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Twelve-year-old Freya stays with her self-absorbed mother in Cornwall when she comes across 14-year-old twins. "Nothing better than knowing a secret," they tell her, "is having one of your own." In the weeks that come after, they sexually assault her, then inter her while living, a mix of anxiety and irritation passing across their faces as they ultimately free her from her improvised coffin.

This might have stood as the jarring centrepiece of a novel, but it's only one of multiple horrific events in The Elements, which gathers four novelettes – issued distinctly between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters navigate previous suffering and try to find peace in the current moment.

Debated Context and Subject Exploration

The book's release has been marred by the addition of Earth, the second novella, on the longlist for a notable LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, the majority other contenders pulled out in protest at the author's debated views – and this year's prize has now been cancelled.

Discussion of gender identity issues is missing from The Elements, although the author explores plenty of major issues. Anti-gay prejudice, the effect of traditional and social media, parental neglect and abuse are all investigated.

Multiple Narratives of Trauma

• In Water, a sorrowful woman named Willow transfers to a isolated Irish island after her husband is jailed for horrific crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a athlete on legal proceedings as an accessory to rape.
• In Fire, the mature Freya manages retaliation with her work as a doctor.
• In Air, a dad journeys to a burial with his young son, and wonders how much to divulge about his family's background.

Trauma is accumulated upon pain as wounded survivors seem doomed to encounter each other continuously for all time

Linked Accounts

Links multiply. We initially encounter Evan as a boy trying to escape the island of Water. His trial's panel contains the Freya who reappears in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, partners with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Secondary characters from one account return in houses, taverns or legal settings in another.

These storylines may sound complicated, but the author knows how to power a narrative – his prior successful Holocaust drama has sold many copies, and he has been converted into dozens languages. His straightforward prose bristles with thriller-ish hooks: "in the end, 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 Portrayal and Narrative Strength

Characters are sketched in succinct, effective lines: the compassionate Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at struggle with her mother. Some scenes ring with tragic power or insightful humour: a boy is punched by his father after urinating at a football match; a narrow-minded island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour swap jabs over cups of weak tea.

The author's ability of transporting you completely into each narrative gives the return of a character or plot strand from an earlier story a genuine frisson, for the initial several times at least. Yet the collective effect of it all is desensitizing, and at times almost comic: pain is layered with suffering, accident on accident in a bleak farce in which hurt survivors seem doomed to encounter each other repeatedly for all time.

Thematic Depth and Final Evaluation

If this sounds different from life and closer to uncertainty, that is element of the author's message. These hurt people are weighed down by the crimes they have suffered, caught in cycles of thought and behavior that stir and descend and may in turn hurt others. The author has spoken about the influence of his own experiences of mistreatment and he depicts with sympathy the way his cast navigate this dangerous landscape, extending for solutions – seclusion, cold ocean swims, forgiveness or invigorating honesty – that might bring illumination.

The book's "fundamental" concept isn't particularly informative, while the rapid pace means the exploration of social issues or digital platforms is mostly superficial. But while The Elements is a flawed work, it's also a completely readable, survivor-centered epic: a valued response to the typical obsession on investigators and perpetrators. The author demonstrates how suffering can affect lives and generations, and how duration and care can quieten its aftereffects.