Not-Sew-Wicked Stepmom Volume 1 Review

Trigger warning: eating disorder, fat shaming

Baekhap Lee was a children’s fashion designer who died from overwork. She’s reborn as Queen Abigail Freidkin, the evil stepmother of Princess Blanche in a Snow White retelling story.

Baekhap can’t understand how the queen could mistreat Blanche, who’s so cute and adorable. Now that she has possession of Abigail’s body, she’ll make sure that Blanche has the best upbringing possible. She wants to see the little girl smile, which is quite hard after all the time Abigail spent harassing her. Moreover, Abigail’s face looks like a complete villain when she smiles—even if it is with joy.

First order of business is apologising to Blanche. When that is out of the way, she can figure out what Blanche likes. To do that she turns into a stalker—although Abigail might not see it like that; the servants and even the king might not agree with her view. They all think she’s planning something as that was what she used to do to gain the king’s attention. The old Abigail was obsessed with being the most beautiful person and attracting the admiration of the king, albeit she always failed. So it’s no wonder now that people think she’s scheming something.

The only person who doesn’t seem to believe that Abigail is a schemer is Blanche, but that’s just because Blanche is afraid of her stepmother. It will take some time before Blanche can open up to her, even if Abigail can’t stop herself from giving gifts upon gifts to her stepdaughter. The king is so mistrusting of Abigail that he even ruins one of the gifts.

I knew going into this manhwa that it was a Snow White retelling. However, I wasn’t expecting how dysfunctional Blanche’s (aka Snow White) family was. It’s not just the evil stepmother, but also the cold-hearted dad, a nanny who considers beauty more important than a child’s health and even a scheming grandfather.

I was actually surprised by the king. He’s cold and ruthless. He doesn’t care either for his wife or for his kid, even when the latter gets hurt. He seems to be a good king, but he’s definitely not a family man. He married Abigail to have good relationship with her kingdom, but other than that there is nothing else going on. He couldn’t care less for her. But when Abigail awakens with a different personality after possibly being poisoned, he doesn’t know what to think anymore. She’s weird, and he’s not sure if he prefers her like this or the way she was before.

Blanche is a cutie pie. She’s quite shy and follows the orders of her nanny, even when the nanny tells her to lose weight and stop eating, otherwise she won’t be a good princess. According to the nanny, all a princess needs is to be beautiful. Thankfully Abigail intervenes. She suffered from an eating disorder growing up and she doesn’t want young Blanche to go through it as well. She wants for Blanche to grow up healthy and happy. Abigail fell into quite a dysfunctional Snow White story, but she’s going to make sure that Blanche turns out all right.

Abigail’s behaviour is quite weird, but it’s funny at the same time. It also seems that this new version of her is gaining her some loyal servants, including a magic mirror with an attitude. The manhwa is in full colour, and the illustrations use pastel and bright colours to keep the manhwa in a shojo style, while the colour palette changes quite drastically to darker tones to show the more upsetting happenings in the volume.

I’m curious to see how the relationships among the characters develop, and if the king is going to actually start caring for his wife and daughter—maybe love will finally blossom between the king and the queen. Moreover, I want to know if someone really attempted to kill the queen. She was dead, until she wasn’t anymore as that’s how Baekhap came to possess Abigail’s body.

Not-Sew-Wicked Stepmom Volume 1 is written by Ira with illustrations by Mo9Rang. The English translation is supplied by Kakao Entertainment for Ize Press which released the manhwa in volume form for both print and digital. Volume 2 is slated for release in November 2023.