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Twelve-year-old Freya is visiting her self-absorbed mother in Cornwall when she meets teenage twins. "Nothing better than knowing a secret," they tell her, "is having one of your own." In the time that ensue, they violate her, then entomb her breathing, blend of nervousness and frustration passing across their faces as they ultimately free her from her improvised coffin.

This may have functioned as the shocking centrepiece of a novel, but it's just one of numerous horrific events in The Elements, which assembles four novelettes – published separately between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters negotiate past trauma and try to achieve peace in the present moment.

Controversial Context and Thematic Exploration

The book's issuance has been overshadowed by the presence of Earth, the subsequent novella, on the preliminary list for a notable LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, the majority other contenders withdrew in protest at the author's gender-critical views – and this year's prize has now been cancelled.

Discussion of gender identity issues is not present from The Elements, although the author explores plenty of significant issues. Homophobia, the effect of conventional and digital platforms, parental neglect and sexual violence are all explored.

Distinct Narratives of Trauma

• In Water, a grieving woman named Willow relocates to a secluded Irish island after her husband is incarcerated for horrific crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a footballer on legal proceedings as an accessory to rape.
• In Fire, the grown-up Freya balances revenge with her work as a medical professional.
• In Air, a father travels to a funeral with his adolescent son, and considers how much to disclose about his family's past.

Suffering is accumulated upon trauma as hurt survivors seem fated to bump into each other repeatedly for forever

Related Narratives

Connections multiply. We first meet Evan as a boy trying to escape the island of Water. His trial's jury contains the Freya who shows up again in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, partners with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Supporting characters from one account resurface in cottages, pubs or judicial venues in another.

These storylines may sound complex, but the author understands how to propel a narrative – his prior acclaimed Holocaust drama has sold many copies, and he has been translated into numerous languages. His direct prose shines with thriller-ish hooks: "after all, 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 modify my name".

Personality Development and Narrative Power

Characters are sketched in succinct, effective lines: the caring Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at war with her mother. Some scenes echo with sad power or insightful humour: a boy is punched 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 watery tea.

The author's talent of bringing you wholeheartedly into each narrative gives the return of a character or plot strand from an prior story a genuine frisson, for the opening times at least. Yet the aggregate effect of it all is numbing, and at times nearly comic: pain is layered with suffering, coincidence on chance in a grim farce in which damaged survivors seem doomed to bump into each other again and again for eternity.

Conceptual Complexity and Concluding Evaluation

If this sounds not exactly life and closer to uncertainty, that is part of the author's point. These wounded people are burdened by the crimes they have suffered, caught in routines of thought and behavior that stir and descend and may in turn harm others. The author has spoken about the influence of his personal experiences of harm and he portrays with understanding the way his characters traverse this perilous landscape, reaching out for solutions – seclusion, cold ocean swims, forgiveness or invigorating honesty – that might provide clarity.

The book's "fundamental" framing isn't particularly educational, while the rapid pace means the examination of gender dynamics or online networks is primarily superficial. But while The Elements is a flawed work, it's also a completely readable, survivor-centered chronicle: a valued riposte to the usual preoccupation on investigators and criminals. The author demonstrates how trauma can affect lives and generations, and how duration and care can quieten its echoes.