Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by amandarose529
Bad Habit by Alana S. Portero
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
5.0
on the difficulties of growing up trans, sisterhood, community, coming of age, finding oneself. masterful, evocative writing
“They were both young, in their early twenties, and reveling in all the cruelty youth is capable of. Which is a lot. Regrets and restraint come with decrepitude, as does selfishness, when suddenly we find ourselves on the flip side of life acknowledging that there’s hardly an ugly thing that won’t eventually find us.”
“When we laugh wholeheartedly, we inhabit no age. We do it in exactly the same way throughout our lives, and in our cackling expressions, you can glimpse both the little girls we once were and the old ladies we will become.”
“He was so close to us that, if they hadn’t been gouged out, his eyes surly would have stared back.”
“It was so strange to feel so much fear, see life as so dark, see yourself as so disfigured, and at the same time, be aware that, seen through the right lens, I myself, gripping my first lover’s hand, was the promise of a brighter future.”
“It seemed to me that when mothers comb their daughters’ hair, they transmit an intangible love and a wordless beauty that couldn’t be conveyed in any other way.”
“I learned that we daughters are always indebted, that we cannot give back what we are given, because that wouldn’t be natural. Our mission is to pass on what we’ve been imparted to other women, whoever they may be. I learned that genealogy, as an inherited love, is a waterfall that only flows downwards.”
“They were both young, in their early twenties, and reveling in all the cruelty youth is capable of. Which is a lot. Regrets and restraint come with decrepitude, as does selfishness, when suddenly we find ourselves on the flip side of life acknowledging that there’s hardly an ugly thing that won’t eventually find us.”
“When we laugh wholeheartedly, we inhabit no age. We do it in exactly the same way throughout our lives, and in our cackling expressions, you can glimpse both the little girls we once were and the old ladies we will become.”
“He was so close to us that, if they hadn’t been gouged out, his eyes surly would have stared back.”
“It was so strange to feel so much fear, see life as so dark, see yourself as so disfigured, and at the same time, be aware that, seen through the right lens, I myself, gripping my first lover’s hand, was the promise of a brighter future.”
“It seemed to me that when mothers comb their daughters’ hair, they transmit an intangible love and a wordless beauty that couldn’t be conveyed in any other way.”
“I learned that we daughters are always indebted, that we cannot give back what we are given, because that wouldn’t be natural. Our mission is to pass on what we’ve been imparted to other women, whoever they may be. I learned that genealogy, as an inherited love, is a waterfall that only flows downwards.”