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.