The Wish List
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- For other uses of The Wish List, please see The Wish List (disambiguation)
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| The Wish List | |
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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 |
| Publication date | 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 Earth 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.
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[edit] Plot introduction
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 forced to do a job with a dim-witted criminal, Belch Brennan because he gave her a video camera. When the two are caught robbing an old man, Lowrie McCall, Belch's dog, Raptor, severely injures McCall. Meg goes out for help, chased by Belch and Raptor, but makes a wrong turn. Belch, threatening to shoot Meg, but instead, accidentally shoots a gas tank, killing them and sending them off to the "tunnel" that splits in two at the end. One end goes up and the other goes down. Belch, genetically merged with his pet, a pit bull, goes straight to hell. Because Meg performed one good deed right before she died, trying to help Lowrie McCall, her good and bad deeds were perfectly balanced. With both Heaven and Hell fighting over her soul, she is sent back to atone to tip the balance in favor of either heaven or hell (she hopes heaven) by helping the old man she was robbing before her death. But with four seemingly impossible wishes to fulfill, a time limit, and Belch doing everything he can to ensure Meg's soul ends up in hell, can Meg make it in time to make it to heaven?
[edit] Plot summary
In order to gain entrance into heaven, Meg must 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 to complete the list of wishes that Lowrie has made and eventually begin to bond.
Down below, Belch is turned into a soul-catching machine. Beelzebub rings St Peter, and upon finding that Meg's soul has not appeared in Heaven yet, sends Belch to recapture Meg and "make her bad" (keep her from doing any good deeds that would get her back into heaven). Although St Peter and Beelzebub are at opposite ends of the spiritual spectrum, they have developed a kind of rapport to while away eternity (in doing this they have stopped several presidential assassinations and a world war). Beelzebub says he won't intervene and asks if St Peter will. Although St Peter refuses and terminates the call, he is suspicious that this is not the end of it. He's right.
The Wish List:
1) Kissy Sissy - kiss Cicely Ward, aka Sissy, a popular talk-show aunt and one-date girlfriend of Lowrie.
2) Kick a football over the bar in Croke Park.
3) Burst Ball - punch a man who wronged Lowrie When he went to university
4) Spit over the Cliffs of Moher.
As Belch's stalking comes to a head in a confrontation on the edge of the Cliffs of Moher, Belch (who has taken over the body of Meg's abusive stepfather) is destroyed, and Meg's final act of holiness, giving her stepfather a new life, gains her entry to Heaven.
[edit] Characters in "The Wish List"
Major characters
- Meg Finn
- Lowrie McCall
- Belch Brennan
- Beelzebub
- Elph
Minor characters
- Franco
- Flit
- Raptor
- Cicely Ward
- Luigi Fabrizzi
- St. Peter
- Dessie
- Satan
- Myishi
- Murt
- Nora
- Brendan Ball
- God (Doesn't actually appear in story)
[edit] Portrayal of Relationship Between Heaven and Hell
Unlike many novels about the relationship of heaven to hell, hell is not portrayed as a completely evil place. For instance, Satan does not always take pleasure in killing or torturing others. At one point, he is even seen sitting in the corner, content to play with his Game Boy. Beelzebub is also tasked with all of Satan's inane duties, handling the capture of Meg Finn himself, though with some outside help.
[edit] Connections to other works
Myishi is a company in The Supernaturalist, another children's book written by Eoin Colfer.
Meg Finn shares her surname with Conor Finn, the alter ego of Conor Broekhart, the protagonist of Eoin Colfer's latest work, Airman (novel).
In "The Artemis Fowl Files" the book dedication reads 'To Finn, Artemis's best friend'. This could be a possible connection to Meg Finn, who was sometimes referred to as Finn by Belch Brennan in The Wish List
Meg Finn is actually the combined names of his Eoin's children (Meg and Finn)
