What is the Top-Rated Selection from Dua Lipa’s Book Club, Service95?

The Madrid of Alana S. Portero’s “Bad Habits” is not the Madrid you’ll find on the postcards. Álex, the protagonist, comes of age in San Blas — a peripheral barrio on the outskirts of the city, marked by poverty and addiction. Her adolescence offers few of the protections it promises elsewhere; heroin is common and resources are scarce.

Álex moves through this landscape with an interior vigilance, observing closely and drawing quiet lines between the wounded and those who wound. Humor surfaces as a dry-eyed resilience that keeps sentimentality at bay. Portero’s sensitivity to injustice and refusal to flatten complexity makes “Bad Habit” an especially good fit for fans of James Baldwin (whose work not only ranks among the most tragic classic books, but has also been a favorite in Natalie Portman’s book club).

In her write-up for Service95, Dua Lipa recalled her first encounter with “Bad Habit” in visceral terms: “I got actual chills when I read the opening scenes of this book,” she wrote. It seemed for the pop star, this novel’s lies in both its emotional immediacy, and in its portrayal of identity forged in harsh conditions. She described it as “a beautiful story of someone coming to terms with who they are in an environment that doesn’t allow them to truly flourish,” and praised its focus on finding connection in unlikely places — “the people who help you grow.” That response wasn’t hers alone. One Service95 book club reader echoed the sentiment on YouTube, writing: “I read a lot and this was one of the most touching and important books I’ve ever read.”