Title: Not-Sew-Wicked Stepmom

Author/Story: Yir (who wrote the original novel)

Artist: Gu-Raeng Mo

Rating: All-Ages (but with some jokes/plot points about sex and references to CSA in Sabrian’s backstory)

Genre: Transmigration, Shoujo, Romance, Childcare novel, fairytale retelling, fantasy

Hosted On: Tapas

Official Link(s): English

Official Summary:

Fairytale stepmothers are notoriously wicked. But after a children’s clothing designer is reborn as young Princess Blanche’s stepmom, she’s determined to break the mold and shower her daughter with love. Now she just has to convince the girl’s cold-hearted father to do the same. In her quest to make a happier home for Blanche, Abigail begins to uncover secrets and schemes within the palace. Will devious forces tear the Freidkins apart, or can Abigail stitch them back into a family?

My Thoughts:

Here’s some unexpected Stitch Lore ™ for you: I actually ranked Snow White at the bottom of my favorite fairytales… up until I read the first volume of this series’ novelization a couple years ago. I read the first volume and went “wait… maybe Snow White deserves rights”.

I love this webtoon. Deeply.

The novel is excellent in-translation and a perfect read when you’re in the mood for a strong transmigration book with romantic fantasy elements… but the webtoon really brings the story to life in a way I didn’t expect. Gu-Raeng Mo does such an incredible job with the different expressions and I love how lovely all of the characters look. They perfectly capture the way that Abigail looks like such a scary ice queen even when she tries to smile gently at her stepdaughter Blanche and catch the lingering way that Sabrian has been looking at her for a hot minute.

(Oh and don’t get me started on the moments where Abigail is overwhelmed by cute aggression – recommended reading here would be the chapter on “cute” in Sianne Ngai’s Our Aesthetic Categories if you can get it – whenever she sees or thinks of Blanche. Comically over the top self-inflicted harm or external violence in the face of cuteness is a must-have in webtoons and Gu-Raeng Mo delivers!)

But do you know what the thing I love the most about this webtoon is?

How they adapt the tense scenes of Sabrian dealing with childhood sexual assault and the fact that his mother didn’t just allow another adult to harm him gravely as a child… is continuing her manipulation to this day up to the point of trying to manipulate Blanche into her own messed up relationship.

I’d had a warning from Meeya beforehand that the series touched on the topic and, of course, had read the novel first. However, seeing Sabrian’s face and the flashback to his trauma… nearly broke me. That poor man was not protected as a child and it informs the way he interacts, not just with Abigail (who, was a touchy touchy woman before being possessed by the Korean transmigrator) but with Blanche… the living reminder of his worst childhood trauma.

I think he asks Abigail to think about how old he is… and how old Blanche is and when she realizes (and I realized)… it just felt so bad. I wanted to transmigrate into the world of the novel and fight the original “queen” who took advantage of Sabrian in his youth.

There are some things you just don’t do… and that woman did it… Oooh… I’m getting angry just thinking about it. If she wasn’t dead in the novel… well.

Anyway, Not-Sew-Wicked Stepmom is one in a line of webnovel fairytale adaptations that I’m reading or have read recently (like A Wicked Tale of Cinderella’s Stepmom). I’m super biased, of course, but it’s one of the best.

It’s the combination of a bunch of details: the fresh approach to an established fairytale, the careful way it deals with trauma and cycles of abuse (not just with Sabrian, there are several characters trying to get out of that cycle), the warmth of the developing relationship between the main leads and Blanche…

Season three just started a few weeks ago and without knowing that, I had actually reread the first two seasons right beforehand. It was such a great coincidence because, even with the mildly stressful subject matter, it brought me such positive feelings because we’re able to watch Abigail, Sabrian, and Blanche come together as a family and even with wild weird things looming (two plot points have appeared in Season 3 that have me worried), they’ll be together for a nice long time.

What’s your favorite webtoon take on a popular fairytale?