I loved the book, it was interesting to me as a cisgender woman to go inside the head of the transgender man Leo, you could feel his despair and disgust for his body, he did everything in his power to make his outward appearance like he felt on the inside, of course in his time there was no medical way to help him. Leo is sympathetic, but luckily not a saint. It isn’t clear to me if Maria really loved him, but I think that was the author’s intention. Maria didn’t have an easy life and she did what she felt was best to improve her situation.