This novel was SPECTACULAR! I have already recommended it to multiple people who have equally loved it as mhuch as I did. Without revealing any spoilers, I loved the twist. It came at the perfect moment, and completely shifted the trajectory of the story. I love Jodi Picoult, and am happy to see her returning to her effortless, intriguing story telling. I had put her on the back burner for a few years because I was not enjoying her books quite as much. This one brought me right back! If I could complain about one thing...it would be the blatant left leaning politics in the story. As a story teller, you really don't want to alienate any of your readers, and this could easily make someone put the book down.

I like this author & have heard good things. I will not be reviewing it since it is a 2021 book and I did not read it in time for our award program cut off, but I wish it all the best!

Ooooof. This one was hard to read. Well done in true Jodi Picoult fashion with her signature willingness to tackle real and timely issues. But as we're still in an active pandemic it hits a bit close to home. You'll feel many feelings while reading.

I’ve loved all of Jodi Picoult’s books so far, and this one is no different. The characters were wonderfully complex and the settings were beautifully described. The shift between Part One and Part Two caught me completely off guard, but in the best possible way. That being said, I definitely enjoyed the first half of the book more than the second half. And I wish the ending hadn’t been quiet so open.

If you're comfortable reliving the pandemic, this is the book to read. Throughout I kept thinking of the saying "man makes plans and God laughs" because it seemed to fit. Diana thinks she has her whole life figured out - the career path she'll be on, when and who she'll marry, the life they'll have together; all of it. She's scheduled for a trip to the Galápagos where she expects her boyfriend will propose marriage when the pandemic hits and everything she expects changes. The vacation isn't as she's planned; and everything that follows is unexpected. This accurately depicts life in the early days of Covid and I think it will hold up for years to come.

The main character luckily gets trapped on the island of Isadora in the Galapagos Islands right when COVID is tearing through the world. She manages to escape the death grab of NYC as the world comes crashing down while on vacation on a tropical island... or does she?

As we are still living in this world where COVID is very much present I have not been drawn to movies/tv/books that continue to remind me that it is everywhere. However, having been a Jodi Picoult fan for a while I knew that she would have an interesting angle that she researched far and wide before writing this book, and boy was I right! In a world where bad things happen every day she took us to another realm where alternate realities might exist and give new life, which fascinated me. While it was equally heartbreaking and beautiful, it makes you wonder who else might have experienced these dreams while on a ventilator and if they did so before the pandemic.

I, however, was not a fan of how she ended the book. I had grown to love Finn and felt the heartbreak for him after all he had gone through and continued to go through practically living in the hospital. I also know, as a nurse, how NDE can cause you to re-evaluate your life and where it is going. Shoutout to the strong females choosing their destinies!
While I felt like I was living in the Galapagos with Diana and loved the scenery that I was able to imagine reading this book, the ending bumped the final rating of the book for me. I would love to hear what happens when she goes back to the island and what she finds... sequel maybe? While I will recommend this book to friends and all Jodi Picoult fans, I do thing it should come with a trigger warning for those that have experienced loss due to COVID.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book thanks to Jodi Picoult and Ballantine Books. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

If you’re not in the headspace to read/hear more about covid then save this book until you are ready. This book is absolutely worth the wait.

This book is powerful and in a way is something everyone can relate to in one way or another. We all found ourselves living a perfectly normal life when covid first started and then all of sudden life around us shut down. This is exactly where Diana finds herself except, she and her long-term boyfriend (Finn) are planning their bucket list vacation to the Galapagos before everything begins to shut down. Finn is a surgical resident and his hospital is all hands-on deck, forcing him to cancel the vacation but he still urges Diana to go. Once she gets there everything seems to go wrong, the world shuts down, she has nowhere to go and no Wi-Fi. She luckily finds a family to take her in during this trying time.

Diana experiences the pandemic like everyone else, day by day and with a lot of uncertainty. She begins to reevaluate her career, her family dynamics and friendships. This book is an emotional rollercoaster from the very beginning to the very end.

If you know Jodi Picoult books then you know there’s always twist and I did not expect this one.

Oh this book. Maybe it was too soon to read about the pandemic? I didn’t feel that way until midway through when the entire book flips on you and you’re like, “wait a minute?!”

I really enjoyed learning about the Galápagos Islands and the island life there. I wanted to stay in that part of the book forever so I was a bit disappointed when there was a switch but I gathered myself and ended up really enjoying the way she had to process being back in the states. The art industry was fun to learn about too.

Fun twists and an easy book to follow. Definitely recommend. Thanks @netgalley for the free arc!!

Thank you NetGalley & Random House for the free review copy. Having just recovered from c*v*d, I thought this would be a good time to review this title that I read earlier this year. Diana is a professional in the art auction world and looking forward to a getaway to the Galapagos with her fiancé when the pandemic hits and the world shuts down. Diana choses to continue on the trip without Finn, who as a resident in a NYC hospital, stays to fight the influx of desperately sick and dying patients.

It was interesting to see Diana analyzing her relationship with Finn through the lens of the onset of a major global pandemic. It certainly brought to light thoughts and considerations she may not have broached otherwise. Picoult is so adept at writing to the human condition and heart. Nothing like a global pandemic to make you step back and assess the things and moments that truly speak to your soul, and realize that they are not monetary, but the basic comforts of life and love.

I switched between the kindle and audio versions and the audio is done very well. And enough time had passed since the onset of the pandemic so that reading about it did not cause triggers or panic, but the ability to look at how something momentous can affect our lives and outlooks in ways we never imagined.

I personally really enjoyed this one, I know a lot of people seemed to be hesitant because it happened in the world of covid, but personally it felt all the more real to me!

Thanks to #NetGalley for proving a copy of this ARC BUT unfortunately I was unable to finish this book. Just wasn't interested in the offbeat plot/love story. She winds up literally at the ends of the earth with wi-fi when it's convenient and guilt about a boyfriend she left behind in NY? The whole thing is so unlikely and strained credulity and I just couldn't finish. After reading about her "plot twist" I'm extremely happy I didn't because that would have made me angry--as if I'd wasted my time on the first half of the story.

rating: 5/5
genre: literary fiction

oh man. this was GOOD YALL. so good.

after hearing that WISH YOU WERE HERE focused around the pandemic i was unsure how i would feel. for me personally, i did not consider this plot point an absolute no but i can definitely understand how some may not be ready or desire picking it up for that reason. i must say that while it IS heavy, to me this is a necessary read and left me quite speechless by the end. Picoult gave some great perspective about the pandemic and it dug up a lot of emotions and realllyyy made me think. plus the character arc is superb and really resonated with me, as i think it will for a lot of people, who feel that while the pandemic has caused a lot of pain and suffering, there was also a lot to be learned.. this book made me really feel seen, and i just loved that. and can i say that we got one of the BEST TWISTS?!? like... mind blown.

i read other reviews claiming part 1 (prior to the mic drop) was slow for them, but i personally loved and devoured it. just goes to show - different strokes for different folks!

i ended up borrowing WISH YOU WERE HERE from the library - mostly because, as i said, i wasn't sure what my thoughts would be or how i would feel. i wish more than anything i owned a copy of this book so i could hug it and re-read my favorite quotes. like @emilybookedup said, Picoult's writing is like BUTTAH. chefs kiss. if you read this i would love to hear your thoughts!

so many great quotes but these are my favs:
“All of us are grieving something. But while we are, we're putting one foot in front of the other. We're waking up to see another day. We're pushing through uncertainty, even if we can't yet see the light at the end of the tunnel. We are battered and broken, but we're all small miracles.”

"When I try to make sense of the past year, it feels to me like the world pressed pause. When we stopped moving, we noticed that the ways we have chosen to validate ourselves are lists of items or experiences we need to have, goals that are monetary or mercenary. Now, I’m wondering why those were ever even goals. We don’t need those things to feel whole. We need to wake up in the morning. We need our bodies to function. We need to enjoy a meal. We need a roof over our head. We need to surround ourselves with people we love. We need to take the wins in a much smaller way.”

Awesome Jodi Picoult novel set in the early stages of the Covid pandemic. Diana and Finn were set to go to the Galapagos Islands when Covid shut down the world. Finn stays back in New York, as he is a doctor, and Diana goes to the island by herself, not knowing that all is shut down there also. The Galapagos is famous for Darwins' survival of the fittest. She has adventures with people that she meets there. But does she? She wakes up and finds out that she has been on a breathing machine, thanks to Covid. But she feels that she was really in the Galapagos.

A great story about an aspect of the Covid pandemic that no one really has heard about. As I was reading the first part of the story, I thought about Gray's Anatomy where Meredith is on the beach and sees her love ones that had died. Maybe part of Covid is the alternative universe that people go to.

Wish You Were Here is another great, timely Jodi Picoult novel.

Was it OMG amazing, can't put it down, best book of the year? No. But it was perfectly pleasant and a good read between commitment books.

Wish You Were Here is written from the perspective of a young woman who has survived Covid and who entered an alternate reality while intubated. She survives, but everything she thought she knew about life and living is turned upside down. The book is an interesting, fictional, examination of whether it’s possible to live two different lives at the same time and what might happen when you make life choices that change the trajectory of your life forever.

This is a well-written and engrossing read. Although deep subjects and emotions are at the heart of the story, I found the characters somewhat flat and two-dimensional, almost stereotypes.

I received this book as an ARC from the publisher and NetGalley.

Let me start by saying - I am a HUGE fan of Jodi Picoult. However, this book felt depressing, preachy, and a bit too soon since we are still living through big waves of Covid. It hits too close to home, and tries too hard to recreate a feeling I would rather not feel right now. Maybe 5-10 years from now this book would have been better - a bit more distanced perspective.

I read this book awhile back with the We Book and We Brunch Book club. I thought I reviewed this one but I guess I didn't.

I absolutely loved this story. The author had me thinking that the whole trip happened and it blew my mind.

The idea that someone could enter a dream state like this during covid is crazy but I can definitely see how it could happen.

The mind is a magical powerful thing.

(Content warning: COVID/pandemic and discussion/description of self-harm. If you are sensitive to these topics. read with care.) I was definitely wary of reading a book about the pandemic while we are still in the pandemic, but Picoult did a pretty good job at not traumatizing her reader with this story. She shares narratives both from the perspective of someone who is working on the front lines and someone who is not, and I think she gave an accurate representation of the emotional turmoil that a lot of us felt on both sides of that line. This novel tickled my travel bug and made me want to visit the Galapagos Islands or anywhere that is beautiful and remote. There was a huge twist about 60% through this book that caught me completely off guard. It was shocking but was also a great way for her to take this story off the road we thought it was traveling on. As always, she ends the story with me wanting another chapter or two. I know she leaves it up to our imagination, but I'd love to know where she'd take it if she had to add a few more pages. I think this would be a great beach read because once I started this one, I didn't want to put it down. *Advance copy provided by the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

Jodi Picoult does it again - grabs you in from the first chapter and leaves you wanting more. The characters were so well developed. While the current topic of Covid may make some hesitate reading this is a story that should not be missed. Be sure to read the authors notes for more insight. A good book club discussion title.

Trigger warning: depending on your relationship with Covid this book may trigger some feelings.

I think this book made such and impact to me because I read it during my second bout with Covid, while I was one of the blessed to have a mild case I was still effected, as was everyone in the whole world. Picoult did a fantastic job of taking us through the pandemic and the slow build to what would become the greatest shock…in both book and our lives. This book takes an unexpected turn and a shocking twist unlike any I have read in a some time. The writing was descriptive and beautiful and held my attention throughout the entire plot. The characters were built well and held their arc through and through. I highly recommend this contemporary fiction to all readers.