Chicano Frankenstein, Daniel A. Olivas
Chicano Frankenstein, Daniel A. Olivas
List: $19.95 | Sale: $13.97
Club: $9.97

Chicano Frankenstein

Author: Daniel A. Olivas

Narrator: Thom Rivera

Unabridged: 5 hr 25 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/05/2024


Synopsis

A modern retelling of the Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley classic that addresses issues of belonging and assimilation 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.

About Daniel A. Olivas

Daniel A. Olivas is an award-winning author of fiction, nonfiction, plays, and poetry. He has written on culture and literature for the New York Times, Los Angeles Review of Books, Los Angeles Times, Alta Journal, Jewish Journal, Zócalo, and the London Guardian. He writes regularly for La Bloga, a site dedicated to Latinx literature and the arts. The grandson of Mexican immigrants, he was born and raised near downtown Los Angeles.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Caleb

Chicano Frankenstein is a retelling of the classic Frankenstein in a modern America where modern technology have allowed for dead people to be stitched together from different body parts of different people and reanimated. These reanimated people do not have memories from their past lives and cannot......more

Goodreads review by Yamini

Inspired by the Classic- Frankenstein, this story is set up in the modern world, following a reanimated human performing his mundane tasks of daily life. His monotony is however disturbed when he meets a woman who has him questioning, appreciating and living. With newer developments in his social ci......more

I’ve always had a sweet spot for Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, regardless of how many times I had to read it for course work throughout college, so this book definitely caught my attention. This book isn’t exactly the same as Shelley’s novel, but it’s amazing in its own way. I really enjoyed the worl......more

Goodreads review by Bird

Audio. This book made me ask some questions and not good ones. ‘Is this self-published?’ ‘Is this a YA novel?’ ‘Why do I feel like a Boomer reading this?’ ‘Does this attorney/writer not value his own paralegals?’ Interesting idea of a book with this new patchwork creature as allegory to marginalized......more


Quotes

“Thom Rivera pulls out all the stops with this intriguing Latinx retelling…Rivera’s rich voice adds depth to the characters. He also delivers female voices in a believable pitch and deftly uses various accents when needed.” AudioFile

“Urgently relevant.” Latino Book Review

“Takes a magnifying glass to American life and politics.”  Latinx Pop Magazine

“[A]s fascinating modern retelling…part science fiction and part political satire…Readers will have no trouble sympathizing with the main character as he works to remember who he once was.” Publishers Weekly

“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

“With its tongue firmly planted in its cheek, this important novel is at once frightening and humorous, and I found myself laughing out loud more than once as Olivas cleverly delivered his cautionary message, served with a basket of fresh baked pan dulce.” Orlando Ortega-Medina, author of The Fitful Sleep of Immigrants


Awards

  • Literary Hub Pick