This is a very beautifully written, experimental musing on queer identity and parallel lives.

Strengths for me: the prose was often very lyrical and evocative, and the portrayal of the AIDS epidemic from multiple angles was very powerful.

Things that didn’t work for me: I had trouble following the structure at first - it wasn’t clear whether they were supposed to be the same person a la sliding door or separate. (The answer is separate, and their lives touch but don’t interact for the majority of the book.) I would also say this is very heavily Literary Fiction, which is neither good nor bad, just a fact. It’s hard to rate this because it was more literary than I prefer, which is more about my personal preference than it is about the author.

I would recommend this for readers seeking the kind of book you can deeply analyze and who value hearing queer perspectives and learning about a multitude of queer experiences.

A story of two lives, limb one and limb two, over the course of three decades. Told in the style of poetic prose (and no quotation marks for dialogue), we follow these two limbs who experience entanglements and desires that go against social norms in Australia. This book is a reminder that the queer community fought tirelessly for acceptance and the right to exist openly and proudly. This is an homage to found families and honors the ones we lost during the AIDS pandemic. It’s a very beautiful book that was difficult to read at times for both the content and how it’s written, but definitely one that will stick with me.

Oof—this was a beautiful, tragic, and emotional story. It follows two different life paths of a queer teen after she is caught kissing her best friend, showing how one pivotal decision can shape everything that comes after. In Limb One, the main character lives openly as her queer self; in Limb Two, she suppresses her identity to fit into societal norms. Set in 1970s Australia during a time of queer repression and the looming AIDS crisis, both timelines felt deeply believable and real. The juxtaposition of the split narrative was surreal in the best way, serving as a powerful reminder of how a single choice can change your entire life.

Sincere thanks to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Dutton for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

An absolutely gorgeous read, sure to be one of my favorites of the year. Beautiful prose, and reflective character work that kept me reading. Sad and hopeful and melancholy and joyous.

Let me say one thing first, this book is very important. The themes, the characters’ journeys, the real life events, they’re all important and good information for someone who isn’t aware of the LGBTQ+ community. We get to see history unfold for our characters and acknowledge it.
While I do believe this book is important and everyone should try it, I did have a few gripes with it. My main issue was the writing choice. It was beautiful at times but I could not get over the no quotations. I got used to it but I was still so annoyed the whole time. Again, that’s a personal gripe, nothing to do with the story.
Limb Two also bothered me. The problem with Limb Two was that I felt her story was unnecessary until the end. She represents a person who decides to conceal their queerness and her life after deciding to live a straight life. Anything that happened with this Limb was so dull compared the Limb One’s life until the very end. The part with her husband’s father though was crucial to show how people were treated amidst the AIDs pandemic. It was very sad.
Regardless of my own personal peeves with this book, I believe it was truly a great read and definitely worth a try. I hope if you decide to pick it up you enjoy it!

This book is unbelievably special. It's poetry and history and love and grief and resilience and light and family. And mostly, threaded through it all in ways both obvious and subtle, it's queerness. It was the perfect book to read in Pride Month: a reminder of our history and pain and also of our joy and community and love.

Reading A Language of Limbs left me with the distinct ache of having lived multiple lives in parallel—lives shaped not by certainty, but by the quiet, devastating gravity of indecision. This book taught me that love doesn’t always announce itself with clarity, and that the choices we make—or don’t—can ripple across time in ways we only understand years later. It illuminated how desire, when silenced, doesn't disappear but instead rearranges the self, and how tenderness can survive even in exile. What makes this one of my favorite reads of the year is its rare ability to hold contradiction: joy and sorrow, longing and fulfillment, humor and heartbreak—all tangled together with grace. I came up for air after finishing it and realized my body had been holding something for me the whole time.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this e-arc!

4.75

This was so heartbreaking and beautiful with some of the most unique prose and narrative structure I have encountered in a long time. Such an interesting metaphor with limbs and the different paths that life can take. This was beautifully and lyrically written with beautiful poetry and language. So many queer people’s experiences are tied to pain and injustice, and both of these characters experiences in this novel demonstrate this fact. I was really impacted by the way the author drew comparisons between COVID and AIDS, how covid was not the first pandemic for many. This was ultimate really emotional and a story I feel will really stick with me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dutton for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review

Language of Limbs is a tender novel, poetic and insightful. You follow two timelines of a queer Australian teen, one in which they are outed [spoiler](assaulted and kicked out)[spoiler] and one in which they suppres their queerness. Queerness in this novel spans sexuality, gender, and political spaces. The conversation exists between generations; amongst cis and trans folks; and on college campuses, at home, and in community hubs.

It's hard to recommend books that might devastate you, but I'm so grateful we have words like these and a heart like Hardcastle's to tell our shared story. To remind us of the fear and violence, historical and present, but to also connect us to the freedom and joy we find, together. 

I recommend checking the contents before reading.

A beautiful story about lovee and identity. My only issue with this book was that the story and the characters themselves get lost within all the flowery language.

Ouch I am hurt and will never emotionally recover from the beauty and devastation within this book. This was one of the most beautifully written books that I’ve ever read in my entire life. The way the two stories overlapped and paralleled each other until the very end when they finally came together was incredible. I have goosebumps even thinking about this book and know it will stay with me for a very long time.

While I think the writing is beautiful and could relate to the themes in the book, it was hard for me to get through. For most of the book, I thought it was one narrator living two parallel lives but it’s actually two narrators. Nonetheless, the themes of sexuality and identity were written and explored well and I liked how the narrators were split up by limbs. I thought that was very interesting. I also like the history aspect of the book as well.


Thank you to the publishers for the opportunity of reading this book as an E-arc <3

This book follows three decades starting with a teenage girl in the Australian suburbs in the 70s. Her two lives split in the storytelling when on one track she’s caught with another girl and her life implodes, in another she suppresses her love deep down. Each chapter flips between the two timelines and of course sometimes they intersect and this book will make your heart squeeze a billion times.

What’s so beautiful about this story to me is that there is no single right choice or path, it would be easy if the message of this book was that the openly queer timeline was “better” but life isn’t just the one splitting moment, it’s so much of what comes after, the AIDS crisis, the grief that affects every timeline, the friends and the art and the love in every world, and what can’t be suppressed no matter how hard you try.

The first (and not last) quote that made me sob 🥲:

Dave asks, you ever been in love? And because of what I’m afraid I’ll say next, I just nod silently. He makes a hm sound, then asks, had a boyfriend before? I shake my head. Ah, he says. I didn’t think so. Then he asks, quieter now, what’s her name?

(So grateful to be a #DuttonPartner and for @duttonbooks sending me a free book because I’m afraid I wouldn’t have heard about it otherwise!)

I’m DNF-ing this book, and since I read 55% I’m counting it as read (my rule is if I read half I gave the book a fair chance). This is one of those books where things happen, but there’s no plot/direction. I didn’t feel attached to any of the characters. I don’t know much about the author, but the novel read like it was written by a poet, and I don’t like novels written by poets. I enjoyed the perspective of the person who ran away more than the one who’s drowning in comphet (or maybe it’s actual bisexuality? Idk). I’m a lesbian, I don’t care about how much you love (?) your husband. For the longest time I thought the two characters were alternate realities for the same person, but apparently that’s not the case.
I recommend this to readers who like no plot just vibes books. Personally I needed more substance.

"And I saw new heavens and a new earth"

After reading this beautiful mix of poetry & prose, I truly feel that my words cannot do justice to how breathtaking this novel is. In A Language of Limbs, we are immersed in the stories of 2 queer women, living drastically different lives, but as these stories progress, their symmetry starts to unfold and their lives converge. Hardcastle writes of young queer yearning & the heartbreak of being unloved by those who you thought were family, but also of queer joy as resistance & the euphoria of finding our own skin. As the story is set during the height of the AIDS epidemic, I definitely recommend checking the trigger warnings. Not even halfway through 2025 and I am confident in saying this will be a favorite for the year.

Thank you Penguin Group Dutton & NetGalley for the ARC! I am already ecstatic at the thought of purchasing a physical copy of my own and doing a re-read. I LOVE BEING GAY!!!!!!

This novel is both breathtaking and devastating, wrapped up in eloquent and poetic prose. I enjoyed reading this so much.. The characters are complicated and you can't help but love and care about their plight. The struggles faced by the young, queer community and the two young teens in this novel was both heartbreaking and eye opening. This is a novel I will definitely revisit in the future.

This was such a joyful read. I enjoyed this so much. I typically don't go for the will-they-won't-they won't they tropes, but this one was done perfectly. This novel had me laughing and crying, and smiling. I recommend this as your next read.

A solid queer coming of age that I’m sure many will enjoy but I never connected with it. My mistake was not heeding that obviously a book with a title as poetic as “A Language of Limbs” would be written in the same dreamy prose. I have a real intolerance to sentimentality and wistful metaphorical writing, it tends to leave me at arm’s length and I don’t connect with the characters as much as I like to when it's more about the atmosphere than the interiority. That’s what happened here. Gave it to 50% for it to grip me and it never did. Only ended up finishing it because it was an ARC. Switched to listening on audio and the narrators’ whispery and breathless voices only made the dreamy tone worse lol.

While this was not my usual prose or style, it was an elegantly written book. The perspective tenses were unconventional in the best way and I think many people could appreciate the beauty of it.

I really loved "A Language of Limbs" by Dylin Hardcastle. Tender and poignant at times. Loved the innovative limb 1 and limb 2 structure. Great character development. Recommended.