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Amazon.co.uk Review
Eoin Colfer's The Wish List is a bitter yet rip-roaringly funny tale of two wayward teenagers on the road to hell--literally. The story opens with Meg Finn and Belch Brennan, two bad kids on the block, breaking into a pensioner's flat. At the very last minute Meg reneges on the deal and tries to break for freedom, leaving the aged Lowrie McCall screaming with the pain inflicted by Belch's bloodthirsty hound. Backed into a corner by Belch and a shotgun, Meg pleads with Belch to call an ambulance and save the old man's life. Instead he pulls the trigger and in a split second of evil and madness the bullet hits a gas tank and knocks Meg's soul out of her skin, catapulting her spirit along a vast tunnel on the way to some particularly shiny, pearly gates.
Meanwhile, Beelzebub is fretting. His boss was expecting two souls, and although Belch (in his new incarnation as a dribbling, growling, red-eyed dog-boy) took the correct turn in the tunnel, he's rather miffed that Meg found her way to the beautifully buffed Pearlies and an interview with Saint Peter and his rather complicated points system. So, the archangel and the demon do a deal, and Meg is given a chance to redeem herself. If she fails on her mission to help Lowrie McCall work his way through his Wish List before he dies, then she too will be heading south to join the boy-band members, the mime artists, Belch and the world's computer boffins in fiery damnation...
The Wish List was first published in Ireland in 2000, bringing with it much critical acclaim. In 2002, following the enormous and well-deserved success of the Artemis Fowl books, Eoin Colfer's publishers decided to let the rest of the world sneak a peak. And about time too. Hopelessly hopeful, immorally moral, rattling with the pain of its anti-heroine as she faces her own demons, and rib-crackingly, laugh-out-loud funny, The Wish List strikes an almost perfect balance between good, old-fashioned scruples and thoroughly modern irreverence in what is ultimately, and most importantly, a darn good read. Not for the faint-hearted, and certainly not for those who can't take a border-line sick joke every now and then, The Wish List is a divinely devilish tale for anyone who enjoys a bucketful of grit and truck loads of wisecracks with their reading material. Ages 10 and over, recommended particularly for older readers. --Susan Harrison --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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MEG and Belch were doing a job. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
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Eoin Colfer's latest children's book, 'The Wish List', is one of the most unusual you will find. It manages to combine a deep and spiritual storyline with the funniest, most down-to-earth humour imaginable, and also has warm, sympathetic characters, who spring to life (or indeed afterlife!) from the page. The protagonist of the book is Meg Finn, aged fourteen,"bold but not bad". Her mother's death, her odious stepfather and a rough neighbourhood have all left their mark on her, the end result being that she is trapped into taking part in a burglary. However, the "job" does not go as planned; so much so, in fact, that by the end of chapter one both Meg and the leader of the break-in, Belch, are in the direst straits imaginable. Meg discovers that the keeper of the Pearly Gates is not as easy to con as the juvenile court. Fit for neither heaven nor hell, her aura an indefinite purple instead of the blue of the virtuous or the red of the wicked, she has no choice but to try to find a way to tip the scales in heaven's favour. The way involves Lowrie McCall, owner of the house she had tried to burgle, and the Wish List may be a solution for both. Unfortunately, they have reckoned without the evil, cunning and obstinacy of the Devil and his sidekick Beelzebub, for Meg's soul is of especial interest to Satan. His instrument: her ex fellow-criminal, Belch Brennan. Can all Meg's smartness defeat the immense powers of evil pitted against her? The story races along. Almost everything it touches, from the security guards at the national television station to St. Peter's mobile phone, is treated with the same dry humour, yet I never once found the scenario itself ridiculous. The earthly issues, as well as the unearthly ones, are of importance and relevance, in particular the way in which bad society and difficult family life can drag down a basically good person. Meg Finn is likeable as she is presented to us - we see her thoughts and her true feelings - yet it is fair to say that not many of us would feel any such empathy if we heard simply the bald facts of the break-in. This, for me, was a huge theme in the book: we should not judge someone until we know of the events and people who may have influenced them. Another issue raised in the book is the loneliness that can be experienced by old people, as evidenced in the life of Lowrie McCall. One character only, whom we do not meet in person, is never flippantly treated. Meg's dead mother is always tenderly spoken of, as though her love was the one blessing that Meg experienced in life. Whatever Meg's expressed longings, is what she really craves for to see her mother again? I cannot fault this book. Moving yet funny, intense yet easy to read, I would strongly recommend it for age 11 +. It will encourage tolerance, provoke shrieks of laughter, and - who knows - perhaps it may help prepare you for an unexpected hereafter!
This book has followed in the footsteps of the great Artemis Fowl and entranced me. This book is Eoin Colfer on top form and will have your sides splitting from laughter.
The book follows the story of Meg Finn, a 14 year old Girl. After trying to save an old man whom she was robbing, she gets blown to bits along with her partner in crime and they are both sent up the long tunnel into the next life. However there is no next life for Meg yet seeing has her points are equal, so she cannot go to Heaven or Hell but has to go back and help the old man she was trying to rob.
You will have to read the book for yourself to find out whether she gets into Heaven or fails and falls to Hell. However, Eoin Colfer gives us his take on what Heaven and Hell are like in the 20th century and how they have changed from the Bible version.
This book has a gripping storyline, (I couldn't put it down)and is a hilarious read for the entire family. It is certainly living up to it predecessor and would give Harry Potter a run for it's money!
The quality of imagination, the jokes and the fun could only have come from an Irish Catholic, but the appeal of the story is universal. Meg's grudging affection for the old man, and his relationship with her cause her unhappy past to unfold before the reader, and the final struggle between good and evil sends shivers up your spine. My 9 year old loved it as much as I did, and the last sentence made us both get out the Kleenex. One parfticularly enjoyable aspect is the fun Colfer has with technology - all the computer programmers go to Hell, and St. Peter and his opposite number have secret telephone calls. Thoroughly recommended as one of the funniest, most exciting and original children's novels.
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