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Young Freya spends time with her distracted mother in Cornwall when she encounters 14-year-old twins. "Nothing better than knowing a secret," they inform her, "is having one of your own." In the weeks that come after, they sexually assault her, then inter her while living, blend of unease and irritation flitting across their faces as they ultimately free her from her makeshift coffin.

This could have served as the jarring focal point of a novel, but it's just one of numerous horrific events in The Elements, which gathers four short novels – released individually between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters navigate past trauma and try to achieve peace in the contemporary moment.

Debated Context and Thematic Exploration

The book's publication has been clouded by the presence of Earth, the subsequent novella, on the candidate list for a prominent LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, the majority other nominees withdrew in objection at the author's gender-critical views – and this year's prize has now been cancelled.

Conversation of trans rights is not present from The Elements, although the author addresses plenty of big issues. LGBTQ+ discrimination, the influence of conventional and digital platforms, parental neglect and abuse are all explored.

Distinct Narratives of Pain

• In Water, a mourning woman named Willow moves to a remote Irish island after her husband is imprisoned for terrible crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a athlete on trial as an accomplice to rape.
• In Fire, the mature Freya manages vengeance with her work as a medical professional.
• In Air, a parent flies to a funeral with his adolescent son, and wonders how much to reveal about his family's background.

Trauma is piled on pain as hurt survivors seem destined to bump into each other continuously for all time

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Connections proliferate. We first meet Evan as a boy trying to flee 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 narrative return in homes, pubs or judicial venues in another.

These narrative elements may sound complicated, but the author is skilled at how to propel a narrative – his earlier acclaimed Holocaust drama has sold many copies, and he has been converted into numerous languages. His direct prose shines with gripping hooks: "after all, a doctor in the burns unit should understand more than to experiment with fire"; "the initial action I do when I reach the island is alter my name".

Character Development and Narrative Power

Characters are drawn in succinct, effective lines: the compassionate Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at conflict with her mother. Some scenes resonate with tragic power or insightful humour: a boy is punched by his father after wetting himself at a football match; a narrow-minded island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour trade jabs over cups of weak tea.

The author's knack of transporting you fully into each narrative gives the reappearance of a character or plot strand from an earlier story a real frisson, for the first few times at least. Yet the collective effect of it all is numbing, and at times almost comic: pain is accumulated upon trauma, chance on coincidence in a dark farce in which damaged survivors seem fated to bump into each other repeatedly for forever.

Thematic Complexity and Final Evaluation

If this sounds less like life and closer to uncertainty, that is part of the author's point. These damaged people are weighed down by the crimes they have experienced, stuck in cycles of thought and behavior that stir and descend and may in turn hurt others. The author has discussed about the impact of his individual experiences of mistreatment and he portrays with understanding the way his ensemble negotiate this risky landscape, striving for remedies – isolation, frigid water immersion, forgiveness or refreshing honesty – that might bring illumination.

The book's "elemental" framing isn't particularly instructive, while the brisk pace means the exploration of gender dynamics or social media is mainly surface-level. But while The Elements is a defective work, it's also a completely readable, survivor-centered chronicle: a welcome rebuttal to the usual obsession on investigators and offenders. The author illustrates how suffering can permeate lives and generations, and how years and tenderness can silence its aftereffects.