The Wish List (novel)
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| Author | Eoin Colfer |
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| Country | Ireland |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fantasy novel |
| Publisher | O'Brien Press |
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Publication date
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October 1, 2003 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover and Paperback) and audio-CD and audio cassette |
| Pages | 256 pp (hardcover edition) |
| ISBN | (hardcover edition) |
| OCLC | 52633349 |
| LC Class | PZ7.C677475 Wi 2003 |
The Wish List is a fantasy novel by Eoin Colfer, the author of the Artemis Fowl series. It chronicles the adventures of Meg Finn, a teenage girl killed in a gas explosion who must earn her place in Heaven by returning to Earth to help the pensioner she attempted to rob.
Meg Finn is a teenage girl who tries to rob pensioner Lowrie McCall's house to get money and run away from her abusive stepfather Franco. She is the accomplice of a local thug named Belch and his pit bull. Lowrie interrupts their break-in, prompting Belch's dog to attack him. Belch refuses to call the dog off, until Meg takes Lowrie's shotgun and tries to force Belch to call an ambulance. Belch snatches the shotgun, forcing Meg to flee. Belch corners her at an old gas tank and fires a warning shot that explodes the gas tank, killing Meg, Belch and his dog instantly. Meg's spirit gets into the tunnel leading to her Heaven/Hell and also meets Belch's and his dog's spirit fused together. The Belch-dog hybrid is immediately sent to Hell, but Meg remains trapped in the tunnel.
Interested in Meg due to the cruel revenge she inflicted on her stepfather, Satan orders his right hand Beelzebub to get Meg's spirit to hell. Beelzebub investigates Meg's situation with the help of St. Peter, who decides if mortals deserve to be allowed to enter heaven, and both are surprised to discover that Meg's good intentions are balanced by her sinful actions. Unbeknownst to St. Peter, Beelzebub has the technology wizard Myishi send Belch and the hologram Elph to capture Meg. Meg learns her situation from the tunnel mite Flit, and through his guidance returns to earth as a spirit. With no other purpose, she decides to do some good by helping the injured Lowrie to complete his wish list, four wrongs in his disastrous life that he feels he must right. The first wish sees Lowrie find the courage to kiss his first love, now a famous television host. Although Meg is attacked by Blech, the completion of the wish blasts the dog-boy back to hell, taking him and Elph out of the picture for a time. Meg and Lowrie complete the second wish—break into Croke Park and score a goal—without too much incident. The third wish is more problematic; Lowrie wishes to punch Brendan Ball, an old school bully, but after Meg helps Lowrie find the man, Lowrie decides against it.
After Lowrie bids Brendan goodbye, Meg asks for Lowrie's help in punching her stepfather Franco. Lowrie agrees, but only on the condition that Meg shows him what the man did to make Meg seek her revenge. Meg reveals that Franco was a slob who spent his days watching television, and abused Meg and her mother. After her mother died in a car accident, Meg's situation got even worse. The final straw was when Franco stole her mother's engagement ring from Meg to pay for a new television. Meg then plotted a scheme to humiliate Franco: she filmed him hitting her, recorded herself destroying the new television, and played this footage back at Franco. She then recorded Franco's reaction, and had his friends watch all the footage, leaving him in total disgrace.
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