[citation needed] Before becoming a fiction writer, Olivas authored legal articles, essays and book reviews for the Los Angeles Daily Journal.

BuzzFeed offered a positive review observing, in part: "Throughout all of his stories, there are strong Chicano characters, who embody tales that range from the laugh-out-loud funny to the heartbreaking.

The novel is written in the magical realist tradition but also includes postmodern elements such as sections where characters are interviewed about being in the novel itself, text messages, and a short play.

On March 20, 2023, Forest Avenue Press announced the acquisition of Olivas's novel, Chicano Frankenstein, with a publication date in 2024, noting that the novel "addresses issues of belonging and assimilation through a modern retelling of the Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley classic."

[6] On May 8, 2024, after the novel's publication, NPR's Code Switch podcast ran an interview with Olivas regarding his novel where he discussed the anti-immigrant political rhetoric of the 2020 midterm elections that inspired him to write the book.

The San Francisco Review observed: "While Olivas has been writing for a while, newcomers to his works will gain a profound understanding of Chicano and Mexican cultures and the pivotal role of love in each.

"[8] Shelf Awareness opined: "Imaginative Olivas deftly jumps between realism, magical surrealism, the mysterious and fantastical, capturing indelible glimpses of longing and loss, cleaving betrayal and healing renewal.

In 2016, Tía Chucha Press released The Coiled Serpent: Poets Arising from the Cultural Quakes and Shifts of Los Angeles which Olivas co-edited with Neelanjana Banerjee and Ruben J. Rodriguez.

On June 1, 2014, San Diego State University Press published Olivas's first nonfiction book, Things We Do Not Talk About: Exploring Latino/a Literature through Essays and Interviews.

The volume brings together essays that have appeared in The New York Times, La Bloga, Jewish Journal, California Lawyer, and other publications, that address topics from the Mexican-American experience to the Holocaust.