A Stepmother Märchen Webtoon Review

With a rating of 4.3 out of 5 and thousands of monthly views, A Stepmother’s Märchen is a fantasy, historical, and romance story that is still currently ongoing and has caught many readers’ attention, even those who did not read webtoons before. Considered a Manhwa, which is the general Korean term for its comics and print cartoons, the plot follows a stepmother who is left to manage her late husband’s four children; there are many twists and turns in this story, but one thing to say for sure is that it is very worth having a read, at least three chapter, which are at a reasonable length, before deciding whether to continue or not.

The webtoon is adapted from the webnovel version that was written by Nyangiwa Hyangshinlo, and the art is created by ORKA; other titles for this webtoon include The Fantasie of a Stepmother and A Stepmother’s Fairy Tale. The completed webnovel consists of two volumes, the first one with chapters 1 to 19, and the second includes chapters 20-35. This comic was licensed in English by Tapas Media under the name The Fantasie of a Stepmother, although most people read and know this as A Stepmother’s Märchen.

A review by user ‘KiwiKitsu’ on Reddit said, “I recently found out about this series and let me tell you that it was an emotional roller coaster… In this series characters are extremely well written! There is no such a thing as the perfect character. Everyone has flaws and everyone knows what kind of person they are. There is no main evil guy whose only wish [is] to damage people- no. Instead of that there are wrong persons that made wrong movements to achieve their goal. And the reasons are not unrelatable at all in their perspective. The storytelling is so refreshing and smooth. Every single character has screen time. And we get to see their personalities unlike the other series that doesn’t bother to give details about the extras. There was only one thing that I didn’t like. There is a man who is in his late thirties marries a girl who is only 14 years old, our protagonist. He acts selfish as if she must take care of the children and the house just because of the opportunities (?) he provided for her. And there is the whole society that sees and accepts her as an adult, while she was only a 16-year-old girl.”

The plot is as follows:

“They called her the Iron Widow. When her husband died, he left her to manage not only his vast holdings but also his four children. Young and inexperienced, Shuri nonetheless tried her best to raise them, despite their bitter attitude towards her. She is finally free to live her own life as her eldest son marries… but ends up getting killed and finds herself mysteriously reset to seven years ago — the night of her husband’s funeral. Can Shuri find happiness with this second chance at a new destiny?”

Read the Manhwa HERE or HERE if you are interested in more.