
An unnamed paralegal, brought back to life through a controversial process, maneuvers through a near-future world that both needs and resents him. As the United States president spouts anti-reanimation rhetoric and giant pharmaceutical companies rake in profits, the man falls in love with lawyer Faustina Godínez. His world expands as he meets her network of family and friends, setting him on a course to discover his first-life history, which the reanimation process erased. With elements of science fiction, horror, political satire and romance, Chicano Frankenstein confronts our nation's bigotries and the question of what it truly means to be human.
--Xochitl Gonzalez, author of Olga Dies Dreaming
--Orlando Ortega-Medina, author of The Fitful Sleep of Immigrants
"In the genre-bending tradition of Mary Shelley, Daniel Olivas's latest novel Chicano Frankenstein expertly stitches together gothic political satire, science fiction, and existential metafiction to expose the racist and classist hypocrisies that undergird the American political economy under tyrannical right-wing leaders."
--Eileen M. Hunt, author of Artificial Life After Frankenstein
"In a near-future Pasadena, Daniel A. Olivas resurrects Mary Shelley's creation to glorious effect, making it clear who the monsters really are in a world where a cynical government sees resurrected humans as pawns to use, abuse, and discard. The real trick of this speculative political satire is that corruption and peril co-exist with compassion, humor, and large doses of Chicano joy. I loved every page-turning minute!"
--Michelle Ruiz Keil, author of Summer in the City of Roses
"Haunting in its implications, astute in its observations about how polarized we've become around the simple question of what it means to be human, Daniel Olivas's Chicano Frankenstein is ultimately an empathetic exploration of the heart told in spare, but beautiful prose. Olivas is a master storyteller and this book is another of his triumphs!"
--Rubén Degollado, author of The Family Izquierdo
"...a major American talent."
--Luis Alberto Urrea, author of Good Night, Irene
"Daniel Olivas is an exciting writer whose prose rings with humor, insight, and power."
--Daniel Alarcón, author of At Night We Walk in Circles
"Olivas is adept at establishing character in a sentence or two; he creates an image, a moment of self-deception, in which we come to know these characters intimately and easily imagine their entire lives..."
--Los Angeles Times
"[A]n important voice in Latinx literature."
--BuzzFeed
"Daniel Olivas is a real modern-day superhero. Land use and conservation attorney by day and poet, playwright, fiction author, editor, and essayist by night, Olivas works relentlessly to transform our world for the better."
--American Book Review
"Olivas's work is surreal, dystopian, critical, and introspective, ultimately moving into contemporary political rhetoric."
--Alta Journal