This is the third book in the Elementals series and by far the most harrowing in my opinion. It has links to the previous books and is beautifully written. There are a number of difficult and disturbing aspects that some might find upsetting. I found it difficult and yet the main character was fascinating. The whole series would make for a perfect book club read, as there is so much to unpack and think about.

4* Fire - John Boyne. The third in the Elements Quartet. Fire has left me a bit dumbstruck. The first two books in the Elements Quartet were 5* brilliance, each touching on difficult topics but doing so masterfully. Fire has the same components. Freya lives a privileged life as a surgeon, with the trapping of wealth - a penthouse flat and flashy sports car. However, Freya didn't come from privilege and her encounter with a set of twins when she was 12 led to a number of dark events happening over the course of a summer. If your past builds your future, Freya now harbours secrets of the darkest order and secrets which I was taken aback by but compelled to read on to see what happened. As ever, John Boyne is an amazing story teller. The words zip off the page and the plotting is tight, without a wasted component. There is some lovely nods to tie some of the place and characters in this book to Water and Earth, which went before. However, I didn't expect the book to be quite so dark and uncomfortable to read - not to say it isn't a powerful psychological thriller. Really looking forward to the final book in the series. Thanks to PRH, Transworld and Netgalley for an ARC.

The third part of The Elements series. The first,Water, had a definite calmness about it. Earth had far more conflict, and here we have compulsive and totally amoral behaviour. Freya is a highly skilled surgeon specialising in plastic surgery, particularly for burns victims. She is on the face of it a successful, self-sufficient thirty something years old single woman, but she has a darker side to her character. She has a predatory side. The story bounces along between two timelines, her adolescence and the present day. She has had an unusual upbringing, living most of the year in rural Norfolk with her single grandmother and then spending a month in the summer with her mother in Cornwall. It was during this holiday when she was twelve that she endured some traumatic events that had repercussions for the rest of her life. I had looked forward to this latest book, and it did not disappoint. John Boyne has done it again!

Freya is a successful and respected surgeon, with a dark secret. Did her traumatic experiences as a child influence the adult she became, or was she always destined to be this way? Fire is the third book in John Boyne’s The Elements and is, in my opinion, the best of the series so far. I found it more engaging, and also considerably more horrific and shocking than both Water and Earth. Freya is, frankly, a detestable character. This book is different from the first two, in that the characters in both of those were clearly troubled and made some bad decisions, but it was questionable as to whether they were truly bad people. Even with Ethan in Earth, you hope throughout that maybe he is innocent and that he will do the right thing (which, eventually, he does). But with Freya, there’s nothing that makes what she does forgivable in any way. Yes she was traumatised as a child, but that doesn’t excuse the choices she makes as an adult. But then, pretty much all the characters in this book were pretty despicable, adults and children alike, and I struggled to feel a lot of sympathy for any of them. Here’s hoping that Air won’t be quite as vile as Fire – I don’t know if I can take the misery!

Freya, a hospital doctor at the burns unit, is not the tireless professional she appears to be. She has a dark secret. Did a trauma in her childhood make her the way she is or was it in her nature? A strong story, shocking at times but compelling reading. What is unusual is that it is in the first person, so she is telling the reader her life story herself, which has real impact.