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Twelve-year-old Freya is visiting her self-absorbed mother in Cornwall when she meets 14-year-old twins. "The only thing better than being aware of a secret," they advise her, "is having one of your own." In the time that come after, they will rape her, then bury her alive, combination of nervousness and frustration passing across their faces as they eventually free her from her improvised coffin.

This could have served as the jarring main event of a novel, but it's just one of numerous horrific events in The Elements, which assembles four novelettes – released individually between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters negotiate historical pain and try to find peace in the current moment.

Controversial Context and Subject Exploration

The book's issuance has been marred by the inclusion of Earth, the subsequent novella, on the candidate list for a significant LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, the majority other nominees dropped out in protest at the author's debated views – and this year's prize has now been cancelled.

Conversation of gender identity issues is not present from The Elements, although the author touches on plenty of significant issues. LGBTQ+ discrimination, the impact of traditional and social media, caregiver abandonment and sexual violence are all examined.

Multiple Stories of Suffering

• In Water, a sorrowful woman named Willow relocates to a secluded Irish island after her husband is imprisoned for awful crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a soccer player on legal proceedings as an participant to rape.
• In Fire, the adult Freya balances vengeance with her work as a surgeon.
• In Air, a father travels to a burial with his teenage son, and ponders how much to disclose about his family's history.

Pain is layered with pain as hurt survivors seem doomed to meet each other continuously for eternity

Linked Stories

Connections abound. We initially encounter Evan as a boy trying to escape the island of Water. His trial's group contains the Freya who reappears 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 homes, pubs or judicial venues in another.

These storylines may sound tangled, but the author understands how to propel a narrative – his earlier successful Holocaust drama has sold many copies, and he has been converted into numerous languages. His straightforward prose shines with gripping hooks: "after all, a doctor in the burns unit should understand more than to experiment with fire"; "the first thing I do when I come to the island is alter my name".

Character Development and Narrative Power

Characters are drawn in brief, effective 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 hit by his father after wetting himself at a football match; a narrow-minded island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour exchange barbs over cups of weak tea.

The author's talent of bringing you wholeheartedly into each narrative gives the reappearance of a character or plot strand from an earlier story a authentic excitement, for the opening times at least. Yet the collective effect of it all is dulling, and at times nearly comic: pain is accumulated upon trauma, coincidence on coincidence in a dark farce in which hurt survivors seem doomed to encounter each other continuously for forever.

Conceptual Complexity and Final Assessment

If this sounds less like life and closer to uncertainty, that is part of the author's message. These wounded people are weighed down by the crimes they have endured, trapped in patterns of thought and behavior that churn and descend and may in turn harm others. The author has talked about the influence of his individual experiences of abuse and he describes with understanding the way his ensemble navigate this perilous landscape, reaching out for remedies – solitude, frigid water immersion, reconciliation or invigorating honesty – that might provide clarity.

The book's "basic" concept isn't terribly instructive, while the rapid pace means the examination of gender dynamics or online networks is mainly shallow. But while The Elements is a flawed work, it's also a completely accessible, survivor-centered chronicle: a valued response to the typical preoccupation on authorities and criminals. The author shows how suffering can affect lives and generations, and how time and tenderness can quieten its reverberations.