🔗 Share this article The Elements Review: Interwoven Stories of Trauma Twelve-year-old Freya is visiting her self-absorbed mother in Cornwall when she meets teenage twins. "Nothing better than being aware of a secret," they inform her, "is having one of your own." In the time that ensue, they sexually assault her, then entomb her breathing, combination of nervousness and irritation passing across their faces as they eventually liberate her from her improvised coffin. This might have stood as the shocking centrepiece of a novel, but it's merely a single of multiple terrible events in The Elements, which gathers four short novels – issued distinctly between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters confront historical pain and try to find peace in the present moment. Controversial Context and Subject Exploration The book's release has been marred by the addition of Earth, the subsequent novella, on the candidate list for a prominent LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, nearly all other nominees pulled out in dissent at the author's gender-critical views – and this year's prize has now been terminated. Conversation of gender identity issues is absent from The Elements, although the author touches on plenty of significant issues. Anti-gay prejudice, the influence of traditional and social media, family disregard and abuse are all explored. Multiple Accounts of Trauma In Water, a mourning woman named Willow transfers to a remote Irish island after her husband is incarcerated for horrific crimes. In Earth, Evan is a footballer on legal proceedings as an accessory to rape. In Fire, the adult Freya balances retaliation with her work as a surgeon. In Air, a dad journeys to a burial with his teenage son, and ponders how much to divulge about his family's past. Trauma is piled on trauma as hurt survivors seem destined to bump into each other continuously for eternity Related Accounts Links proliferate. We first meet Evan as a boy trying to flee the island of Water. His trial's group contains the Freya who returns in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, collaborates with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Secondary characters from one account resurface in cottages, taverns or legal settings in another. These plot threads may sound complex, but the author understands how to drive a narrative – his prior popular Holocaust drama has sold numerous units, and he has been translated into numerous languages. His direct prose bristles with gripping hooks: "ultimately, a doctor in the burns unit should understand more than to toy with fire"; "the primary step I do when I arrive on the island is alter my name". Character Portrayal and Storytelling Strength Characters are drawn in concise, impactful lines: the compassionate Nigerian priest, the disturbed pub landlord, the daughter at struggle with her mother. Some scenes ring with melancholy power or insightful humour: a boy is struck by his father after wetting himself at a football match; a narrow-minded island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour exchange insults over cups of diluted tea. The author's talent of bringing you wholeheartedly into each narrative gives the reappearance of a character or plot strand from an previous story a real frisson, for the initial several times at least. Yet the cumulative effect of it all is desensitizing, and at times nearly comic: trauma is accumulated upon pain, coincidence on accident in a grim farce in which damaged survivors seem fated to encounter each other continuously for forever. Thematic Complexity and Final Assessment If this sounds less like life and resembling purgatory, that is element of the author's message. These wounded people are burdened by the crimes they have endured, stuck in patterns of thought and behavior that churn and descend and may in turn harm others. The author has spoken about the impact of his individual experiences of mistreatment and he describes with compassion the way his characters navigate this perilous landscape, striving for treatments – solitude, icy sea dips, resolution or bracing honesty – that might provide clarity. The book's "basic" structure isn't extremely instructive, while the rapid pace means the examination of gender dynamics or digital platforms is primarily shallow. But while The Elements is a defective work, it's also a completely engaging, victim-focused epic: a appreciated riposte to the common preoccupation on investigators and perpetrators. The author shows how trauma can run through lives and generations, and how years and compassion can quieten its reverberations.