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Young Freya is visiting her distracted mother in Cornwall when she meets teenage twins. "The only thing better than being aware of a secret," they advise her, "comes from possessing one of your own." In the days that follow, they violate her, then inter her while living, blend of unease and irritation passing across their faces as they finally release her from her temporary coffin.

This could have served as the jarring centrepiece of a novel, but it's just one of many horrific events in The Elements, which collects four novelettes – released separately between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters navigate historical pain and try to find peace in the current moment.

Controversial Context and Thematic Exploration

The book's release has been clouded by the presence of Earth, the second novella, on the candidate list for a significant LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, most other candidates withdrew in dissent at the author's controversial views – and this year's prize has now been cancelled.

Conversation of LGBTQ+ matters is missing from The Elements, although the author explores plenty of significant issues. LGBTQ+ discrimination, the impact of mainstream and online outlets, caregiver abandonment and abuse are all investigated.

Four Narratives of Trauma

• In Water, a grieving woman named Willow transfers to a isolated Irish island after her husband is incarcerated for horrific crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a footballer on legal proceedings as an accomplice to rape.
• In Fire, the adult Freya juggles revenge with her work as a medical professional.
• In Air, a father travels to a memorial service with his teenage son, and ponders how much to reveal about his family's background.

Trauma is piled on trauma as hurt survivors seem fated to bump into each other repeatedly for eternity

Interconnected Narratives

Relationships abound. We initially encounter Evan as a boy trying to leave the island of Water. His trial's panel contains the Freya who reappears in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, works with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Supporting characters from one narrative resurface in houses, pubs or courtrooms in another.

These storylines may sound complicated, but the author is skilled at how to propel a narrative – his earlier popular Holocaust drama has sold millions, and he has been rendered into many languages. His businesslike prose sparkles 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 change my name".

Personality Portrayal and Storytelling Power

Characters are portrayed in brief, impactful lines: the caring Nigerian priest, the disturbed pub landlord, the daughter at struggle with her mother. Some scenes echo with tragic power or perceptive humour: a boy is punched by his father after wetting himself at a football match; a prejudiced island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour trade insults over cups of diluted tea.

The author's ability of bringing you fully into each narrative gives the return of a character or plot strand from an earlier story a authentic excitement, for the initial several times at least. Yet the aggregate effect of it all is dulling, and at times practically comic: pain is accumulated upon pain, accident on coincidence in a dark farce in which hurt survivors seem doomed to bump into each other repeatedly for all time.

Thematic Complexity and Concluding Evaluation

If this sounds different from life and resembling uncertainty, that is aspect of the author's thesis. These hurt people are weighed down by the crimes they have endured, trapped in cycles of thought and behavior that agitate and spiral and may in turn harm others. The author has discussed about the effect of his personal experiences of harm and he portrays with compassion the way his cast navigate this risky landscape, extending for treatments – solitude, icy sea dips, forgiveness or bracing honesty – that might let light in.

The book's "basic" structure isn't extremely educational, while the rapid pace means the examination of gender dynamics or online networks is mostly superficial. But while The Elements is a defective work, it's also a completely readable, victim-focused saga: a welcome response to the common obsession on investigators and perpetrators. The author demonstrates how suffering can affect lives and generations, and how duration and tenderness can silence its aftereffects.