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Young Freya stays with her preoccupied mother in Cornwall when she encounters teenage twins. "Nothing better than being aware of a secret," they inform her, "comes from possessing one of your own." In the time that follow, they will rape her, then inter her while living, a mix of unease and irritation flitting across their faces as they finally free her from her makeshift coffin.

This could have served as the shocking focal point of a novel, but it's only one of multiple horrific events in The Elements, which collects four novelettes – issued separately between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters negotiate past trauma and try to discover peace in the contemporary moment.

Disputed Context and Thematic Exploration

The book's release has been marred by the presence of Earth, the subsequent novella, on the candidate list for a significant LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, most other contenders dropped out in protest at the author's controversial views – and this year's prize has now been cancelled.

Discussion of trans rights is missing from The Elements, although the author explores plenty of big issues. LGBTQ+ discrimination, the effect of mainstream and online outlets, family disregard and assault are all investigated.

Four Accounts of Suffering

• In Water, a grieving woman named Willow relocates to a isolated Irish island after her husband is incarcerated for horrific crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a athlete on court case as an accessory to rape.
• In Fire, the mature Freya manages vengeance with her work as a doctor.
• In Air, a parent travels to a memorial service with his adolescent son, and considers how much to reveal about his family's past.

Pain is piled on suffering as hurt survivors seem doomed to meet each other again and again for eternity

Linked Stories

Relationships proliferate. We originally see Evan as a boy trying to escape the island of Water. His trial's group contains the Freya who shows up again in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, works with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Secondary characters from one story reappear in homes, taverns or legal settings in another.

These storylines may sound complex, but the author understands how to drive a narrative – his previous popular Holocaust drama has sold millions, and he has been translated into dozens languages. His straightforward prose sparkles with suspenseful hooks: "ultimately, a doctor in the burns unit should know better than to toy with fire"; "the primary step I do when I come to the island is modify my name".

Personality Development and Storytelling Strength

Characters are portrayed in succinct, effective lines: the compassionate Nigerian priest, the disturbed pub landlord, the daughter at conflict with her mother. Some scenes resonate with sad power or perceptive humour: a boy is hit by his father after wetting himself at a football match; a prejudiced island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour exchange barbs over cups of weak tea.

The author's talent of bringing you fully into each narrative gives the reappearance of a character or plot strand from an earlier story a genuine excitement, for the initial several times at least. Yet the aggregate effect of it all is dulling, and at times practically comic: pain is piled on trauma, chance on chance in a bleak farce in which wounded survivors seem fated to bump into each other again and again for forever.

Conceptual Depth and Concluding Assessment

If this sounds different from life and closer to limbo, that is aspect of the author's message. These damaged people are oppressed by the crimes they have experienced, caught in cycles of thought and behavior that churn and spiral and may in turn hurt others. The author has talked about the influence of his personal experiences of mistreatment and he portrays with sympathy the way his cast negotiate this risky landscape, reaching out for remedies – isolation, cold ocean swims, reconciliation or invigorating honesty – that might provide clarity.

The book's "elemental" concept isn't terribly instructive, while the rapid pace means the examination of gender dynamics or digital platforms is primarily superficial. But while The Elements is a flawed work, it's also a completely accessible, survivor-centered saga: a welcome response to the usual obsession on authorities and perpetrators. The author shows how pain can run through lives and generations, and how time and compassion can quieten its echoes.