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Twelve-year-old Freya stays with her distracted mother in Cornwall when she meets teenage twins. "Nothing better than being aware of a secret," they tell her, "comes from possessing one of your own." In the days that ensue, they violate her, then entomb her breathing, combination of anxiety and frustration flitting across their faces as they ultimately free her from her temporary coffin.

This may have functioned as the shocking centrepiece of a novel, but it's only one of many awful events in The Elements, which gathers four novellas – published separately between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters negotiate previous suffering and try to find peace in the present moment.

Controversial Context and Thematic Exploration

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

Debate of trans rights is not present from The Elements, although the author addresses plenty of significant issues. Anti-gay prejudice, the influence of mainstream and online outlets, caregiver abandonment and assault are all investigated.

Multiple Accounts of Pain

• In Water, a mourning woman named Willow transfers to a remote Irish island after her husband is incarcerated for terrible crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a athlete on legal proceedings as an participant to rape.
• In Fire, the grown-up Freya manages retaliation with her work as a medical professional.
• In Air, a father journeys to a memorial service with his teenage son, and wonders how much to disclose about his family's history.

Trauma is accumulated upon pain as hurt survivors seem destined to encounter each other continuously for forever

Interconnected Stories

Relationships proliferate. We originally see 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, collaborates with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Supporting characters from one story return in houses, taverns or legal settings in another.

These narrative elements may sound complex, but the author understands how to power a narrative – his earlier successful Holocaust drama has sold millions, and he has been converted into dozens languages. His direct prose shines with gripping hooks: "ultimately, a doctor in the burns unit should understand more than to toy with fire"; "the initial action I do when I arrive on the island is change my name".

Personality Portrayal and Storytelling Strength

Characters are portrayed in brief, powerful lines: the empathetic Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at conflict with her mother. Some scenes echo with tragic power or observational humour: a boy is struck by his father after wetting himself at a football match; a narrow-minded island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour exchange jabs over cups of diluted tea.

The author's ability of bringing you completely into each narrative gives the comeback of a character or plot strand from an previous story a real excitement, for the opening times at least. Yet the collective effect of it all is dulling, and at times nearly comic: trauma is layered with trauma, chance on chance in a grim farce in which wounded survivors seem fated to meet each other continuously for eternity.

Conceptual Complexity and Final Evaluation

If this sounds different from life and closer to uncertainty, that is aspect of the author's thesis. These damaged people are weighed down by the crimes they have experienced, stuck in patterns of thought and behavior that agitate and plunge and may in turn harm others. The author has talked about the impact of his own experiences of harm and he describes with compassion the way his cast negotiate this risky landscape, reaching out for remedies – seclusion, cold ocean swims, resolution or invigorating honesty – that might let light in.

The book's "fundamental" structure isn't terribly instructive, while the brisk pace means the examination of sexual politics or social media is mostly superficial. But while The Elements is a imperfect work, it's also a completely engaging, trauma-oriented saga: a welcome riposte to the typical fixation on authorities and criminals. The author shows how suffering can permeate lives and generations, and how time and care can silence its echoes.