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Twelve-year-old Freya stays with her self-absorbed mother in Cornwall when she encounters teenage twins. "The only thing better than knowing a secret," they advise her, "is having one of your own." In the time that come after, they sexually assault her, then inter her while living, combination of anxiety and irritation passing across their faces as they finally release her from her makeshift coffin.

This could have served as the shocking focal point of a novel, but it's just one of numerous terrible events in The Elements, which gathers four short novels – published separately between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters confront past trauma and try to find peace in the current moment.

Controversial Context and Subject Exploration

The book's release has been clouded by the inclusion of Earth, the second novella, on the candidate list for a significant LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, most other candidates dropped out in protest at the author's controversial views – and this year's prize has now been called off.

Debate of trans rights is absent from The Elements, although the author explores plenty of major issues. LGBTQ+ discrimination, the influence of traditional and social media, family disregard and sexual violence are all explored.

Multiple Narratives of Suffering

• In Water, a mourning woman named Willow transfers to a remote Irish island after her husband is jailed for terrible crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a footballer on legal proceedings as an accessory to rape.
• In Fire, the grown-up Freya juggles retaliation with her work as a medical professional.
• In Air, a father flies to a burial with his teenage son, and ponders how much to disclose about his family's past.

Trauma is layered with trauma as damaged survivors seem fated to meet each other again and again for forever

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Relationships abound. We initially encounter Evan as a boy trying to flee the island of Water. His trial's group contains the Freya who reappears in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, partners with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Minor characters from one account resurface in cottages, taverns or courtrooms in another.

These storylines may sound complicated, but the author understands how to propel a narrative – his prior popular Holocaust drama has sold millions, and he has been converted into numerous languages. His businesslike prose bristles with suspenseful hooks: "after all, a doctor in the burns unit should understand more than to toy with fire"; "the primary step I do when I arrive on the island is modify my name".

Personality Development and Storytelling Power

Characters are portrayed in brief, impactful lines: the caring Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at struggle with her mother. Some scenes ring with sad power or perceptive humour: a boy is hit by his father after wetting himself at a football match; a biased island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour trade barbs over cups of weak tea.

The author's ability of carrying you wholeheartedly into each narrative gives the return of a character or plot strand from an prior story a authentic excitement, for the first few times at least. Yet the cumulative effect of it all is numbing, and at times almost comic: pain is piled on trauma, chance on chance in a dark farce in which hurt survivors seem fated to bump into each other again and again for eternity.

Thematic Complexity and Concluding Assessment

If this sounds different from life and closer to uncertainty, that is part of the author's thesis. These damaged people are burdened by the crimes they have endured, trapped in routines of thought and behavior that stir and spiral and may in turn harm others. The author has spoken about the impact of his own experiences of abuse and he portrays with understanding the way his characters navigate this perilous landscape, extending for remedies – solitude, cold ocean swims, forgiveness or bracing honesty – that might provide clarity.

The book's "basic" framing isn't extremely educational, while the brisk pace means the exploration of gender dynamics or digital platforms is primarily shallow. But while The Elements is a imperfect work, it's also a completely engaging, victim-focused saga: a appreciated rebuttal to the usual preoccupation on investigators and perpetrators. The author shows how pain can affect lives and generations, and how duration and compassion can soften its aftereffects.