Such a great book, I may not be the intended audience for the book but it was still a solid read.. I do appreciate the carefulness the author took in portraying love and difficult decision making. I do like the fact it is a period book, but not sure if limb 1 and limb 2 were needed or justified. Other than that it is well written, I do believe there is promise for the book, but again.... I may not be the type of reader this author writes for.

A Language of Limbs is a story of love found and love lost. Family found and family lost. Self found and self lost. We cycle between two queer women, one unable to stuff that part of herself away, the other threatening to burst from the suppression. It is as full of pure, unadulterated joy as it is gut-wrenching heartache. Hardcastle's writing is breathtaking in its imagery and visualization of love, hurt and everything in between. Beyond grateful that I get to live in a time where stories like this get to be written and shared.

This novel absolutely wrecked me. The peak into a world that I did not live in was hard to swallow and I’m so thankful it was. The prose was beautiful. I found myself laughing to their joy and crying along with their losses.

How can my heart and mind be so full and sad at the same time. I felt the love, I felt the heart break, and I feel the grief. The two women living such parallel lives but traveling from different directions just completely works. One world of acceptance and having to face the ugliness of the world and the other just pushing away who she truly is, or a part of her self. Phenomenal all around.

This is truly a remarkable novel. The prose is lyrical and captivating, pulling you into every page with its carefully crafted tension and atmosphere. I was completely drawn in by the way it builds suspense throughout, never letting you fully rest as you follow the characters' journeys. It’s a masterclass in storytelling, and the emotional depth of the characters is conveyed with such sensitivity.

What really struck me was how the narrative captures the queer experience in such a personal, intimate way. The focus remains on the characters themselves, their lives, and their choices. It’s a raw and moving portrayal that feels incredibly authentic, letting the characters' stories unfold in their own time, through their own lenses.

The exploration of identity, family, and the nuances of human connection is profound. I found myself reflecting deeply on how life’s pivotal moments and choices shape who we become, and how we build our own sense of belonging. The portrayal of queerness is delicate yet powerful, showing both the pain and the beauty of self-discovery and acceptance.

Overall, this novel was an unforgettable experience—an emotional journey that will stay with me for a long time. Thank you to NetGalley and Dutton for the e-ARC.

This is such a special novel. It’s lyrical, tender, heartbreaking, yet hopeful. I loved the unique format, with two different storylines branching from a pivotal choice at the start. The journey with the characters felt deeply personal. This novel really makes you reflect on the choices we make in life, the people we encounter, and the family we build.

Following two queer women in Australia, beginning in 1972, "A Language of Limbs" is a beautifully written novel. It is both hopeful and heartbreaking. The story alternates chapters, following the two women as they live very separate paths. Limb One lives as a lesbian, finding a family that loves and accepts her when her blood family doesn't. Limb Two shoves down her lesbian-ness and lives life as "normally" as possible. We follow these two women as they live at the same time through the same events: protests, the AIDS pandemic, and Australia's first Mardi Gras. "A Language of Limbs" is a story of love, loss, heartbreak, grief, and living joyfully and out loud.
This novel was incredible. Dylin Hardcastle is a master with words. My heart broke as Limb One and Limb Two experienced loss and pain. I celebrated with them as they found joy in their lives. The two paths are both very real realities that people have lived. After finishing the story, I had to sit and process all the emotions that came up. Without a doubt, as both a human being and a queer person, this novel will stick with me for the rest of my life.

A heart wrenching love story to queerness, self discovery, art and language; to loss, grief, and the great injustices of the world; to found family and moving on, sometimes in ways that brings us back where we started. This was beautifully written, the emotions conveyed and felt so fully. The parallel of the main characters' lives, starkly different yet similar in waves of joy and grief, was so well illustrated. This story transports you across time and oceans.

"Four decades from now, a disease will sweep across the world, and they will call it a global pandemic, and governments will act and mobilize, and borders will. Lose. The world will be locked down and people will speak of this strange and unprecedented time. Again and again, they will say, this strange and unprecedented time. And for those of us who are still alive, we will say, this is not my first pandemic."

"Some moments are felt so big that language cannot stretch wide enough to include it all."

"A Language of Limbs" by Dylin Hardcastle is a unique novel that spans multiple decades, starting in the 1970s and continuing through the height of the AIDS epidemic. The story features two protagonists whose lives run parallel until they eventually collide. The narrative alternates between the points of view of two individuals. It begins with the perspective of a person who embraces their queer identity, faces rejection from their family, finds support in a chosen family, and discovers solace through art. The other perspective is from someone who embraces a "comp-het" (compulsory heterosexuality) lifestyle, is supported by their family, and pursues art.

The novel illustrates the importance and beauty of our choices, identity, and our ability to grow and change. It also emphasizes the value of connection. While there are some tear-jerking moments, it is ultimately a beautiful story. Readers should take note of the author's content warnings.

I highly recommend this novel. Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for providing the ARC.

SIMPLY MARVELLOUS. not because i would root for the romance or for them to stick together; quite the contrary, in fact, i imagine them drifting apart after a while. but because of the experience reading this was for me - lyrical, flowy prose that talked about life and love and friendship in beautiful ways that had me invested throughout. lovely.

this one started out strong as hell for me - I was so completely enthralled and certain it'd be in my top 10 of the year. as it progressed, I found that I liked it a little less than I expected (maybe top 15-20), but overall found this to be a really powerful & beautiful experience of a book!

I really loved the alternating between protagonists and the myriad ways their journeys overlapped over time, the exploration of how queerness can look and feel, how our choices can shape our paths so significantly. I loved the exploration of tenderness in chosen family, I loved the heaviness and beauty and poetry, I loved watching both of the limbs grow, falling into their own respective loves and figuring out who they were and who they wanted to be. the writing was gorgeous, the chapters were short and often biting, which I liked.

I think my only grievances with this book were that the themes felt a bit heavy-handed at times. also a lot a lot a lot of death/loss like holy moly. that said, it was a really great exploration of what it meant to be queer stretching back to the 70s and I recognize that such a story is destined to be heavy with a lot of that.

I think queer readers especially will eat this one up. it made me sad but also proud and empowered in my queerness, it made me want to hug all those that came before me, all those that were lost, saved, and all those yet to come.

thank you netgalley and penguin group press for the ARC!

A Language of Limbs starts in Newcastle in 1972, when two teenage girls each make a choice about love. The story spans three decades, and tracks these two lives through life, love, grief, heartbreak, happiness, and everything in between. Hardcastle carefully weaves pivotal moments in history into these characters' stories, and explores how they impact their lives in different ways.

This is really a gem of a book. The prose is lyrical and beautiful without being overdone or flowery. There are lines throughout that feel like a punch straight to the heart. The way that the language flowed from one of our main characters to the other was incredibly impactful and moving. The cast of characters is so full of life, and each brings a new perspective of the queer experience to the story. This story says so much about love and friendship, and I think there is something in here that every reader will be able to connect with in some way.

Thank you to Penguin Group and NetGalley for the Arc of this book.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced e-arc in exchange for a honest review.

This is so far above anything I’ve ever experienced in a book. Now I’m wondering if I’ll ever find another book that makes me feel this way.

For anyone who is queer or has ever found solace in a chosen family, this book will tear you apart in the best way possible. It dives deep into the beauty and pain of those connections, tugging at every emotional thread until you’re left raw but grateful.

I will be recommending this book endlessly.

“Our bodies are a photomontage of unlikely images, assembled so artfully we create a brilliant new picture, stuck together with glue and staples. We are united.
Neither their pointed eyes nor pointed fingers can tear this picture apart, because we are bolstered by our rage and our love. Because when you humiliate and make small, the rest of us become bigger to fill the space, holding the family portrait intact.”

oh my god...this was absolutely everything. just some of the most beautiful writing and storytelling. just the easiest 5 stars i've ever given.

Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for this honest review.

First of... wow.
When I first started A Language of Limbs, I got two chapters in, set it down, and seriously considered DNF'ing it right there. There was a harsh choice that Limb Two had made basically out of the gate, which seriously put me off.

And then I picked it up again. And after that, I found it very, very hard to set down.

A Language of Limbs is hard to pin down. It is poetry, it is stories, it is grief and love. I do not know how to describe it simply, for it is not a simple story: the format has been seen before, but I have never read a book quite like it.

Dylin Hardcastle has written something truly beautiful. The way every piece interacts with one another has created a story enmeshed with itself, parallels upon parallels. Limb One and Limb Two's lives are written in such a way where they are often undergoing the same beat in the story, affected by the same things -- and yet, just apart enough to give them both a compelling story. Repeating upon itself, but not repetitive.

The only true qualm I had, finishing, is that I'm not a hundred percent sure if I can picture the final pairing together. The characters felt simultaneously too similar and too unalike one another at once, and I personally cannot imagine what their life may be like after the book. I think, if the author had given us more to work with of them together, that opinion may have changed -- but they hadn't, and I do not condemn them for that. Narratively, I do think it was the correct choice... just that it didn't work out perfectly.

Saying that, A Language of Two Limbs felt like a fresh breath of air; something crisp and rich, that has filled me with a new light. I've really, really enjoyed reading it.

Thank you Penguin Group + NetGalley for the ARC - holy holy gods this is arguably one of the most beautifully written bits of prose I have EVER read. The storytelling, the bifurcated story lines presented as opposing limbs, the intertwining of prose and poetry — I TRULY could not get enough of this story. I have truly never read anything so concise yet so expansive all at once. Everyone and i mean EVERYONE needs to pick this novel up, it’s somehow both devastating and healing.

I sat in the silence for a good 8 minutes after finishing this book, just sitting with all the feelings it drudged up.

Sometimes a first kiss can be life changing when it shows you who you really are. For two friends, both of whom happen to be girls, their first kiss changed everything. That kiss was the catalyst that sent them hurtling down two very different life paths, paths that unknowingly ran pretty close to parallel for nearly three decades while each person lived wildly different realities. Set in the 1970s through the early 1990s, in Australia, before, during, and after the AIDS pandemic in the 1980s. We get to see, through two different lenses, how life and society changed during those years for queer individuals. Each chapter is told in single POV, in third person, but from both people’s perspective, even though they are not interacting at all. It’s written in a stream of consciousness style. Part prose, part inner dialogue, it swept me up and carried me downstream before spitting me out in Bondi Bay.

I applied for this arc on NetGalley because I’d been feeling uninspired by the books I’ve been reading lately, everything feeling very similar and formulaic, and I desperately wanted to read something that felt different and fresh and emotionally moving, and by golly did this check all those boxes. I’m so glad I received this arc, I’m so glad I read this book, I’m so glad I “met” these characters. They will live on in me.

This book is fantastic. I stayed up late reading it and absolutely sobbed the last 1/3 of the book. Both the story and writing are beautiful. I should have more fleshed out things to say about this book, but I'm a little emotionally raw from reading it lol. I was soo into the intersection of art history, queer history, and character interiority in this book. I just loved it. Thank you NetGalley for the arc <3

A Language of Limbs by Dylin Hardcastle is a hauntingly beautiful exploration of parallel lives and missed connections. Through poetic prose and profound emotion, Hardcastle weaves a story of two women whose paths almost intersect across decades of struggle and joy, culminating in a deeply moving narrative about love and identity.

Ouch ouch ouch. This book balanced tragedy with poetry and love. The story of two young people in Australia, navigating their queerness during the AIDS pandemic, having parallel life experiences while narrowly missing one another for many years — I’ve never read anything like it.