Cover: Open Library

La mala costumbresecond-hand

26 readers want to read it on Open Library

2 editions · Society and social sciences

from€20.34cover price from €19.90New costs less

11 used offers · median €23.99

Total price with shipping, checked on 6 October 2026.

Alana S. Portero's first novel, published in 2023. A first-person voice recalls growing up as a girl in a body she does not feel is hers: from childhood in a working-class family in Madrid's San Blas district, hit hard by heroin in the 1980s, to the hidden night life of central Madrid in the 1990s.

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Reading guide

About 6 hours of reading · Who it's for · Why people still read it · If you like it, read next
Who it's for
For readers of coming-of-age novels with a strong, hard-edged voice, interested in working-class Madrid at the end of the twentieth century. It contains violence and raw scenes.
Why people still read it
It has been a commercial success and has been translated into 17 languages; the English version, Bad Habit, came out in 2024, translated by Mara Faye Lethem. Pedro Almodóvar and Elvira Lindo have recommended it.

Written with the help of AI from todostuslibros and Wikipedia, without giving away the ending, and reviewed by a person.

Second-hand offers

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Total priceConditionBookshopView
€20.34free shippingGoodISBN 9788432242120CheapestReciclibrosView ↗
€20.34free shippingVery goodISBN 9788432242120ReciclibrosView ↗
€20.35free shippingAcceptableISBN 9788432242120HamelynView ↗
€22.39free shippingGoodISBN 9788432242120HamelynView ↗
€22.48free shippingUsedISBN 9788432249075TWOFACESView ↗
€23.99€21.49 + €2.50 shippingExcellentISBN 9788432242120La Social. Galería y LibrosView ↗
€24.00€15.00 + €9.00 shippingUsedISBN 9788432242120LA TIENDA DE PACOView ↗
€24.42free shippingLike newISBN 9788432242120HamelynView ↗
€24.53€17.26 + €7.27 shippingGoodISBN 9788432242120ThriftBooks-DallasView ↗
€32.65€26.65 + €6.00 shippingAcceptableISBN 9788432249075medimopsView ↗
€99.00free shippingGoodISBN 9788432242120World Wide BooksView ↗

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Editions (2)

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Why we only look at used copies

In Spain, Law 10/2007 fixes the price of new books: the publisher sets it and shops can only take 5% off. Amazon, FNAC and your local bookshop all cost the same. The only place the price moves is second-hand.

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