A review by oomilyreads
Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult

reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

 Diana O’Toole, 29 yo is about to fly to the Galapagos with her boyfriend, Finn. But it’s March 2020 & Finn needs to help in the COVID unit and the city starts to shut down. She goes without him to the Galapagos and immediately the island is placed under quarantine. She connects with a local family and she finds herself yearning to live in this paradise rather than go home.

This book was so frustrating. It felt like a “Frankenstein” book where different parts of the COVID pandemic were mashed together in a strange and bizarre way. As a healthcare provider who had dying COVID patients, I felt that it didn’t actually honor us. If anything, the one character who was representing us, was treated horribly and used by the MC. Shouldn’t we be highlighting how much love they should be getting?

But let’s get straight to the MC, shall we? Diana is a real TOOL. Throughout the entire book, not once did I feel any sympathy or connection to her. She is obnoxious, narcissistic, whiny, ungrateful, and loathsome. She has NO self-awareness and blames everything on everyone else. Not to mention, she almost never wears a mask and just breaks all kinds of rules with no regard for others.

There is one part where someone says to her “You are just salty that you are caught between two lives”. I can’t believe there were so many parts that I wanted to reach through the novel and slap her! I am so unhappy with how Picoult handled the pandemic, how she treated healthcare workers – they deserved so much more love than this. I will give it to her that she did some research on what was going on in the hospital which pushed this to 2 stars but I just cannot with the MC, I was angry the entire book! She never once consoled her heroic BF who was clearly having PTSD and depression from what he faced on the wards. 

The only saving grace was one of my favorite narrators, Marin Ireland! Thank you Libro FM for gifting me the audiobook!