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Young Freya is visiting her self-absorbed mother in Cornwall when she encounters 14-year-old twins. "The only thing better than knowing a secret," they tell her, "is having one of your own." In the days that follow, they will rape her, then inter her while living, blend of anxiety and irritation flitting across their faces as they finally release her from her improvised coffin.

This might have stood as the disturbing focal point of a novel, but it's only one of multiple terrible events in The Elements, which gathers four novelettes – issued separately between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters navigate previous suffering and try to achieve peace in the contemporary moment.

Debated Context and Subject Exploration

The book's publication has been marred by the inclusion of Earth, the second novella, on the longlist for a notable LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, most other contenders pulled out in objection at the author's gender-critical views – and this year's prize has now been called off.

Conversation of LGBTQ+ matters is missing from The Elements, although the author addresses plenty of big issues. Anti-gay prejudice, the effect of mainstream and online outlets, family disregard and assault are all explored.

Distinct Narratives of Suffering

• In Water, a mourning woman named Willow transfers to a secluded Irish island after her husband is imprisoned for awful crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a footballer on trial as an accomplice to rape.
• In Fire, the mature Freya juggles revenge with her work as a medical professional.
• In Air, a dad travels to a burial with his young son, and ponders how much to reveal about his family's history.

Pain is layered with suffering as wounded survivors seem doomed to encounter each other continuously for forever

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Relationships proliferate. We originally see Evan as a boy trying to escape the island of Water. His trial's panel 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 story resurface in homes, pubs or judicial venues in another.

These narrative elements may sound complex, but the author understands how to drive a narrative – his earlier popular Holocaust drama has sold numerous units, and he has been converted into many languages. His businesslike prose shines with suspenseful hooks: "ultimately, a doctor in the burns unit should know better than to experiment with fire"; "the first thing I do when I reach the island is alter my name".

Character Portrayal and Storytelling Strength

Characters are sketched in brief, impactful lines: the compassionate Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at war with her mother. Some scenes echo with tragic power or insightful humour: a boy is struck by his father after wetting himself at a football match; a prejudiced island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour trade barbs over cups of watery tea.

The author's ability of bringing you wholeheartedly into each narrative gives the return of a character or plot strand from an previous story a genuine thrill, for the initial several times at least. Yet the collective effect of it all is dulling, and at times practically comic: suffering is piled on pain, chance on chance in a bleak farce in which damaged survivors seem fated to bump into each other again and again for eternity.

Conceptual Complexity and Final Evaluation

If this sounds not exactly life and more like uncertainty, that is element of the author's point. These damaged people are oppressed by the crimes they have endured, stuck in patterns of thought and behavior that stir and spiral and may in turn harm others. The author has spoken about the impact of his own experiences of mistreatment and he portrays with understanding the way his ensemble navigate this risky landscape, extending for treatments – seclusion, icy sea dips, resolution or invigorating honesty – that might provide clarity.

The book's "elemental" concept isn't extremely instructive, while the brisk pace means the examination of social issues or online networks is mainly surface-level. But while The Elements is a flawed work, it's also a completely readable, survivor-centered saga: a valued rebuttal to the common fixation on investigators and criminals. The author shows how trauma can run through lives and generations, and how time and care can soften its reverberations.