Final Rating: 4.5/5
An absolutely wonderful novel. The dual POV created a form of mystery that I thought was solved in the very beginning, but that truly only began to make sense half-way through. The fragmentary language was a very appropriate way to portray the issues presented in this book without saying too much or too little. I’ve adored the changes in the writing style as well as the similarities and the differences that can be noticed between the two points of view. One singular downside which took away from this being a full 5 star read is the fact that it was digital. I am more than sure that readers who received this as a physical book had a much more immersive reading experience compared to the limitation of simply looking at the computer/telephone screen.
Thank you NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this novel!!

This was heartbreakingly gorgeous. The story of one of the darkest chapters in queer history told with all the grief, sorrow, joy, and hope that it deserves.

This was a beautifully written novel, truly stunning language that sounded like poetry on the audiobook.

However, it’s SO heavy. There’s found family, love, so much grief, (a LOT of grief), family secrets, loss.

You really need to be in the right mood for this one, but it’s definitely a recommend from me.

Thank you @netgalley and @duttonbooks for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

Eloquent and poetic. I really enjoyed the creative way this book was written. However, I didn’t love it or hate it. Hardcastle tells a good story, many times it was poignant, but at other times it got in its own way. Thank you NetGalley for providing the ARC.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC! This book was beautiful, yet a very hard read. The author has a way of pulling you in with their storytelling and poetic language used throughout the story. It leaves you feeling gutted and breathless at times.

Reading A Language of Limbs was an incredibly moving experience. It was unlike anything I've ever read. Hardcastle has an amazing way with words and I found myself highlighting parts in the book constantly because they spoke so much to me. I found this book to be both gut wrenchingly beautiful and tragic. The message is so important and makes me even more proud to be a part of the LGBTQ+ community. I hope Hardcastle continues to write because they have become an auto-buy author for me. Everyone should read this.

Thank you Dylin for the ARC. I am truly grateful to have read this and I will be forever changed from this book.

This was a beautiful coming of age story set in Australia during the 1970s and ’80s. It follows two teens, one who is forced out of the closet, and another who chooses to stay inside it.

The story spans several decades, showing how each of their lives unfolds. It explores identity, queerness, belonging, and the consequences of the paths we choose.

I really enjoyed the writing, it was beautifully lyrical and rich in prose. This was a truly emotional, heartbreaking, and powerful read. The portrayal of community and found family were some of my favorite parts. I would definitely recommend this one!

Thank you SO much to Dutton for the complimentary copy of the Ebook & free copy of the book!

This book is out now.

I was drawn to this book based off the title and the cover alone (the US edition) and all I knew about it was that it was a queer love story. And as much as I enjoyed this, this book was nothing like what I thought it was going to be. I thought this was going to be a dual POV romance over the course of the years but instead we get something else. The point of views was broken down by Limb 1 and Limb 2 which I thought was very interesting, very creative. They each have their own stories and their ups and down. Limb 1 had such a rough go of it in the beginning and Doug was literally their fairy godmother. Whereas Limb 2 I feel had more of a rough second half of the book. There was a moment that felt so personal to me that Limb 2 went through. I've often talk about the isolating feeling you feel after a miscarriage and the way Hardcastle depicts it in this book felt so relatable to me - "You don't get it." "How can I? You won't let me in." "You haven't been here." "I have! I've been right here." "No, Thomas. I have been right here...by myself, this whole time!" "Honey, I haven't left." "You have no idea what I'm going through! The closest you get to me is when you're asleep." Ooof. Each suffered loss but also have had great love. The two stories do eventually converge.

Overall I did enjoy this so if you are looking for a queer lit fic that takes place in Australia - give this one a read!

3.5

Thanks to Dutton and Netgalley for this advanced copy.

What a novel. What an incredibly written story of two people, torn apart by homophobia, yet still so linked as they move through their lives, parallel in tragedy, love, and joy. The language and poetry of this novel is just extraordinary. I am not someone who finds beauty in poetry naturally, but the poetry of this book moved me and was so perfectly used in between exceptional prose. I loved how the author developed these two people without judgment and moved them through their lives together but apart.

Just amazing. I loved it.

"falling in love, you decide, is falling home. it's clumsy and awkward, utterly wonderful. you're so vulnerable in the freefall. there's so much unlearning. it's letting go of what you knew and how you used to. surrender to her gravity, to the darkness of her unknown. land there, home."

a language of limbs is a celebration of queer love, joy, and community. it's a gorgeous book where both character's, told as limb one and limb two, lives mirror each other before they eventually collide. as beautiful as this book is, it is also brutal. set against australia's first mardi gras and theaids pandemic, limbs one and two navigate resistance, grief and loss. through every ebb and flow, this book remains radiant and vibrant, a story that's unapologetically bright.

as a reader, i prefer books writing that is a bit more lyrical. if a book is told too matter-of-factly, i have a hard time sinking into the stories and the characters. however, if the prose is also a bit too flowery, i also have a hard time sinking into the story and the characters. there's a sweet spot for me, and unfortunately hardcastle's writing, even in all it's beauty, was a bit too flowery. there were just a handful of stylistic choices that would take me out of the story at times, but that is more of a personal critique

thank you to the publisher for an early copy!

A Language of Limbs by Dylin Hardcastle is one of my favorite books I've read all year. Set in Australia in the 1970s and 80s, the story follows two characters, called limb one and limb two. Their paths take very different trajectories, but continue to run parallel to each other every so often. The characters' love for each other, both romantic and platonic, was so beautifully described. I love reading about found family, and that these characters made the most vibrant and loving found families. The book also discusses how difficult it was to be openly queer during that time in history, the violence, discrimination and abandonment felt by many queer people, as well as the immense tragedy of the HIV/AIDS epidemic at that time. I loved Hardcastle's lyrical writing and how they wove poetry throughout the book. It was honestly so moving and I continue to think about these characters daily. Be prepared for some heartbreak and heavy emotions, but I highly encourage you to pick up this book. It was the perfect Pride Month read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this review copy.

DNF@ 15%

I don't care for the way that this book is written and I'm finding it difficult to stay focused in the story.

if you’re not a fan of an entire book of poetic prose, i would not recommend, but i thought this novel was just lovely. a teeny bit long for my liking, but i thought the concept of the two “limbs” was really unique. thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the eArc in exchange for my honest review!

I was initially put off by the opaquely lyrical prose and my inability to distinguish the limbs, but after a few chapters I got used to their different voices and was hooked on their stories. I became more emotionally invested than I thought I would, especially with limb two's experience, and overall it's a heartbreaking yet joyous celebration of life and the spectrum of sexuality.

This book made me tear up so many times, I know reading of the AIDS crisis is always hard but seeing one POV of someone who was proudly queer to someone who repressed it for so long pulled at my heartstrings but I loved every second of it

I previously thought that the concept of celebrating ‘Pride’ was about triumph, surviving against all odds and thriving despite the many adversarial forces that have existed and continue to exist today. This work is not just a rollercoaster of emotions, but it’s a reminder: life is also about honoring the losses, too. That is the most palpable feeling throughout this work, and it’s crafted in such a way that it remains haunting, even after you’ve put it down.

The only two aspects that I could not fully connect with are the style of writing (lack of quotation marks to differentiate dialogue) and the more… How can I best describe it? The poetry. This is more of personal preference, as poetry is not my preferred medium.

At any rate, this was one of the most moving and thought-provoking works that I have read this year, and I’m very curious to see what else this author releases in the future. If there’s another lesson to take from all of the twists and turns, the heartbreaks and the victories, it’s that the queer experience is not monolithic, yet it’s rooted in both the realization and celebration of *differences*.

My thanks to the author (Dylin Hardcastle), the publisher, and NetGalley for providing the eARC through which I was able to read the work and write this review.

So this is interesting - I enjoyed seeing the various ways the lives of the two "limbs" diverged and converged through the years - but oof, is it overwritten. The last sentence feels like such a case in point: so many descriptors flung up desperately trying to a evoke a feeling...but completely lacking the clarity to do so. It's not completely unbearable, and there are some moments of genuine greatness - like the birth scene, that was perfectly intense - but it's not as tight or sharp as it needs to be. Particularly since the language is carrying so much of the weight here due to the near complete absence of any fully rendered character.

Who was Caragh, besides being limb one's girlfriend who isn't out to her family? Thomas has slightly more going for him - but only because we know his ambitions - but beyond that the character situation is pretty bleak. No one in the crowd of secondary characters has anything resembling a personality (though we are told, especially in limb one's sections, that many people are "loving"...okay) and if a character happens to be a POC that's basically all we know about them because they'll have gotten one line of pointing out inequality to a white character. Ditto any character who's made to represent a specific queer identity. (So Caragh also serves as a way to call out biphobia, and Daphne for transphobia.)

Fortunately, the limbs have a little more to them but even with them it's very much lower-case 'c' characterization. It's more the interplay of their lives that made this worth reading - how their decisions lead them away and towards each other, pendulum style. And I did find that really compelling, but at the same time also wished that this book could've had more to it: more sharp writing, more real characterization. For that reason I'm not sure if I'd recommend it. It is pretty unique - so if the summary really grabs you, go for it. But otherwise, it's safe to skip.

This one is for the lovers of the poetic.

It's a queer coming-of-age story set in Australia, spanning three decades, beginning in the 1970s, about two women finding themselves through very different approaches.

The book is divided into two sections, two narrators: Limb One and Limb Two.
Expect the prose to match the concept-- poetic and artsy. It is often unconventional and pretty, eliciting all of your emotions as it goes.

This book is evocative, a reminder of our history-- a book of contradictions and necessary balances while embarking upon the journey of (queer) self-discovery.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of A Language of Limbs.

Dylin Hardcastle’s prose is undeniably beautiful. It’s lyrical, strange, and often evocative. There were moments throughout the book that really captured me, with lines and imagery that felt both haunting and intimate. The language itself is the star of this novel, and fans of poetic writing will find a lot to admire here.

However, I struggled with the narrative. The two central characters were difficult to distinguish from one another at the beginning, which made it hard to ground myself in the story. The decision to withhold names until the end of the book may have been intentional, but for me, it created a distance I couldn’t quite bridge. I didn’t feel as emotionally connected to the characters as I wanted to, and that made it harder to stay invested.

Overall, A Language of Limbs is an intriguing and atmospheric read, but one that left me feeling a bit adrift. It’s a book I appreciated more than I loved.

I really enjoyed this book. The concept of chosen family resonates strongly with me. As the dual stories unfold, it did take me a minute to understand that Limb one and Limb two were two different people. I thought it was two different versions of Little Dave's life. Once I realized it was two different people, the girls who'd been best friends, it made a lot more sense. I love how Dave saved Lucy and could see who she was and understood what she needed. How many times does this happen in our lives, that we cross paths with just the being we need to make it to the next step? The poetry and the description of the art makes me want to see it all with my own eyes. References to the 80s and the tragedy of the AIDS crisis stung a bit. However, I was also surprised the same stigma existed in countries other than the US. I will read this book again.