Review: Wish You Were Here

Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Diana has her life planned out and everything is going according to plan.  She wants to be married by 30, finish having kids by 35 and eventually move into the New York suburbs.  Diana believes her boyfriend is about to propose, so the next goal is within her reach.  Her plans quickly change when a virus reaches American cities and her boyfriend is called into work at his hospital.  He encourages Diana to take their planned vacation, especially since it is nonrefundable.  She arrives as the island goes into quarantine and she has nowhere to go and no way to notify anyone.  A local woman takes pity on her and Diana is forced to learn hidden truths about herself and those around her.

Wish You Were Here is a stand-alone realistic fiction story that takes events from the Covid-19 pandemic and condenses them into a novel that can be enjoyed.  Picoult has included many different viewpoints and weaved them into a single storyline for us.  There is a twist about two-thirds of the way through the book that had me saying … wait!  Once that twist was fully seated, though, I enjoyed this new trajectory the story took.  Some readers may feel this book is still too close to the pandemic we are currently living in, but I thought it was well designed and a satisfying read.

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