Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

The second volume in Boyne's tetralogy The Elements takes up with Evan Keogh, a secondary, fairly minor character in the first book, Water. That novella ends with its MC Willow/Vanessa and Evan both leaving a small island off the west coast of Ireland, Willow to return to Dublin, and Evan to escape the hometown he's lived in all his life and his suffocating family for a new life as his authentic gay self in the UK.

As it's revealed in the first chapter and the synopsis above (so not really a 'spoiler', but stop reading now if you want to go in fresh) - Evan has become a pro footballer (what we in the states would call a soccer player), even though he hates the game and would rather become a painter - although he has the skills to become the former, but not the latter. He and a fellow teammate in a second-tier league are also awaiting trial, the teammate for rape and Evan as accessory for filming the encounter.

As in the first book, the chapters alternate between the present day and the past, filling in how the protagonists got to be where they are, and ending once again on a somewhat hopeful, but inconclusive note. The third volume, Fire, centers on Freya, who functions as the trial jury foreperson in this volume.

Oddly enough - all three volumes have exactly 15 chapters and 166 pages - not sure about the final tome, which I only have on Kindle via an ARC and has no page #s, since it won't be published until fall. However, if the final two volumes fulfill the promise of the first half, this will undoubtedly make my top 5 books of 2025.