Wish You Were Here

I’ll admit, I approached *Wish You Were Here* with skepticism. Picoult’s name usually means *issue-driven plot twists*, but this? This is something else entirely. The audiobook hinges on Marin Ireland’s performance, and she *delivers*. Her Diana isn’t just a woman stranded—she’s a surgeon used to control, now adrift in a place where even the wildlife seems to judge her. Ireland’s voice cracks at the right moments, especially in the scenes where Diana video-calls her husband, Finn, and the static between them isn’t just bad Wi-Fi. The production is impeccable, with ambient sounds of waves or distant birds subtly woven in, never overpowering but always reminding you: *She’s alone. You’re listening to her loneliness.* That said, the middle act drags. Picoult spends too long on Diana’s aimless island wanderings, and while the symbolism of evolution and survival is clever, it occasionally feels heavy-handed. (Yes, we get it—the tortoises outlast everything.) The real gut-punch comes in the final third, when the story pivots to Finn’s perspective and the moral quandary Picoult excels at: *What do you owe the person you love when the world is ending?* The audiobook’s pacing mirrors this shift—lethargic, then urgent—and Ireland’s narration makes the transition feel earned. It’s not Picoult’s *best* work, but it’s her most *unexpected*, and in an era of pandemic fatigue, that’s no small feat.