The art of this series is gorgeous, especially the way Maria is drawn. If you value the aesthetic beauty of a series, I would recommend it for that alone.

The story started out as really original, starring a multifaceted heroine and several other complex characters. I was always moved reading the series, feeling deeply for Maria in everything she went through, and I loved how Maria kept fighting through everything.

At some point, a few volumes before the end of the series, it suddenly felt like I was reading a completely different story. After some struggling to put my finger on exactly why, I've come up with a few possible reasons: It felt like the change in mood and character development was too abrupt to really be believable. Whereas things before had always seemed thought out, suddenly plot holes appeared, and some coincidences that felt too unbelievable. The story sent some, uh, "dubious" messages about consent in my opinion, whereas before I had felt like it had a pretty good moral compass (framing harmful actions as being as harmful as they are).

I enjoyed most of the series so much. Unfortunately, I felt disappointed by the ending. If you can bear with that possibility, I would absolutely recommend it.