My interest was thoroughly piqued by the first twenty or so pages of the book. I found the writing style beautiful and the topic fascinating. After about the thirty-five-ish page mark things started to derail. Savage Tongues began to feel less like a fiction and more like a nonfiction. The themes of sexual abuse, systemic racism, and generational trauma were extremely heavy-handed. They were well researched and Oloomi clearly understood what she was talking about but she handled them as if she were writing a thesis paper not as if she were writing a fiction novel. The book didn’t read artfully or gracefully. It read like nonfiction. Oloomi didn’t even seem to try to organize it in a way that didn’t feel like nonfiction. It was often very annoying when reading and removed me from the story. Another major complaint I have is the way the characters interacted. The women didn’t talk like people. They talked like well edited essays. It was extremely unrealistic. While I understand that people can have in depth, meaningful conversation about trauma and generational issues they would still speak like human beings.