Ilana Masad

Lincoln

Books and Culture Critic at Freelance

Writer and critic for hire. Author of the novel ALL MY MOTHER'S LOVERS. Queer, tired, Jewish, and ill. (ilanaslightly most other places)

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Articles

Review: Welcome to Yin Manor, an Altadena estate haunted by Hollywood dreams

2 weeks ago | latimes.com | Ilana Masad

Christina Li’s adult fiction debut is an enjoyable read centered on the battle over a haunted Altadena estate of an Oscar-winning recluse that once starred in Chinese films.
Review: When the fact-checker in question is not exactly a reliable narrator

1 month ago | latimes.com | Ilana Masad

Austin Kelley was a fact-checker at the New Yorker and the narrator of his debut novel is clearly meant to work there as well, our critic points out. The cover of Austin Kelley’s debut novel, “The Fact Checker,” will be immediately recognizable to a certain type of person: Ah, the New Yorker, they might think, before blinking and realizing that it isn’t.
When the fact-checker in question is not exactly a reliable narrator

1 month ago | yahoo.com | Ilana Masad

The cover of Austin Kelley's debut novel, "The Fact Checker," will be immediately recognizable to a certain type of person: Ah, the New Yorker, they might think, before blinking and realizing that it isn’t. I am that kind of person; the famous weekly has been around my whole life, issues piled on the bathroom counter or lying open on the kitchen table, and I eventually read them as well.
Review: Beware the nonbinary narrator who insists they are nothing like their father

1 month ago | latimes.com | Ilana Masad

Say what you will about American exceptionalism, but one thing we really are exceptional at is lying. Some lies are small, like how we politely tell each other that we’re fine when we’re not. Some are much bigger, and are perpetuated by our president and his cronies. This is, in part, why the unnamed narrator of Zee Carlstrom’s debut novel, “Make Sure You Die Screaming,” has taken a vow of radical honesty.
Beware the nonbinary narrator who insists they are nothing like their father

1 month ago | yahoo.com | Ilana Masad

Say what you will about American exceptionalism, but one thing we really are exceptional at is lying. Some lies are small, like how we politely tell each other that we’re fine when we’re not. Some are much bigger, and are perpetuated by our president and his cronies. This is, in part, why the unnamed narrator of Zee Carlstrom’s debut novel, “Make Sure You Die Screaming,” has taken a vow of radical honesty.
Celia Laskey’s New Lesbian Rom-Com Was Inspired by Real-Life Closeted Celebrities

1 month ago | them.us | Ilana Masad

If you’ve ever read (or watched) a romantic comedy, you’ll love the delicious set-up of Celia Laskey’s new novel, Cover Story. When our protagonist Ali began working as a Hollywood publicist, she had no idea that a big part of her job was going to be advising her clients to stay in the closet.
Review: Neither history nor language are neutral in this time-travel mystery

2 months ago | latimes.com | Ilana Masad

Kirsten Menger-Anderson’s new book, “The Expert of Subtle Revisions,” explores the way history is affected by how it is told and who does the telling. This is how the grandfather paradox was first explained to me: Imagine a boy whose grandfather invented a time machine. The boy hates his grandfather and, in a fit of anger, uses the time machine to visit his grandfather as an adolescent and murder him.
Neither history nor language are neutral in this time-travel mystery

2 months ago | yahoo.com | Ilana Masad

This is how the grandfather paradox was first explained to me: Imagine a boy whose grandfather invented a time machine. The boy hates his grandfather and, in a fit of anger, uses the time machine to visit his grandfather as an adolescent and murder him. By doing so, the grandfather won’t have the chance to invent the time machine nor meet the grandmother, so the boy's father and therefore the boy himself won’t be born.
Review | ‘Stag Dance’ is a worthy follow-up to ‘Detransition, Baby’

2 months ago | washingtonpost.com | Ilana Masad

In the early 20th century, a lumberjack nicknamed Babe Bunyan (“Bunyan” after folkloric axman Paul Bunyan; “Babe” after his strong ox) is working in an illegal logging camp during winter, when timber inspectors don’t check the frozen forests too carefully. It’s difficult work in uncomfortable conditions, and the laborers pass the time as best they can, drinking dangerously potent homebrewed liquor, sleeping in cramped quarters, making bets and telling stories.
'Notes on Surviving the Fire' isn't a rape-revenge thriller. It's a journey of grief

2 months ago | latimes.com | Ilana Masad

About midway through Christine Murphy’s debut novel, “Notes on Surviving the Fire,” her protagonist, Sarah Common, tells a guy she’s dating that rape-revenge movies don’t work. “Action movies are man movies,” she says. “Rape isn’t something men understand.” When the guy asks her to explain more, she gives a little speech that deserves to be as oft-cited as the “Cool Girl” monologue from “Gone Girl”:“I think men think that rape is unwanted sex. And sex is great.