If you were a fan of A Little Life you’ll enjoy this book that faces the heartbreak and heartache that exists in the LGBTQ community.

This was such a beautifully written and unique book! It read like an epic poem. It was so heartbreaking but still somehow managed to be hopeful. It showed the tenacity and strength of the LGBTQ+ community.

It took me a bit to catch on to the way the chapters worked and that “Limb One” and “Limb Two” were separate characters in the same timeline but I think it was a clever way to handle the plot.

I will be recommending this to everyone. It’s a literary fiction masterpiece.

This is one of those books that you HAVE to recommend to people, but with a huge caveat of emotional warning. Due to the current state of the US, I have only been surrounding myself with books about queer joy, but every now and then, there is a queer book that is so good, it makes the heartache worth it. This is one of them. Please read this book.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this book for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I don't have the words to adequately describe this novel and how meaningful it is. These two seemingly disparate storylines intersect in such big and small ways over the course of the novel. Each character goes through a journey full of joy, and heartbreak, and hope, and they fuck things up royally, but find their way through it in the end. There are parallels in each of their stories, down to the language they used and just wow. I was moved to tears multiple times during my reading. How can a work of art be so breathtakingly simple, and yet so achingly complex at the same time?

An absolute masterpiece.

Wow!
Dylin Hardcastle’s The Language of Limbs is a sharp, imaginative exploration of choice and consequence, tracing dueling alternate life paths that ask what happens if the heroine pursues her first teenage love, follows her heart to another girl, or suppresses it entirely. Beginning in the 1970s in Australia and moving through the shadow of the AIDS crisis, Hardcastle handles each thread with empathy and grace, making both the personal and historical stakes feel urgent. The split structure is ambitious but compelling, showing how love, fear, and silence can shape a lifetime—thought-provoking, haunting, and beautifully written.

I absolutely love a "sliding doors" story in which the story follows two different trajectories from the same jumping point. I'm having a hard time explaining how this book moved me. But I am moved.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for the ARC!
PUB DATE: Already Published

A Language of Limbs follows an unnamed protagonist from teen years into adulthood in two parallel stories, almost touching but never quite crossing. In Limb One she is "caught in the act" with her best friend and subsequently thrown out of her parent's house at age 15. In Limb Two, she has feelings that she is constantly suppressing and not allowing herself to live authentically.

How do I put into words my thoughts on one of the best books I've read this year? Tender and mercurial, A Language of Limbs is a love story and a nightmare, a push-and-pull paradox whose wistfulness and style actually reminded me a lot of Sally Rooney's Normal People...perhaps if it was queer and even more swollen with melancholy.

A Language of Limbs follows two queer girls whose desires and expressions are executed on two entirely different ends of the spectrum — one is unwaveringly themselves and living with a found family after being forced out from her home; the other is seemingly repressed and pursues the more homogeneous standard of life (i.e, heterosexual relationship, marriage, children, etc). It was always interesting to flip through each of their narratives, not only to follow their parallel stories but to deconstruct the ways their material realities differ so severely.

One of the moments that I found most interesting was when Limb One's chapter was detailing a protest that devolved into police brutality and dehumanization of the protestors. Then, in the following POV switch, Limb Two was speaking with an officer to report a burglary and her experience was starkly different, in that Limb Two's male partner was present and (thus) the conversation was much more civil... That's all to say: when we tell these stories of parallel lives and the repercussions people face for their societal perception / assignment of value, it's important to recognize all these aspects that affect people's lived, material realities. Something that Limb Two's narrative reminded me of (by way of Limb One's path) was how people can and will choose proximity to men for ease and comfort over the fulfillment of their own desires and alignment with their true selves.

Anyway, long live lesbians and queer people. This book made me want to die and I cried at my sink after finishing it. 5/5

This book was so beautiful yet so heartbreaking! So well written I loved these characters. I loved the two stories happening in parallel and how they come together in the end. Really well done and will definitely recommend!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of A Language of Limbs in exchange for an honest review. Unfortunately I was unable to read it before the archive date. I look forward to finding this book at my local library or out in the world.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for the ARC of A Language of Limbs, published June 3, 2025.

Told in alternating perspectives, A Language of Limbs follows two teenage girls growing up in 1970s Australia. One finds the courage to step into her queer identity, eventually making her way to Uranian House in Sydney—a place where she can live and love openly. The other turns away from the same desires, choosing a more conventional path shaped by societal expectations. Across the years, their stories unfold in parallel, brushing against each other in unexpected ways as they navigate friendship, desire, creative expression, and the political upheavals of the time.

Hardcastle’s prose is lush and rhythmic, with a lyrical quality that makes even the quietest moments resonate. The dual narrative structure deepens the emotional impact, showing how different choices ripple outward through a lifetime. It’s a novel that tackles love, loss, identity, and the shadow of the AIDS crisis with sensitivity and emotional precision.

This is not a light read—it’s heartbreaking and at times heavy—but it’s also luminous in its portrayal of resilience and the connections that define us. It’s the kind of story that lingers, prompting reflection long after the last page.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½/5

ARC review: A Language of Limbs

This is the story of two characters told in alternating chapters. We follow them as they grow and make decisions that will affect their whole lives, and we go through all the ups and downs of their timelines. We observe parallels between their lives as well as how they experience very different outcomes. We feel their joy, their pain, liberations, and shames through the pages. The writing is lyrical, poetic, and dreamlike. It may feel overwritten at some points but I found myself really enjoying most of the style.

Do verify the trigger warnings, part of this book is set during the AIDS pandemic.

Man oh man. I knew this book was going to be amazing from the first pages and I was RIGHT. I finished this book months ago and I still think about it all the time. I will read anything Dylin Hardcastle writes.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Woah, I loved the storytelling style of this one. You follow two people, two "limbs" of one really, as their lives branch off in different paths following one limb's rejection of her queerness as a teenager and the other's radical, if painful, acceptance of it.

Their lives intertwine at key events but never cross until the very end. Both meet the loves of their lives at a protest, and both experience loss that shatters their worlds at the opening of an art exhibit. You follow the drama of both of their lives, loves, and heartbreaks, and get to know the various people who become their families and see both achieve their dreams and come into their own.

All of this is set against the backdrop of Australia in the 1980s during the AIDS crisis, which affects both limbs in different and painful ways. This part of the story is what I felt most deeply, when limb one is in the middle of burying all her friends who have become her family- the tears came out.

Overall this was a uniquely structured story and I enjoyed the feeling of the waves of each limb's life coming almost together but never meeting until the crash together at the end. It was a beautiful story and a celebration of queerness, of finding joy in your identity that makes it all worth it despite the fear, shame, and loneliness.

This was easily one of the most beautiful books I've read in a long time. Fair warning, it is quite hearbreaking, but well worth it, in my opinion.

We follow the parallel lives of two women, named only as Limb one and Limb two. The story takes place in Australia, in the 70s and early 80s. Initially, it almost appears that they are the same person, having made different choices. I believe the author does this intentionally, to show how different a life trajectory can be based on the decision to come out or not.

I appreciated that the outcomes of the choices are not so black and white, that both characters experience love, loss, grief and joy, but in different ways. I also really enjoyed learning about the LGBTQ history and culture in Australia.

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.