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Young Freya stays with her distracted mother in Cornwall when she encounters teenage twins. "Nothing better than knowing a secret," they inform her, "comes from possessing one of your own." In the weeks that ensue, they violate her, then inter her while living, a mix of anxiety and frustration darting across their faces as they finally free her from her makeshift coffin.

This might have stood as the jarring main event of a novel, but it's just one of many awful events in The Elements, which collects four novellas – issued separately between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters confront previous suffering and try to discover peace in the present moment.

Disputed Context and Subject Exploration

The book's release has been clouded by the addition of Earth, the subsequent novella, on the candidate list for a significant LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, most other nominees withdrew in objection at the author's debated views – and this year's prize has now been terminated.

Discussion of trans rights is missing from The Elements, although the author addresses plenty of major issues. Anti-gay prejudice, the effect of mainstream and online outlets, family disregard and assault are all explored.

Distinct Accounts of Pain

• In Water, a mourning woman named Willow transfers to a remote Irish island after her husband is jailed for awful crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a footballer on trial as an participant to rape.
• In Fire, the adult Freya juggles retaliation with her work as a medical professional.
• In Air, a father flies to a memorial service with his teenage son, and ponders how much to divulge about his family's background.

Trauma is accumulated upon suffering as damaged survivors seem fated to meet each other again and again for all time

Related Accounts

Relationships abound. We originally see Evan as a boy trying to escape the island of Water. His trial's group contains the Freya who returns in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, partners with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Supporting characters from one account reappear in homes, bars or judicial venues in another.

These narrative elements may sound complicated, but the author understands how to drive a narrative – his earlier acclaimed Holocaust drama has sold millions, and he has been translated into dozens languages. His straightforward prose shines with thriller-ish hooks: "in the end, a doctor in the burns unit should be wiser than to play with fire"; "the first thing I do when I reach the island is modify my name".

Character Portrayal and Storytelling Strength

Characters are portrayed in brief, effective lines: the empathetic Nigerian priest, the disturbed pub landlord, the daughter at war with her mother. Some scenes ring with sad power or observational humour: a boy is hit by his father after wetting himself at a football match; a narrow-minded island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour trade barbs over cups of weak tea.

The author's talent of carrying you completely into each narrative gives the reappearance of a character or plot strand from an earlier story a authentic thrill, for the first few times at least. Yet the collective effect of it all is desensitizing, and at times almost comic: suffering is piled on suffering, accident on chance in a dark farce in which damaged survivors seem doomed to encounter each other repeatedly for all time.

Thematic Complexity and Concluding Assessment

If this sounds different from life and more like uncertainty, that is part of the author's message. These damaged people are weighed down by the crimes they have endured, stuck in patterns of thought and behavior that stir and plunge and may in turn hurt others. The author has discussed about the influence of his own experiences of abuse and he portrays with understanding the way his characters navigate this dangerous landscape, extending for solutions – isolation, cold ocean swims, resolution or invigorating honesty – that might provide clarity.

The book's "fundamental" framing isn't terribly educational, while the rapid pace means the discussion of social issues or digital platforms is mainly shallow. But while The Elements is a flawed work, it's also a completely readable, survivor-centered chronicle: a welcome riposte to the common obsession on detectives and offenders. The author demonstrates how trauma can permeate lives and generations, and how duration and tenderness can silence its reverberations.