In Her Shoes

While the anime, Fullmetal Alchemist, is a story about two brothers who are set on their journey to reclaim their limbs after failing to transmute their mother back from death, the novel "In Her Shoes (pix)" is about two sisters who are trying to put up with each other.
Jennifer Weiner (pix) started the book by introducing us to the lives of both the sisters, Maggie and Rose Feller. Maggie was portrayed as the younger sister who caused a lot of trouble to her sister. She would always end up drunk or being taken advantage upon by strangers in bars and Rose had to pick her up every time. Maggie's misbehaviour started when she was still in school. To be precise, her behaviour took for a change since she flunked her assessment test. She kept reminding herself that she was smart despite the fact that she had always faced difficulty in answering most of the questions in her examinations. From then on, she stopped trying to study harder. Instead, she began focusing on her appearance. She would apply make-up during classes and dress sexily in school. She tried to emulate Madonna as a famous artist but she ended up attracting more and more guys who were only interested in getting under her pants. Gradually, Maggie realized that she was constantly living under her sister's shadow. Everyone would compare her with her more successful and intelligent sister. Though she was much prettier than Rose, she still felt that it was inadequate as good look itself would not lead to success. With her grades, she could only be no more than a waitress, baby-sitter or house-cleaner. She tried her luck once at a VJ audition but to no avail.
Rose, on the other hand, always did well in her academics and had a job as a lawyer now. Unlike Maggie, she was 'nothing but an ordinary girl, a plain Jane, a grown-up bookworm with a decent wardrobe.' However, Rose did have a collection of perfect shoes which suited Maggie as well because their feet were of the same size. Rose also had a secret fantasy for romance novels. She did not really care about her appearance for she thought that no matter how well she dressed, she would become nothing but ordinary. Since young, she had made it a habit to write down everything that could lead her to becoming a popular girl. She would observe her sister, neighbours and teachers so that she could learn how to dress appropriately. However, it didn't work out for her.
As Maggie had no job or a shelter, Rose decided to let her stay with her in her apartment. But Maggie wasn't grateful to her sister's kind-heartedness. After she moved in, phone bill increased, Rose's shoes began to disappear, Rose's wardrobe was in a mess and Rose's counters were always seen crowded with cosmetics. Just as Rose was about to ask Maggie to leave, she came home to find her sleeping with the former's boyfriend, Jim Danvers. Puce with rage, Rose chased both of them out of the house.
Maggie had no place to return to since then. As the last resort, she decided to stay in a library of a campus. At the same time, she took up a part-time job as a housekeeper to earn some money. During her stay in the campus, she just realized how much she missed her life as a student. She managed to enter a few classes without being noticed by other students or teachers. Unfortunately, she later bumped into the guy whom she had stolen the student ID card from on her first day at the campus. As her identification had been exposed, she could not stay there any longer. She had currently in her possession a few letters from her grandmother, Ella. She managed to find these letters in Sydelle's (her stepmother) house. She found out that their stepmother had been keeping secret of their grandmother who was still alive and mentally sound. With the address, she found her grandmother's house without difficulty. Maggie could have everything she wanted when she was living with her granny but she wasn't satisfied as she found life like this unchallenging. She had thought of leaving but if she was to go away, she would not have any place to stay. Soon, she took up a job picking outfits for the residents of Golden Acres.
In the meantime, Rose was taking a six-month leave from her firm and took up dog-walking job. She wanted to get over with the idea of losing her boyfriend. Rose did worry about Maggie from time to time as she always thought that her younger sister wasn't able to look after herself. At the moment, she was seeing Simon and they planned to get married soon. One day, she received a letter from Maggie informing her where she was staying. Maggie also apologized to Rose at the same time. Rose was angry to know that her father and stepmother had all along been keeping away all the letters that were sent to them by Ella when they were still kids. She found those letters and one of them was her 16th birthday card from Ella. It was then that Rose decided to meet her grandma.
Rose and Maggie slept together in Ella's house. Ella couldn't help but notice how similar the sisters were especially when they were asleep. Rose realized that Maggie had changed for the better. She was no longer causing trouble to those around her. Instead, she made herself helpful around the senior residents of Golden Acres. Knowing that Rose was getting married soon, Maggie started to look for a wedding dress for her to atone for what she had done in the past. However, she faced hard time in finding a suitable dress. At last, she resorted to design the dress herself and Ella helped her to sew the clothes into a perfect wedding dress.
I would say that there is nothing extraordinary about this book. The ending should have been more interesting. The writer also didn't really explain the sickness Caroline (Rose's and Maggie's mother) was suffering from. Furthermore, I wonder how Maggie could stay in campus and attend classes without being noticed for quite some time. If she was ordinary looking, then it was possible. But the author gave the idea that she was drop-dead gorgeous. She should have been noticed by many people especially the guys and being approached upon since her first day in campus. However, I have certainly learnt one thing from the book. It is said that it takes the stomach 20 minutes to send a message to the brain that it's full.
I won't really recommend this book to anyone as it is not worth time to read it. But I do not know about female readers' opinion on the book. Girls might find the story interesting and touching at the ending part.