A tale travelling between two narrators, two journeys, two lives. Two incredibly different yet emotional and raw stories. Both melancholy with their loss, celebratory with the happiness of life. Limb two was inspirational and heartbreaking, living in fear whilst in love. Limb one was safe, the safe route some choose out of fear. At the start, it seemed like they were both one, a singular life before splitting off into separate lives. The importance of finding your own family was highlighted, creating your own web of people who care. Difficult topics were handled with such precision, overcoming the AIDs pandemic, the loss of a baby, the loss of a father, the loss of a friend, the loss of a love. This book was loss, but with out life there wouldn’t be loss

Great exploration of identity and self-discovery. Thoroughly engaging.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Limb One got kicked out of her house at age 15 after her parents found her kissing another girl.

Limb Two, at the same age, tries her best to live the life she's always thought she wanted for herself, simultaneously trying to repress the feelings she has for her best friend.

From then on, these two lives progress in parallels though never quite in the same direction. Set in 1972 Australia, their stories allows us glimpses into the first Mardi Gras and later on, into the impact of the AIDS crisis on the local queer community.

This novel is such a poetic exploration of queerness, found family, community, love and art.

Parts of these characters' lives resonated so much with me and the way the author writes that feeling of being in love but even more importantly being in love with your best friend (specifically in a lesbian way) was deeply moving. I cried so much anytime those paragraphs on love came on because it perfectly captures that feeling of wanting everyone to know you're in love with this woman, pouring it into every little piece of yourself, in your art, in your words and in your smallest actions.

This novel, though it is at times heartbreaking and tragic, is also full of queer joy and community. I absolutely love when books take time to explore the ways in which queer folks have found each other and made spaces for joy and resistance through difficult times, and this book did that so well. You can't help but smile at those chapters as they're incredibly sweet and warm and lively.

Through Limb Two we also have a beautiful portrayal of self-discovery, motherhood or rather the feeling of not being able to "accomplish" that motherhood that also spoke to an experience I witnessed as a child. I think I really connected with this novel for extremely personal reasons that I can't even begin to put into words.

The writing of this book was very interesting but it's also part of why I'm not rating it as highly as one would expect. I really loved the poetry of it, the ambiguity of those first chapters when you can't really catch who's talking, and as I said, this novel can be very moving because of its writing. At the same time, there were definitely moments where I felt like I wanted the writing to be just a little less beautiful and more chaotic because it would've felt a little less like too perfectly curated words, which would've fit certain scenes better.

Overall, this was an amazing read that also allowed me to learn a bit about queer history that is not US centric. I'd highly recommend to all who enjoy poetic writing and fiction that works around topics of love, queerness and art.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-ARC!

This was a hard hitting book in many ways between two people exploring their sexuality, being ripped apart and the aids pandemic. It was hard hitting.
It follows two main characters referred to as limb one and limb two. Through 2 decades of their life sometimes stuff happens and its eerily the same.
The writing i found strange at 1st but when u get into it it was good. Sometimes funny and it others extremely sad. A thought provoking book.
Thank you for advanced copy

A Language Of Limbs by Dylin Hardcastle (they/them) is an evocative, coming-of-(r)age literary composition that tells the story of two teenage girls who must each make a choice; to live authentically or repress their sexualities in 1972, Australia, and how, despite living vastly different lives, their paths continuously diverge and converge over the span of three decades.

Utterly compelling, intelligent and compassionately written, the narratives - leapfrogging between nameless protagonists, referred to as Limb One and Limb Two - are in a constant state of flux, with flowery, lyrical prose that is interspersed with such poignant poetry. Purple prose often diminishes my adoration for a novel, so I was especially nervous when I discovered that the author wrote A Language Of Limbs as a part of their phD. I needn't have concerned myself. I never once felt as though Hardcastle's words were crafted out of a misguided need to impress. Instead, they added complex layers of unvarnished vehemence and tenderness to the text, animating these flawed characters until they felt like living and breathing people.

I'm astonished that Hardcastle didn't live through the AIDS crisis themself for how veraciously they depicted that harrowing time. I know very little about the gay liberation movement and the AIDS crisis in Australia, apart from the first ever Mardi Gras, the defiant marchers, the police brutality that followed and the public outing of so many brave individuals. But I've been inspired to educate myself and seek history outside of the UK and the US.

Limb One and Limb Two were equally compelling narratives. Both were incredibly emotive, as likely to send your heart soaring as it was to shatter it. I felt as though I was standing beside both characters throughout their journeys, experiencing their joy and pain and euphoria and despair. Before we are driven down the abyss of loss and the devastating, undiscriminative HIV/AIDS crisis, we are given queer joy and found family and the euphoria of first love and intimacy. I love how we're pulled between viewing Limb One and Limb Two as separate women or as the same woman experiencing two vastly different experiences in parallel universes, similar to Sliding Doors.

This novel will, without doubt, remain with me for a very long time. I'm usually one to experience uncertainty while deciding on a rating, but this was the easiest five stars I've given this year.

So, all in all, a glowing review. I urge everyone to read this masterpiece of a novel (please be mindful of the trigger warnings, though). It's A Little Life meets People In Trouble. I'm excited to explore Hardcastle's previous pieces of literature, as well as anything they write in the future.

Thank you, NetGalley, and VERVE books for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This books has a very characteristic strutucture in a way of portraying queerness by showing us the lives of two different characters.
Both their stories are interconnected in very slight ways.
The writing is good but chapter are short, I somehow felt I did not have enough to connect or even understand any of the characters.

I don’t feel like anything I write will give this book justice, it’s so well written following the story of the female main character and how her life turns out of she had made choice a or choice b …..very kind of sliding doors but much better.

The Aids pandemic is recounted from a very poignant and heartbreaking POV and the description of the hostility of people towards people with this unknown killer disease is told with a visceral truth.

The way the stories - or limbs - come together at the end is so clever, I can’t recall reading anything similar, it really was a breath of fresh air and I feel honoured to have had the opportunity to read this ahead of its release next year.

This book resonated with me on every level. I loved the writing style and the way the story unfolded through the perspectives of two different narrators.

There were so many moments when I was completely captivated by the prose. Dylin has a gift for words that creates vivid imagery on the page. The characters' emotions are expressed so powerfully that it truly tugs at your heartstrings. Reading it felt like an exhilarating emotional rollercoaster, picking up speed with each page.

Exploring one's queer identity is a challenging journey, and I can’t even begin to imagine how much more difficult it was during a pandemic.

I loved this novel so much.