Bad Habit
Alana S. Portero's debut novel, first published in Spain as La mala costumbre, follows a girl growing up in San Blas, a hard, blue-collar neighborhood on the edge of Madrid, in the years after Franco. She knows from early on who she is, even when the world around her does not have the words for it, and she finds her way through a community of older trans women, drugs, danger, and small moments of grace. Portero writes about identity, desire, and belonging with tenderness and a poet's ear. Translated into English by Mara Faye Lethem, the book was widely praised, and Dua Lipa picked it for her Service95 Book Club.
Themes & atmosphere
What you might want to know about Bad Habit
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
A coming-of-age story of a young working-class trans woman growing up in a rough Madrid neighborhood in the 1980s and 90s.
Yes. Bad Habit was first published in Spanish as La mala costumbre in 2023 and translated into English by Mara Faye Lethem in 2024.
Dua Lipa chose Bad Habit as a 2024 pick for her Service95 Book Club, praising it as part of her aim to feature diverse global voices and powerful stories.
Bad Habit was written by Alana S. Portero, published in 2024 by Harper.
Bad Habit is 224 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Bad Habit takes most readers 3 to 5 hours to finish.
Bad Habit is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.