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Twelve-year-old 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 weeks that come after, they sexually assault her, then inter her while living, a mix of nervousness and annoyance flitting across their faces as they ultimately liberate her from her makeshift coffin.

This might have stood as the disturbing focal point of a novel, but it's only one of numerous horrific events in The Elements, which collects four novellas – released separately between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters confront past trauma and try to achieve peace in the contemporary moment.

Controversial Context and Thematic Exploration

The book's issuance has been clouded by the inclusion of Earth, the second novella, on the candidate list for a notable LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, most other contenders pulled out in dissent at the author's controversial views – and this year's prize has now been cancelled.

Conversation of trans rights is absent from The Elements, although the author touches on plenty of major issues. Homophobia, the impact of mainstream and online outlets, caregiver abandonment and abuse are all examined.

Four Accounts of Pain

• In Water, a grieving woman named Willow moves to a remote Irish island after her husband is jailed for awful crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a athlete on trial as an accomplice to rape.
• In Fire, the adult Freya balances revenge with her work as a doctor.
• In Air, a father journeys to a funeral with his young son, and considers how much to divulge about his family's background.

Trauma is layered with pain as hurt survivors seem fated to meet each other repeatedly for all time

Interconnected Stories

Connections multiply. We initially encounter 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 story resurface in homes, bars or legal settings in another.

These plot threads may sound complex, but the author knows how to propel a narrative – his previous popular Holocaust drama has sold numerous units, and he has been rendered into many languages. His direct prose sparkles with thriller-ish hooks: "after all, a doctor in the burns unit should be wiser than to play with fire"; "the primary step I do when I come to the island is alter my name".

Personality Development and Narrative Strength

Characters are portrayed in brief, effective lines: the compassionate Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at struggle with her mother. Some scenes ring with sad power or observational humour: a boy is hit by his father after urinating at a football match; a prejudiced island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour exchange insults over cups of diluted tea.

The author's knack of bringing you wholeheartedly into each narrative gives the comeback of a character or plot strand from an earlier story a authentic thrill, for the opening times at least. Yet the cumulative effect of it all is desensitizing, and at times nearly comic: pain is layered with suffering, chance on accident in a dark farce in which damaged survivors seem fated to encounter each other continuously for all time.

Thematic Depth and Concluding Evaluation

If this sounds different from life and resembling limbo, that is element of the author's point. These hurt people are weighed down by the crimes they have suffered, caught in patterns of thought and behavior that agitate and spiral and may in turn hurt others. The author has talked about the effect of his own experiences of mistreatment and he describes with compassion the way his cast negotiate this risky landscape, striving for treatments – seclusion, icy sea dips, reconciliation or invigorating honesty – that might let light in.

The book's "fundamental" framing isn't terribly instructive, while the brisk pace means the exploration of social issues or digital platforms is mostly surface-level. But while The Elements is a defective work, it's also a completely engaging, survivor-centered saga: a welcome riposte to the common fixation on detectives and perpetrators. The author demonstrates how trauma can permeate lives and generations, and how years and compassion can soften its aftereffects.