It’s publication day for Jodi Picoult’s latest novel, Wish You Were Here. Let’s dive in!

Diana O’Toole is perfectly on track. She will be married by thirty, done having kids by thirty-five, and move out to the New York City suburbs, all while climbing the professional ladder in the cutthroat art auction world. She’s not engaged just yet, but she knows her boyfriend, Finn, a surgical resident, is about to propose on their romantic getaway to the Galápagos—days before her thirtieth birthday. Right on time.

But then a virus that felt worlds away has appeared in the city, and on the eve of their departure, Finn breaks the news: It’s all hands on deck at the hospital. He has to stay behind. You should still go, he assures her, since it would be a shame for all of their nonrefundable trip to go to waste. And so, reluctantly, she goes.

Almost immediately, Diana’s dream vacation goes awry. The whole island is now under quarantine, and she is stranded until the borders reopen. Completely isolated, she must venture beyond her comfort zone. Slowly, she carves out a connection with a local family when a teenager with a secret opens up to Diana, despite her father’s suspicion of outsiders.

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. 

As I just finished the story, I’m going to try my best to sum up my feelings, but first – some warnings.

1) When you read the synopsis, it sounds intriguing – a girl leaves New York at the start of the pandemic for a vacation without her doctor boyfriend and has to learn to become a local of the Galápagos Islands while the world closes down. This is true for 61% of the book. Then a twist happens and it’s most definitely not about that anymore. Sort of. Kind of.

2) This is a COVID story. It’s Jodi Picoult – she does not do anything half hearted. She researches the subject she is writing about and will tell you every good, bad and weird detail there is. This book brings us back to the scary days of wiping down everything and not knowing what’s to come. Of losing our jobs, our homes, and struggling with our new reality. It discusses about being intubated – if you have been touched by a COVID case or death that is hard to think about, you may want to wait on this read.

With those triggers in mind, I thought I would be ok to read this. But I wasn’t. I pushed through because of receiving the ARC and wanting to post a review, but COVID is too fresh for me. Reading about wiping off food and what healthcare workers were going through is difficult enough on a good day. For my reading entertainment? I just couldn’t get into it.

The twist? Genius. Discussing the twist? That felt a bit tiresome. It is an interesting thing but it felt like too much detail.

I was also very surprised at how cavalier Picoult’s character Diana was for COVID safety that were never really addressed. Finn would get mad at her but then 30 seconds later it was like it never happened. Ummm. What?

I don’t know if I would rate this higher if I read it say in 5 years from now. For that reason I will give it ⭐️⭐️⭐️.

Excuse me while I go read a holiday story now.

Do you think you’ll give this one a try? If you’ve read it, what did you think?

Thank you to the publishers for providing a copy for review!