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Young Freya spends time with her preoccupied mother in Cornwall when she meets 14-year-old twins. "The only thing better than knowing a secret," they advise her, "is having one of your own." In the days that follow, they sexually assault her, then inter her while living, a mix of unease and irritation darting across their faces as they finally release her from her makeshift coffin.

This may have functioned as the disturbing main event of a novel, but it's only one of multiple awful events in The Elements, which gathers four short novels – released separately between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters navigate previous suffering and try to discover peace in the contemporary moment.

Debated Context and Thematic Exploration

The book's publication has been marred by the presence of Earth, the subsequent novella, on the longlist for a significant LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, most other nominees withdrew in dissent at the author's gender-critical views – and this year's prize has now been called off.

Conversation of LGBTQ+ matters is not present from The Elements, although the author addresses plenty of major issues. Homophobia, the influence of conventional and digital platforms, parental neglect and abuse are all examined.

Distinct Narratives of Pain

• In Water, a sorrowful woman named Willow moves to a secluded Irish island after her husband is jailed for horrific crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a soccer player on court case as an participant to rape.
• In Fire, the adult Freya juggles revenge with her work as a doctor.
• In Air, a dad journeys to a memorial service with his young son, and considers how much to divulge about his family's past.

Trauma is layered with suffering as hurt survivors seem destined to meet each other repeatedly for eternity

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Links proliferate. We first meet 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, collaborates with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Secondary characters from one narrative reappear in homes, bars or judicial venues in another.

These narrative elements may sound complicated, but the author knows how to drive a narrative – his prior successful Holocaust drama has sold numerous units, and he has been rendered into numerous languages. His businesslike prose bristles with thriller-ish hooks: "after all, a doctor in the burns unit should be wiser than to play with fire"; "the initial action I do when I arrive on the island is modify my name".

Personality Portrayal and Storytelling Strength

Characters are drawn in succinct, powerful lines: the caring Nigerian priest, the disturbed pub landlord, the daughter at struggle with her mother. Some scenes echo with sad power or insightful humour: a boy is hit by his father after wetting himself at a football match; a prejudiced island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour trade jabs over cups of weak tea.

The author's ability of transporting you wholeheartedly into each narrative gives the reappearance of a character or plot strand from an prior story a authentic frisson, for the opening times at least. Yet the aggregate effect of it all is dulling, and at times practically comic: trauma is accumulated upon trauma, coincidence on chance in a dark farce in which hurt survivors seem destined to bump into each other again and again for all time.

Conceptual Depth and Concluding Assessment

If this sounds not exactly life and resembling limbo, that is element of the author's point. These damaged people are burdened by the crimes they have suffered, trapped in patterns of thought and behavior that agitate and spiral and may in turn hurt others. The author has discussed about the effect of his personal experiences of mistreatment and he describes with understanding the way his ensemble navigate this perilous landscape, extending for remedies – isolation, cold ocean swims, reconciliation or bracing honesty – that might bring illumination.

The book's "fundamental" framing isn't extremely informative, while the rapid pace means the examination of sexual politics or social media is mostly shallow. But while The Elements is a flawed work, it's also a thoroughly engaging, survivor-centered chronicle: a welcome riposte to the usual fixation on authorities and criminals. The author shows how suffering can affect lives and generations, and how duration and compassion can soften its echoes.