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Twelve-year-old Freya is visiting her self-absorbed mother in Cornwall when she comes across 14-year-old twins. "Nothing better than being aware of a secret," they tell her, "is having one of your own." In the days that follow, they will rape her, then bury her alive, combination of anxiety and annoyance flitting across their faces as they eventually liberate her from her makeshift coffin.

This might have stood as the shocking focal point of a novel, but it's just one of multiple horrific events in The Elements, which gathers four short novels – published individually between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters negotiate previous suffering and try to achieve peace in the current moment.

Disputed Context and Thematic Exploration

The book's publication has been clouded by the inclusion of Earth, the subsequent novella, on the candidate list for a prominent LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, most other contenders pulled out in objection at the author's controversial views – and this year's prize has now been terminated.

Debate of gender identity issues is not present from The Elements, although the author addresses plenty of big issues. Homophobia, the impact of traditional and social media, family disregard and abuse are all investigated.

Multiple Stories of Pain

• In Water, a grieving woman named Willow transfers to a remote Irish island after her husband is imprisoned for horrific crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a footballer on court case as an participant to rape.
• In Fire, the mature Freya juggles revenge with her work as a medical professional.
• In Air, a dad travels to a funeral with his young son, and considers how much to reveal about his family's past.

Suffering is layered with suffering as damaged survivors seem doomed to bump into each other repeatedly for all time

Linked Accounts

Links multiply. We originally see Evan as a boy trying to escape the island of Water. His trial's group contains the Freya who shows up again in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, works with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Secondary characters from one account return in houses, taverns or courtrooms in another.

These narrative elements may sound complicated, but the author knows how to drive a narrative – his prior successful Holocaust drama has sold numerous units, and he has been rendered into numerous languages. His businesslike prose bristles with suspenseful hooks: "after all, a doctor in the burns unit should know better than to experiment with fire"; "the first thing I do when I arrive on the island is alter my name".

Personality Portrayal and Storytelling Power

Characters are drawn in concise, impactful lines: the caring Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at war with her mother. Some scenes resonate with tragic power or perceptive humour: a boy is struck by his father after having an accident at a football match; a prejudiced island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour exchange barbs over cups of diluted tea.

The author's talent of bringing you completely into each narrative gives the reappearance of a character or plot strand from an earlier story a genuine excitement, for the opening times at least. Yet the aggregate effect of it all is dulling, and at times almost comic: suffering is piled on suffering, chance on coincidence in a dark farce in which wounded survivors seem destined to encounter each other repeatedly for forever.

Conceptual Complexity and Concluding Assessment

If this sounds different from life and more like limbo, that is part of the author's thesis. These hurt people are burdened by the crimes they have endured, trapped in patterns of thought and behavior that agitate and descend and may in turn harm others. The author has spoken about the impact of his own experiences of abuse and he describes with understanding the way his cast traverse this dangerous landscape, extending for treatments – isolation, frigid water immersion, forgiveness or bracing honesty – that might provide clarity.

The book's "fundamental" structure isn't terribly instructive, while the brisk pace means the examination of social issues or digital platforms is mostly shallow. But while The Elements is a flawed work, it's also a entirely accessible, trauma-oriented epic: a welcome response to the common preoccupation on authorities and perpetrators. The author illustrates how trauma can permeate lives and generations, and how time and care can quieten its aftereffects.