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The Wish List
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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- For other uses of The Wish List, please see The Wish List (disambiguation)
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| Author | Eoin Colfer |
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| Country | Ireland |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy novel |
| Publisher | The O'Brien Press Ltd |
| Released | October 1, 2003 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover and Paperback) and audio-CD and audio cassette |
| Pages | 256 pp (hardcover edition) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-7868-1863-8 (hardcover edition) |
The Wish List is a fantasy novel by Eoin Colfer. It chronicles the adventures of Meg Finn, a spirit who has struck a perfect balance between good and evil and as such, is barred from entering either heaven or hell. In order to redeem herself, she travels back to the world in order to help an old man she had nearly robbed before she died complete the items on his wish list and thus gain entrance to heaven. Unlike many Heaven vs Hell novels, Hell is not portrayed as a totally evil place, for instance, Satan does not always take pleasure in killing or torturing others, at one point he is sitting in the corner and seems content to play with his Game Boy. Beelzebub is also tasked with all of Satan's inane duties, but does not seem to task them to others, and handles the capture of Meg Finn himself, obviously with the help of others.
Contents |
Meg Finn is a teenager whose life is in a complete mess. Her mother is dead and her only family is an abusive stepfather who does nothing but watch TV all day. She has no friends and is associating with a beer bellied dim-witted criminal, Belch. When the two are burgalarizing an old man, Lowrie McCall and when Lowrie was hurt by Belch's dog Raptor, Meg went out for help, meanwhile being chased by Belch, but made a wrong turn. Belch, threatening to shoot Meg, actually shot a gas tank, killing them and sending them off to a tunnel where it split to two at the end, one going up and one going down. Belch, genetically merged with his pet, a pit bull, goes straight to Hell. Meg performs one good deed right before she died, which was helping Lowrie McCall. This made her good and bad deeds perfectly balanced. With both Heaven and Hell fighting over her soul, she is sent back to atone and tip the balance in favor of either Heaven or Hell by helping the old man she was robbing before her death, Lowrie McCall. But with four seemingly impossible wishes to fulfill, a time limit, and Belch doing everything it can to make sure Meg's soul ends up in hell, could Meg make it in time to make it to heaven?
"The Wish List" refers to the list that Lowrie wants to fulfill before he dies.
Meg Finn is sent back to help old Lowrie McCall. Neither of the dysfunctional pair are overly pleased about this, but they grudgingly accept that they are paired with each other for a reason. They begin to complete the list of wishes that Lowrie has made and eventually begin to bond.
Down below, however, things are quite literally heating up. Satan wants Meg and it is up to his second-in-command, Beelzebub, to attain her soul. With the help of a smart-mouthed computer technician, Myishi, Belch is transformed from a brain-dead human/pitbull to a perfect soul-catching machine.
Up in the pearly gates, St Peter gets a call from Beelzebub. He wants to know if Meg has apperared in Heaven yet. Although these two are at opposite ends of the spectrum, they have developed a kind of rapport to while away eternity. Although Peter says "no" and terminates the call, he is suspicious that this is not the end of it. He's right.
Slowly but surely, Meg and Lowrie are completing the seemingly impossible tasks that will gain Meg entry to Heaven. However, Beelzebub's spanner-in-the-works, Belch, is right behind them. As the stalking comes to a halt in a confrontation on the edge of the Cliffs of Moher, Belch (who has taken over the body of her abusive stepfather) is destroyed and Meg's final act of holiness, giving her stepfather a new life, gains her entry to Heaven.
Major characters
- Meg Finn
- Lowrie McCall
- Belch
- Beelzebub
- Elph
Minor characters
- Franco
- Flit
- Raptor
- Cicely Ward
- St. Peter
- Dessie
- Satan
- Myishi
- Murt
- Nora
- Brendan "Burst" Ball
- God (Doesn't actually appear in story)
Myishi is a company in The Supernaturalist, another children's book written by Eoin Colfer.