“The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire.” Ferdinand Foch Fire is the third book in John Boyne’s Elements quartet and in this instalment he ratchets up the perfidy of the main protagonist to a level that makes for a challenging and disturbing, but irresistible read. Freya is a successful surgeon with self-confidence bordering on arrogance, who specialises in the treatment of those who have suffered disfiguring or life-threatening burns. She has the material trappings that mirror her professional status. She is talented and beautiful. But she is tainted and brutal. For our protagonist turns out to be both damaged and damaging. Was that always in her nature or were one summer’s events the furnace in which a troubled soul was forged from an already fractured childhood? The author presents us with an intense and focused woman whose burning intent drives high performance, but which is also an all-consuming and ruinously destructive force. Cleverly weaving into the story increasingly material references to characters from its prequels, Water and Earth, Fire explores themes of neglect, abuse, rage and retribution, adroitly fusing dangerously reckless behaviour with chilling preparation and manipulation. Boyne toys with our intellect and emotions. He asks us to consider whether someone can be simultaneously a victim and a predatory perpetrator and how much of a spark is required to combust restrained resilience into radical retaliation. And in doing so he creates for the reader a bewildering emotional conflation of sympathy and loathing. Beware, Fire is a potentially triggering story. Dark and morally bankrupt, it is by far the most uncomfortable read of the series so far, but for all that, no less riveting than what has gone before. Boyne is a master storyteller.

Fire is novella number 3 in the author's Elements series. It follows on from Water (November 2023) and Earth (April 2024). For those who are not familiar with the books, they are loosely connected to each other. They can be read as standalone. In the case of Water and Earth the main character from Earth was somewhat of a lesser character in Water. Here, our protagonist, Freya, has connections to the character from Earth. The stories are also told from the viewpoint of the protagonist throughout. In Fire we meet Freya, who is a doctor that specializes in burns and plastics. We follow her over the course of a few months of her life, and she also dips into her childhood, which explains some of her characteristics and behaviour. It's a short book, so to go into too much detail would definitely be a spoiler, but I thought it was fascinating. If I had the time, I think I would have read it in one sitting, but instead, I was forced to spread it over a couple of days. It more than surpassed my expectations. The subject matter may not be the easiest for some, and there are certain some uncomfortable moments (as there were with the earlier books), but I thought it was a very well put together story. If you have been eagerly waiting for this after reading the other two, then you are in for a real treat.

I can't give John Boyne's writing anything less than five stars but the story... So hard to read and so disturbing. Freya is complex and her actions are evil but can they be excused by what happened in her childhood? This is a book to be discussed at length and it will linger in my mind for a very long time. I have to say that I preferred Water and Earth but that's purely because I felt some sympathy for the protagonists, I found it hard to feel any empathy at all towards Freya but that's what makes Boyne such an amazing writer.

Fire is the third book in the element’s series by John Boyne and darker than the previous books in this series. Freya is a specialist surgeon in a burn’s unit. She a good doctor and a caring one. She does everything she can to help people. But she had a troubled childhood with now results her picking up young teenage boys seduces them. John Boyne has outdone himself with fire. Although quite a grim tale of Rape, abuse and childhood Abandonment. This is a fascinating tale that had me hooked from the very first page. 5 stars.

John Boyne’s Elements quartet is developing into an extraordinarily powerful and moving reading experience. Thematic threads of culpability and collusion run through the novellas and characters reappear who have not necessarily been centre stage in the previous stories but whose lives have been changed nonetheless. In ‘Fire’, Boyne gives us a woman, Freya - ironically, it turns out, a respected burns surgeon - who is both terrifying and destructive as she systematically enacts revenge for her abusive childhood. Boyne’s writing allows us to be disgusted by her whilst also pitying her for the horrors she has suffered. Through the structure of the narrative, whilst we learn, early on, that she was neglected as a child, we do not really understand what damage was done until towards the end of the story. ‘Fire’ is the most emotionally difficult read of this series so far. (And let’s hope that ‘Air’ doesn’t prove to be even more so!) Boyne’s focus is on the damage done to children from which they will never recover. He explores the appalling personal choices one woman makes because of this, whilst also being lauded professionally for her medical skills. In short, she believes that every decision she makes will ensure that, never again, will she feel powerless and terrified. A complex, devastating read, brilliantly told. My thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday for a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review