Book Review: Wish You Were Here

Want to know whether to read Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult? Well, here’s my full Wish You Were Here review to help you decide!

Wish You Were Here Summary

A young woman finds herself at a Covid-induced crossroads in Picoult’s latest ultra topical novel.

Sotheby’s associate Diana O'Toole, age 29, and her surgical resident boyfriend, Finn, are planning a trip to the Galapagos in March 2020. But as New York City shuts down, Finn is called to do battle against Covid-19 in his hospital’s ICU and ER, while Diana, at his urging, travels to the archipelago alone. She arrives on Isabela Island just as quarantine descends and elects to stay, though her luggage was lost, her hotel is shuttered, and her Spanish is “limited.” What follows is the meticulously researched depiction Picoult readers have come to expect, of the flora and fauna of this island and both its paradisiacal and dangerous aspects. Beautiful lagoons hide riptides, spectacular volcanic vistas conceal deep pits—and penguins bite!

A hotel employee known only as Abuela gives Diana shelter at her home. Luckily, Abuela’s grandson Gabriel, a former tour guide, speaks flawless English, as does his troubled daughter, Beatriz, 14, who was attending school off-island when the pandemic forced her back home. Beatriz and Diana bond over their distant and withholding mothers: Diana is a world-famous photographer now consigned to a memory care facility with early-onset Alzheimer’s, while Beatriz’s ran off with a somewhat less famous photographer. Despite patchy cellphone signals and Wi-Fi, emails from Finn breakthrough, describing, also in Picoult’s spare-no-detail starkness, the horrors of his long shifts as the virus wreaks its variegated havoc and the cases and death toll mount.

Warning: Between lurid scenes of plague and paradise, whiplash may ensue.

Wish You Were Here Book Review

Wish You Were Here is the latest novel from the global success story of Jodi Picoult. I feel that this story is one of the most personal compositions from Jodi Picoult to date. The five-page accompanying author’s note that I absorbed at the end of this novel gave me a glimpse into Picoult’s mindset, creative struggles, and emotional strains in relation to this particular book. I’m sure Picoult’s feelings and experiences will mirror the thoughts of many around the world. On the flip side, I do feel that Wish You Were Here may strike a little too close for comfort for some of us in the thick of the COVID-19 crisis. For me, this book was a selected book club read and a review book, but as a Jodi Picoult fan, I would have gravitated towards it anyway. I did feel changed by the experience of reading Wish You Were Here. This book gave me an insight into some areas of the COVID-19 experience that I wasn’t aware of prior to reading this book.

Diane O’Toole has almost everything she wants. She has the job she’s always wanted and a loving boyfriend named Finn who she’s sure is about to propose marriage on their upcoming vacation to the Galapagos Islands. Her job as an art consultant at Sotheby’s is her dream job since her college days and she’s expecting a big promotion very soon. Her boyfriend Finn is a surgical resident in an NYC hospital.

Just before they are set to depart for the Galapagos Islands, the virus, known as COVID-19 starts to hit New York City. The day prior to when they are set to leave for the airport, Finn tells Diane that he can’t go on vacation because his superiors at the hospital have told everyone to stay in the city because they expect the virus to get much worse. After some discussion, Diane leaves for the vacation on her own.

This is one of those books where spoilers will really spoil the story, so I won’t say much more about the story, except it was gripping, intense, educational, and very emotional (and there's a huge plot twist in between!!). As COVID is the main subject of the book, I would think some people who have really suffered during this pandemic and lost close friends and family, might find this book is out a bit too soon. I do think that it validates many of the feelings I’ve had during the pandemic, and the book definitely describes many of the horrors we’ve suffered, but it’s also an optimistic book. I was afraid that when I read it would be depressing. I will admit that the author describes many of the horrors of the pandemic, but also weaves a terrific emotional story around all the losses and difficulties of the pandemic.

Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult is an amazing book that I will not soon forget. I read this over a month ago, and the story is still stuck in my head, with no signs it will leave soon. This is a book about COVID, and some say it’s too soon, but I say, it’s just in time, and we need more books like this that illustrate the dire circumstances we are in with the pandemic.