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Twelve-year-old Freya spends time with her distracted mother in Cornwall when she meets teenage twins. "Nothing better than being aware of a secret," they advise her, "is having one of your own." In the weeks that come after, they will rape her, then entomb her breathing, combination of anxiety and irritation passing across their faces as they ultimately liberate her from her improvised coffin.

This may have functioned as the shocking centrepiece of a novel, but it's just one of many awful events in The Elements, which assembles four novelettes – issued separately between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters navigate past trauma and try to discover peace in the current moment.

Debated Context and Subject Exploration

The book's publication has been clouded by the inclusion of Earth, the subsequent novella, on the longlist for a significant LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, the majority other nominees pulled out in objection at the author's debated views – and this year's prize has now been terminated.

Discussion of gender identity issues is absent from The Elements, although the author touches on plenty of big issues. Homophobia, the effect of mainstream and online outlets, parental neglect and sexual violence are all examined.

Multiple Accounts of Pain

• In Water, a mourning woman named Willow moves to a isolated Irish island after her husband is imprisoned for terrible crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a soccer player on court case as an accessory to rape.
• In Fire, the mature Freya manages revenge with her work as a surgeon.
• In Air, a parent travels to a burial with his adolescent son, and wonders how much to reveal about his family's history.

Pain is piled on suffering as damaged survivors seem destined to meet each other repeatedly for forever

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Relationships multiply. We initially encounter Evan as a boy trying to leave the island of Water. His trial's jury 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. Minor characters from one story return in houses, taverns or courtrooms in another.

These narrative elements may sound complicated, but the author is skilled at how to drive a narrative – his prior acclaimed Holocaust drama has sold numerous units, and he has been converted into numerous languages. His straightforward prose shines with suspenseful hooks: "after all, a doctor in the burns unit should understand more than to play with fire"; "the primary step I do when I reach the island is alter my name".

Personality Development and Narrative Strength

Characters are sketched in succinct, impactful 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 biased island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour trade insults over cups of diluted tea.

The author's talent of bringing you wholeheartedly into each narrative gives the reappearance of a character or plot strand from an earlier story a genuine excitement, for the initial several times at least. Yet the collective effect of it all is dulling, and at times practically comic: suffering is layered with suffering, chance on coincidence in a grim farce in which hurt survivors seem fated to bump into each other repeatedly for eternity.

Conceptual Complexity and Final Evaluation

If this sounds less like life and more like uncertainty, that is part of the author's message. These hurt people are burdened by the crimes they have endured, caught in routines of thought and behavior that churn and spiral and may in turn harm others. The author has discussed about the effect of his own experiences of mistreatment and he depicts with understanding the way his ensemble negotiate this risky landscape, extending for remedies – solitude, icy sea dips, forgiveness or refreshing honesty – that might let light in.

The book's "basic" structure isn't terribly instructive, while the brisk pace means the exploration of gender dynamics or social media is mostly shallow. But while The Elements is a imperfect work, it's also a completely readable, survivor-centered epic: a appreciated riposte to the common preoccupation on detectives and offenders. The author shows how suffering can run through lives and generations, and how time and care can silence its echoes.