Bad Habit - BookWyrm

English language

Published 2024 by HarperCollins Publishers Limited.

ISBN:: 978-0-00-866330-8

Combining the raw realism and vulnerability of Shuggie Bain and Detransition, Baby with the poignant sensibility of Pedro Almodóvar, a staggering coming-of-age novel deeply rooted in the struggles of a trans woman growing up in Madrid.

Anchored by the voice of its sweet and defiant narrator, Bad Habit casts a trans woman’s trying youth as a heartfelt odyssey. Raised in an animated yet impoverished blue-collar neighborhood, Alana S. Portero’s protagonist struggles to find her place. As the city around her changes–the heroin epidemic that ravages Madrid through the '80s and '90s, rallying calls of worker solidarity and the pulsing beat of the city's night scene– she becomes increasingly detached from the world and, most crucially, herself.

Yet through her eyes, the streets and people of Madrid are illuminated by a poetry absent from everyday life. And by this guiding light she begins to plot her own course, from …

Combining the raw realism and vulnerability of Shuggie Bain and Detransition, Baby with the poignant sensibility of Pedro Almodóvar, a staggering coming-of-age novel deeply rooted in the struggles of a trans woman growing up in Madrid.

Anchored by the voice of its sweet and defiant narrator, Bad Habit casts a trans woman’s trying youth as a heartfelt odyssey. Raised in an animated yet impoverished blue-collar neighborhood, Alana S. Portero’s protagonist struggles to find her place. As the city around her changes–the heroin epidemic that ravages Madrid through the '80s and '90s, rallying calls of worker solidarity and the pulsing beat of the city's night scene– she becomes increasingly detached from the world and, most crucially, herself.

Yet through her eyes, the streets and people of Madrid are illuminated by a poetry absent from everyday life. And by this guiding light she begins to plot her own course, from Margarita, the local trans woman whose unspoken kinship both captivates and frightens her, to Jay, her first love and source of an inevitable heartbreak, to the irrepressible diva Caramel. As she forges ahead, she sets her compass to a personal north star: endeavoring to find herself. But with each step forward, she is confronted by a violence she doesn’t yet know how to counter; in this exciting, often terrifying, world each choice is truly a matter of life and death.

With her first novel, Alana S. Portero strikingly underscores the ties between gender and class, the search for identity, and the power of sisterhood and community. Gentle but blistering, Bad Habit is a mesmerizing story of self-realization that speaks to the outsider in all of us.

5 editions

Jaelyn reviewed Bad Habit by Mara Faye Lethem

"Women who live in the way they want, who age on their own terms and wear their lives etched into their faces, are treated with pathos and mockery because they are feared."

5 stars

We follow a familiar voice of a trans woman growing up in a working class estate in 1980s/90s Madrid. Her story is set against the heroine and AIDS epidemics, fascist and patriarchal violence, and class struggles; but through the vivid and intimate details, she paints a picture of hope, love, sisterhood and solidarity.

One incredibly strong element for me is how clearly non-linear the character's journey is; as for many of us our early forays are met with violence of one kind of another that set us back into hiding. We lean back into the social codes and camouflage of our culture to survive - a survival all the more painful when we've had a taste of living and are punished for it.

As a result, I found Alana's insight lent itself to a story particularly heartbreaking in his hopefulness; a tragedy born of the joys we get …

We follow a familiar voice of a trans woman growing up in a working class estate in 1980s/90s Madrid. Her story is set against the heroine and AIDS epidemics, fascist and patriarchal violence, and class struggles; but through the vivid and intimate details, she paints a picture of hope, love, sisterhood and solidarity.

One incredibly strong element for me is how clearly non-linear the character's journey is; as for many of us our early forays are met with violence of one kind of another that set us back into hiding. We lean back into the social codes and camouflage of our culture to survive - a survival all the more painful when we've had a taste of living and are punished for it.

As a result, I found Alana's insight lent itself to a story particularly heartbreaking in his hopefulness; a tragedy born of the joys we get to so briefly taste. But a reoccurring element for me was how precious our solidarity and community is.

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