twist in a Picoult book and when it comes, it was wholly unexpected and took the rest of the story to another level. There was no one in this book that I couldn’t relate to in one way or another.

I’d strongly recommend this book, even if you don’t think you are ready to read about COVID- it’s an engaging and poignant story, and also brilliantly researched, as I’ve come to expect from Picoult. I always walk away not only having learned something, but being interested enough to do some follow up googling on whatever it was (art in this case). Thanks to Netgalley for offering me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

While still being in the pandemic I wasn’t sure I wanted to read about COVID-19 but that quickly ended once I began this novel. The author’s extensive research is once again apparent throughout this novel as she writes about the symptoms and treatment of this virus. Jodi writes characters that come to life as we experience the effects of this virus on world. The story kept me engaged throughout as Jodi chronicles what we have been living through this past year and a half. Coming out in November and not to be missed! Well done and 10 out of 5 stars!
#WishYouWereHere #JodiPicoult #NetGalley

I was stunned when I saw a Jodi Picoult book getting read to be out so soon after her last novel. This is a very on course to what we are going through as a world with Covid-19. Once again in Jodi's style the ending is absolutely not what I was thinking it was going to be. I loved the story line. I think many of us could benefit reading this new novel. I will be recommending this to many readers.

Admittedly, I am a huge fan of Jodi Picoult. Her stories are well-researched, powerful, sometimes heartbreaking, but always thought provoking. The characters and stories will stay with you. I was thrilled to get an ARC from Random House to read her new novel, Wish You Were Here, that comes out in November 2021. I intentionally did not look on-line to read the summary prior to reading so these impressions are my own. In the book Diana O’Toole has a plan for her life, but this plan did not include a worldwide pandemic. She had plans for a promotion at work and a bucket list trip with her hopefully soon to be fiance. Unfortunately, her boyfriend is a surgical resident in NYC and his hospital is starting to see a rise in COVID cases and he has to break the news to her that he has to stay behind. Diane decides to travel on their dream trip anyway, but immediately runs into complications that leave her stranded on an island that has shut down due to the virus. The story is told from her perspective of an isolated tourist in a foreign country and from the perspective of e-mails from her traumatized boyfriend who is exhausted, overworked, and overwhelmed trying to keep up with the needs back home. Through his correspondence we feel what the front line workers endured. I think this story will resonate with readers because we all lived through this pandemic. Everything stopped. I love the line “When I try to make sense of the past year, it feels to me like the world pressed pause.” There was the initial fun period where people watched Tiger King and then there was the feeling of when is this ever going to end? We all felt scared and isolated. For the lucky ones, we finally had time off and we had nowhere to go. Other people had bigger concerns since they lost their jobs and too many people lost their lives. I admit, this book may be too intense at times for those who experienced the loss of a loved one due to COVID, but it is important to tell the stories. Take a break. Come back. This book gives us permission to process how we all feel about being a survivor. How has this experience changed the way you think about your current choices? How has this book changed how you want to live the rest of your life? There is one point in the book that I wanted to act like a spoiled child and say, nope, I am not reading anymore because things did not go like I wanted. This feeling also mirrored how we felt during COVID. We felt punished, lost, and annoyed at the things we could not control. All of this is normal. In this story we also see how one relationship fares during the pandemic. I will refrain from spoilers, but people will be talking about this one! I highly recommend this book and cannot wait to share it with bookclub.
Thank you #netgalley #wishyouwerehere

Diana and Finn have scheduled a trip of a lifetime to the Galapagos islands. However, their trip is scheduled to begin right when a global pandemic comes to NY. Finn is a hospital resident and gets word that he can not leave and tells Diana she should go alone, and perhaps it would be safer for her there. Although this is outside her comfort zone, she decides to go. When she gets there, on the last Ferry before they close down the Ferry's for two weeks due to the pandemic, she still decides to stay, only to find that she is stranded on an Island where businesses are shutting down. She is adopted by a lovely woman, even though they do not speak the same language and given an apartment to stay in. Sometimes she is given food as well, but ultimately, Diana needs to figure out how to fend for herself in a world so different from her own. One day, she runs into one of the travelers, Beatriz, who was on the same Ferry she was, and they start to develop an unlikely relationship. There is so much more to say about the story line but if I do, I will be providing spoilers which I do not want to do. It took me a little bit to get into the story, but once I did, I was hooked. Then a twist was thrown in and it shifted how I felt about the book for a bit. Honestly, I got angry at the book for a bit, but then I got back with the program and started to enjoy the book again. I always love Jodi Picoult, and while I could not love this book as much as some of her others, I appreciated reading about someone else's life during the pandemic. I thought I would not want to read about something I had just been living through, but I was wrong on that one. I think this was a tough topic to tackle, but she handled it well. Loved the characters in this book who all came to life for me. Well worth the time to read this one.

I love Jodi Picoult but was hesitant to read Wish You Were Here. The book is about the COVID pandemic and because we are still in the middle of it, I wasn’t sure if I’d enjoy this. However, this book is so much more than the pandemic. The characters are amazing and the plot captivated me the entire way. Jodi Picoult outdid her self again!

Set during the pandemic, Picoult does a masterful job keeping politics out of this story about humanity and how life can change in the blink of an eye. I found myself loving the characters the more they were flushed out on the page. And that plot twist truly threw me in a loop.

Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult

9781984818416

336 Pages
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Release Date: November 30, 2021

Fiction, General Fiction (Adult), Women’s Fiction, Covid-19, Quarantine

Diana O’Toole works at Sotheby’s and lives in New York City with her boyfriend, resident surgeon Finn. They are planning on leaving for the Galapagos Islands when the city gets hit with the first patients of the Coronavirus. Finn tells Diana to go without him since the trip was paid in advance and it is silly for both of them to stay home.

As she is arriving on Isabela Island, a mob of people are waiting for the ferry. The ferry operator tells her that the island is closing, and this is the last ferry. She has to decide if she wants to stay or return. She decides she is going to be adventurous and stays. When she walks to her hotel, she sees a woman locking the door. The woman tells her the hotel along with the rest of the island is closed for two weeks. On an island, without her luggage, without knowing the language, without a place to stay, she stands there wondering what to do.

This is a beautiful and well written story that everyone should read. We have all been affected by Covid-19 in some way. The pandemic has caused many of us to feel the isolation more than others. It caused anxiety and made us question the future of the new normal. Like the author, I have respiratory issues and have not been to a grocery store since before the pandemic began. I highly recommend this book.

Jodi Picoult does it again. She's my very favorite author and I was surprised and grateful to be able to read this book early. It is absolutely excellent! She gives the reader all the information they need about Covid is an interesting, compelling novel. I LOVED it...the information reeks of authenticity and the story is so good. Thank you, Jodi!

I received a copy of this book free of charge from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

WOW! I'm always excited for another Jodi Picoult book but this one was so timely. It brought back so many feelings from the early days of Covid and the shut down and how there were so many things we just didn't know. It was a scary time. This book was so good and left me with so many feelings that It took over 2 weeks before I could write this review. If you had or lost someone to Covid this book may be hard for you to read.

Diana is in her late 20's and her life is moving in the right direction. Her boyfriend, Finn, is a surgical resident. They are scheduled to go on vacation to the Galapagos Islands where he will propose. Covid is heating up in New York and Finn tells her to go on vacation without him. So she does. I won't go past this point to avoid any spoilers.

As always, Jodi's novels have a twist and this one is no different. I unfortunately read another review that had a spoiler in it that wasn't disclosed so I had an idea of the twist.

I give this 5/5 stars. I only wish it was coming out sooner than Nov.

Given that we are still in the middle of a pandemic, there were parts of the book that were hard to read. Still, the book was a tremendous story that captures how quickly our world changed as a result of COVID. And the storyline was captivating. I wanted to see the Galapagos for myself after reading the book. And I wanted to read more about how everyone’s lives turned out! A book I will recommend to everyone! Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the book. This is my honest review.

Thank you Random House publishing and Netgalley for an ARC of Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult. This is not your typical JP book with a moral dilemma. There is quite a twist in this novel, that focuses on what lives have been like for medical personnel and covid patients over the past year and a half. The twist made the book more enjoyable, but I think for me it is a bit too soon to be reading about covid “historical fiction” novels.

To be honest, I wasn’t sure I wanted to read a book that was centered on COVID. Would this just be a rehash of what we have lived for the past 1+ year? Ugh

It didn’t take long to get caught up in the story. This was a book I couldn’t read fast enough but kept slowing down because I didn’t want it to end. There’s was a plot twist that caught me totally off guard and made the story more intriguing. All I can say is - wow!

"How are we going to chronicle this pandemic?" Jodi Piccoult asked this and then did it, with her usual skill. I was, again, up all night to read a Piccoult book in one sitting. It was so real, each character being fully developed and the scenes being full of life (and death). The Covid pandemic begins at the same time as the book, and is told in first person with emails telling another side of the pandemic. It is about so much more than just surviving, it is about truly living.