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Young Freya is visiting her self-absorbed mother in Cornwall when she meets teenage twins. "The only thing better than being aware of a secret," they advise her, "is having one of your own." In the days that come after, they violate her, then inter her while living, combination of unease and irritation passing across their faces as they eventually release her from her temporary coffin.

This could have served as the shocking main event of a novel, but it's only one of multiple terrible events in The Elements, which gathers four short novels – issued distinctly between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters negotiate past trauma and try to find peace in the current moment.

Controversial Context and Thematic Exploration

The book's release has been overshadowed by the inclusion of Earth, the second novella, on the candidate list for a notable LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, the majority other contenders dropped out in dissent at the author's debated views – and this year's prize has now been terminated.

Debate of LGBTQ+ matters is missing from The Elements, although the author touches on plenty of major issues. LGBTQ+ discrimination, the influence of traditional and social media, family disregard and sexual violence are all explored.

Multiple Accounts of Trauma

• In Water, a grieving woman named Willow transfers to a remote Irish island after her husband is imprisoned for terrible crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a athlete on trial as an participant to rape.
• In Fire, the mature Freya juggles vengeance with her work as a medical professional.
• In Air, a father journeys to a funeral with his young son, and wonders how much to reveal about his family's background.

Trauma is piled on suffering as wounded survivors seem destined to meet each other again and again for all time

Linked Accounts

Links proliferate. We initially encounter Evan as a boy trying to leave the island of Water. His trial's jury contains the Freya who shows up again in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, collaborates with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Minor characters from one account reappear in homes, taverns or courtrooms in another.

These plot threads may sound complicated, but the author knows how to propel a narrative – his prior acclaimed Holocaust drama has sold numerous units, and he has been translated into many languages. His businesslike prose bristles with thriller-ish hooks: "in the end, a doctor in the burns unit should know better than to toy with fire"; "the initial action I do when I come to the island is alter my name".

Personality Development and Narrative Power

Characters are portrayed in concise, powerful lines: the compassionate Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at war with her mother. Some scenes ring with sad power or insightful humour: a boy is punched by his father after wetting himself at a football match; a narrow-minded island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour swap barbs over cups of diluted tea.

The author's knack of carrying you completely 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 numbing, and at times almost comic: trauma is accumulated upon pain, coincidence on accident in a dark farce in which wounded survivors seem destined to bump into each other repeatedly for all time.

Thematic Depth and Concluding Assessment

If this sounds less like life and closer to purgatory, that is aspect of the author's thesis. These hurt people are oppressed by the crimes they have endured, caught in cycles of thought and behavior that agitate and descend and may in turn harm others. The author has talked about the influence of his own experiences of harm and he portrays with sympathy the way his cast negotiate this perilous landscape, reaching out for solutions – seclusion, cold ocean swims, resolution or bracing honesty – that might provide clarity.

The book's "basic" concept isn't particularly informative, while the rapid pace means the discussion of social issues or digital platforms is primarily surface-level. But while The Elements is a flawed work, it's also a completely engaging, survivor-centered saga: a appreciated riposte to the usual obsession on authorities and perpetrators. The author demonstrates how suffering can affect lives and generations, and how years and tenderness can quieten its aftereffects.