A review by melhara
The Wish List by Eoin Colfer

3.0

"That's it," replied Lowrie. "That's the deal. That list is the only way to heaven," he paused pointedly, "for either of us."

When 14-year-old Meg Finn and her friend Belch were caught breaking into old Lowrie McCall's apartment, things took an unexpected turn. Meg and Belch ran off and subsequently died in an unfortunate gas explosion.

While Belch went straight to Hell, Meg was caught in-between. Her rap sheet was perfectly balanced with an equal number of good and bad deeds. In order to tip the scales, Meg was sent back to Earth to help Lowrie complete his Wish List (which is really more of a bucket list). If she succeeds, she would be sent to Heaven and if she fails, she will spend eternity in Hell.

While this was an entertaining story to read, I didn't understand why Satan went through all the trouble to recruit Meg to join him in Hell. Meg wasn't an evil kid and the "bad" stuff she did could be brushed off as mean pranks - certainly not evil enough to garner the respect of Lucifer himself.

I am also sceptical about the point system that Heaven and Hell uses. For every good deed, you get a plus point and for every bad deed, it's a minus. The point system makes it seem as though the good and the bad can be easily differentiated and it's all black and white... But we all know that reality is much more complex. However, I understand that this book is for children and pre-teens so I suppose it's best to keep the story simple and to the point.