La Mala Costumbre - Alana S. Portero.epub [portable] -

Set in the 1980s and 90s, the novel follows an unnamed narrator growing up in San Blas, a working-class neighborhood in Madrid ravaged by the heroin epidemic. Born into a boy’s body but possessing an unshakable knowledge of her identity as a girl, she navigates a world defined by rigid patriarchy and the ever-present threat of violence.

Portero writes the trans experience not as a transition from A to B, but as a rescue mission . The young protagonist (referred to in the early chapters with masculine pronouns that feel like a punch to the gut, mirroring the character’s own dysphoria) navigates a world where being a marica (a slur reclaimed with difficulty) is grounds for a beating. The book is unsparing in its depiction of street violence and the slow violence of family disappointment. La mala costumbre - Alana S. Portero.epub