Imagine living a spoiled, petty life that ends in execution—but moments before your death you discover your timid
stepsister masterminded your downfall. She meant to make you a brat, a bully, a villain so no one would believe your innocence when it mattered. You were awful, but apparently deserve a second chance because you wake up as your younger self with knowledge of what’s to come.
Aria Roscent’s story follows many beats of the common manhwa reincarnation type stories. Her tragic future gives her knowledge to change the past and a maturity far beyond her young years. The titular hourglass is a fun twist as it allows Aria to rewind time on a small scale—while retaining her memories—to get an even greater edge on her adversaries. However, what makes the series stand out is the way Aria truly changes because of her special knowledge.
In similar manhwa series, such as The Abandoned Empress, the protagonist may stumble into character growth purely because she fled the doomed path. Relationships and different perspectives grow organically from new experiences. It’s still incredibly engaging, but Aria takes a different path. She is dead set on revenge and gears her every action towards it. She’s methodical in who she meets and befriends, careful with all her words and actions.
The first volume may not be to everyone’s taste. It can be difficult to empathize with Aria because the reader is in her head, seeing that she’s not truly a kinder person. It’s just that her older mind now understands that reputation matters. If she is to succeed in destroying her stepsister, she must ensure people think kindly of her. She stops tormenting her servant. She works to appear humble for her teacher and society. She tries to make her stepfather see her as useful, yet biddable. But everything is an act.
Instead of temper tantrums and high handedness, she works at manipulation and trickery. She’s quite simply, mean. But quietly so. While readers may feel her need for revenge is justified, they’re also confronted with her young stepsister before she’s grown into a mastermind. She’s a foolish, young girl taught to be prejudiced and jealous. Does she deserve the fury Aria has for an older version of her?
As the volumes continue, Aria’s schemes force her to grow into a stronger, more intelligent person. Her older self realizes that she was never stupider than her siblings, only less educated. And that can fixed. She starts to struggle with remembering that she’s using people because some of them genuinely care for her and she can’t help but begin to return the feeling. She makes herself into someone important to aid her reputation and revenge, but realizes she’s doing work she cares about. And, in the latest volumes, maybe begins to fall in love.
Sansobee’s character work creates a fantastic tension for readers who must wonder if Aria’s quest for revenge will continue or whether she’ll make a kinder life for herself. Just when readers believe she’s softened, however, she will utterly destroy an enemy from her old life. There’s needless, if not wholly unjustified, death. Will Aria grow beyond revenge and learn some mercy? Or will she keep her anger and a cruel streak? Can a villain have a happy ending? These questions are compelling enough to pull readers through the occasionally strange pacing and the crueler events.
As with many of Ize Press’ manhwa, the art is stunning. Antstudio clearly loves illustrating items of luxury. There is so much detail added to dresses, jewelry, carriages, and hair. Otherwise, backgrounds tend to be softly out of focus so as not to draw attention away from carefully crafted embroideries and filigrees. This is also sometimes the case for the men, many of whom are outfitted in a far more subdued manner with similar hairstyles.
The layout is often dynamic as is the lettering. For instances, villainous remarks tend to be in striking dark and bold text. They even cleverly add nuance to speech bubbles to convey emotion and clarity. This works well with Antstudio’s expressive, if washed out – presumably to create unblemished beauty – faces.
Ize rates this as a teen title and it’s appropriate. It’s not an explicit title in the least. Deaths tend to be fade to black or text. There’s no sexual content and the majority of the characters are at least in teen bodies. Though Aria’s soul is in her twenties, she ddn’t have the opportunity to truly mature in her prior life so she still feels as strongly as a YA character. The main draw is the will she-won’t she of the revenge plot, rather than the (so far) bland romance.
While this isn’t the first manhwa series I would recommend for a graphic novel collection, it is solid enough for a new collection. It has enough uniqueness to stand apart from similar titles and the just released fourth volume clearly ends a strong story arc. Readers will eagerly await the revelations volume five will surely bring.
The Villainess Turns the Hourglass
By Sansobee
Art by Antstudio
Yen Press, 2024
ISBN: 9798400901829
| Volume | ISBN |
|---|---|
| 3 | 9798400901003 |
| 2 | 9798400900983 |
| 1 | 9798400900808 |
Publisher Age Rating: T
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18), Teen (13-16)
