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Twelve-year-old Freya spends time with her distracted mother in Cornwall when she meets teenage twins. "Nothing better than being aware of a secret," they advise her, "comes from possessing one of your own." In the days that come after, they violate her, then inter her while living, blend of anxiety and annoyance flitting across their faces as they eventually release her from her improvised coffin.

This might have stood as the jarring main event of a novel, but it's just one of multiple awful events in The Elements, which assembles four novellas – published distinctly between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters negotiate previous suffering and try to achieve peace in the contemporary moment.

Disputed Context and Subject Exploration

The book's release has been marred by the inclusion of Earth, the subsequent novella, on the longlist for a significant LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, nearly all other candidates dropped out in objection at the author's gender-critical views – and this year's prize has now been terminated.

Discussion of trans rights is missing from The Elements, although the author explores plenty of major issues. LGBTQ+ discrimination, the influence of conventional and digital platforms, family disregard and sexual violence are all explored.

Distinct Accounts of Trauma

• In Water, a sorrowful woman named Willow transfers to a secluded Irish island after her husband is jailed for horrific crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a soccer player on trial as an accessory to rape.
• In Fire, the adult Freya manages vengeance with her work as a doctor.
• In Air, a father journeys to a memorial service with his adolescent son, and considers how much to divulge about his family's background.

Pain is piled on suffering as wounded survivors seem doomed to meet each other continuously for forever

Linked Stories

Relationships multiply. We initially encounter Evan as a boy trying to leave the island of Water. His trial's jury contains the Freya who returns in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, works with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Minor characters from one story return in cottages, bars or courtrooms in another.

These narrative elements may sound complex, but the author knows how to propel a narrative – his earlier acclaimed Holocaust drama has sold many copies, and he has been translated into dozens languages. His straightforward prose bristles with suspenseful hooks: "in the end, a doctor in the burns unit should be wiser than to toy with fire"; "the initial action I do when I come to the island is change my name".

Personality Development and Narrative Power

Characters are portrayed in succinct, impactful lines: the compassionate Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at war with her mother. Some scenes ring with melancholy power or perceptive humour: a boy is punched by his father after urinating at a football match; a biased island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour swap insults over cups of diluted tea.

The author's talent of bringing you completely into each narrative gives the return of a character or plot strand from an previous story a real excitement, for the initial several times at least. Yet the cumulative effect of it all is desensitizing, and at times almost comic: suffering is piled on trauma, coincidence on accident in a bleak farce in which damaged survivors seem fated to bump into each other continuously for all time.

Thematic Complexity and Concluding Evaluation

If this sounds different from life and resembling purgatory, that is aspect of the author's point. These wounded people are weighed down by the crimes they have suffered, stuck in cycles of thought and behavior that agitate and plunge and may in turn harm others. The author has spoken about the effect of his own experiences of abuse and he depicts with understanding the way his cast navigate this perilous landscape, reaching out for remedies – isolation, frigid water immersion, resolution or bracing honesty – that might provide clarity.

The book's "fundamental" framing isn't terribly educational, while the brisk pace means the discussion of gender dynamics or digital platforms is mostly superficial. But while The Elements is a imperfect work, it's also a completely readable, victim-focused saga: a welcome response to the common obsession on authorities and perpetrators. The author demonstrates how suffering can run through lives and generations, and how time and compassion can silence its echoes.