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.