ARMS & LEGS is the type of literary fiction that I’d only recommend to readers who enjoy the Sheila Heti, Sally Rooney, etc. types. The writing is light and poetic, and the central character’s inner monologue and turmoil play a major part.

In ARMS & LEGS, Georgie (the first-person main character whose head the reader lives in) is unsatisfied with her life. She’s married with a young child, and the book is a journey to sort through her unhappiness and discontentment. Is her life simply lacking excitement and variety? Has she become unattracted to her husband? Are her desires misguided or misplaced? Have Georgie and her husband just lost connection? If they have, can it be fixed?

These questions are the general theme of the book and, in true lit fic fashion, the focus isn’t on answering them with any kind of tidy finality but on working through what these questions mean for Georgie (and anyone reading this novel who relates to this character, especially 30-something women with unfulfilled or unexplainable longings themselves).

Georgie makes a series of objectively bad/awkward/questionable decisions in an effort to get to the root of her unhappiness. These decisions are merely dots on the path and not explored deeply, and some of them felt like unnecessary plot points to me. But ARMS & LEGS is the type of book that asks questions of the character and the reader. Reading it might require introspection, and it definitely delivers valuable lessons from the main character’s thought process and choices if you’re willing to think abstractly enough to uncover them. (3.5 stars)

I am so thankful to House of Anansi Press, Chloe Lane, and Netgalley for granting me advanced digital access to this beautiful collection of poetry before it hits shelves on April 9, 2024. I was captivated by the narrative and couldn't get enough.

This book was so soft, yet the messages were so loud.
We follow Georgie - a mom to a toddler and wife to Dan. She has moved to Florida from New Zealand and is playing the role of mother and wife the best that she can, but it just isn’t enough. Her marriage is crumbling at a snails pace, but she can feel it. Everyone can feel it.
One day while volunteering at a prescribed burn, Georgie finds a dead body in the woods. This sends her into a spiral, and makes her come to terms with everything going wrong in her life.
I had a panic attack reading this because it resonated with me so much. How you give your entirety to one person for years and how they have access to all of you - the good, bad, what you try so desperately to keep hidden. As the author so perfectly puts it, your layers. Anyone who has been in a long term relationship will no doubt relate to Georgie.
I also loved the messages about Georgie constantly worrying about Finn, her son. How any little thing can cause harm or death. The constant worry a mother has for her child.
A lovely litfic read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher who provided me with an ebook copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All of these thoughts and opinions are my own.

Mixed feelings. The exposition could have gone quite literally anywhere and the direction it went was underwhelming. The main character’s development felt a little underdeveloped at moments but I liked the theme of feminine rage in Georgie. Thank you to NetGalley and House of Anasi for the e-ARC!

unfortunately this was a miss for me. The main character was just a little insufferable and it had me with the husband, which never happens. It just felt under developed.

this was a really interesting concept, it had everything that I was looking for in this type of story. It had a great drama element that I wanted and glad it was so well done. The characters were everything that I wanted and thought the mystery element worked in this plot. I thought Chloe Lane wrote this perfectly and glad I was able to read this.