Ice Massacre (Mermaids of Eriana Kwai #1) by Tiana Warner
A mermaid’s supernatural beauty serves one purpose: to lure a sailor to his death.
The Massacre is supposed to bring peace to Eriana Kwai. Every year, the island sends its warriors to battle these hostile sea demons. Every year, the warriors fail to return. Desperate for survival, the island must decide on a new strategy. Now, the fate of Eriana Kwai lies in the hands of twenty battle-trained girls and their resistance to a mermaid’s allure.
Books Read in 2017:Mermaids of Eriana Kwai (Ice Massacre + Ice Crypt) by Tiana Warner
But why? I thought. Why would you risk everything? Why not leave her to her fate?
Adaro had known before I could admit it to myself, and that was why he took her from me. But my heart felt swollen, and I finally just knew. It was obvious as if I’d known it my whole life.
BOOKS READ IN 2017: ICE MASSACRE & ICE CRYPT (Mermaids of Eriana Kwai) by Tiana Warner
“I remember being afraid she would get sick of me and stop coming to see me– but she never did. She kept coming back.” “As kids, you mean?” “As kids… And on the ship. In battle. She came to see me in secret.” “You miss her,” said Spio, in a tone so casual he might have been pointing out a halibut. I stared at my hands, feeling myself blush. I must have given more away in my mood than I intended. “I love her.”
The Massacre is supposed to bring peace to Eriana Kwai.
Every year, the island sends its warriors to battle these hostile sea demons. Every year, the warriors fail to return.
Desperate for survival, the island must decide on a new strategy. Now, the fate of Eriana Kwai lies in the hands of twenty battle-trained girls and their resistance to a mermaid’s allure.
We fell silent, holding each other’s gaze. I bit my tongue, feeling a twinge of guilt for letting her talk to me for so long. The sky was lightening. Lysi’s eyes seemed to shine—and I felt a long-forgotten comfort staring into them. — Ice Massacre,Tiana Warner
I highly recommend this book (soon to be trilogy). Badass crew of warrior women, interesting characters, and exciting action; all accompanied by an interspecies, interracial wlw romance between the mc and her best (mermaid) friend from childhood. I am VERY excited to see where this trilogy goes!
Adaro had known before I could admit it to myself, and that was why he took her from me. But my heart felt swollen, and I finally just knew. It was obvious as if I’d known it my whole life.
“Mee, we’re on opposite sides of a war. You’re asking me to surrender.”
“It’s not about the war. I’m asking you to save your own life!”
But I knew I was wrong as I said it. It was about the war. Everything was about the war. Her life and mine, her culture and mine, were dedicated to it. She reached out and locked my hand in her icy fingers. “Let’s not talk about this.”
I held her gaze, breathing hard to push down the bubble of panic. Lysi pressed her palm against mine and stretched her fingers skyward. I did the same, feeling our hands align perfectly - brown skin against white.
I want to say a massive thank you to the author, @tianawarner who provided a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. I am so grateful, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and I can happily recommend it.
Ice Massacre by Tiana Warner is the first novel in a series which is based around the story of the island of Eriana Kwai and its pest problem. Instead of bugs or rats though, the pest problem in question is that of sea demons, or, mermaids. Each year the island sends out a crew of men to try to kill off as many of the vicious demons as possible, and each year they fail to claim their freedom. For the first time ever the island decides to send twenty battle ready girls instead, as they have a natural resistance to the mermaids lure.
Our hero and protagonist is Meela. Meela has already lost her brother to a previous massacre, and she wants revenge. But taking to the seas in a crew that is splitting apart at the seams with fear and contention isn’t easy, watching friends die isn’t easy. Before the end a mission to cull and fight for freedom becomes about more than just surviving each day.
I loved this book. I started reading it properly on saturday morning and I was finished by 3pm. The constant action kept the flow of the book moving, it was never boring and I couldn’t wait to see what happened, and who survived. This is one of the only books that I’ve read recently that has been this tense and I haven’t skipped to the end to make sure everyone I loved survived, and that was only because I was so caught up in reading the book itself that I forgot.
Meela herself is a strong character. As a child she hated seeing or causing pain but years of training to fight change a person, and killing to survive becomes a must. What I loved about her character arc is that we see her through some of her childhood, where she first meets Lysi, the mermaid child she makes friends with, to when she’s ready to depart from the island and ready to fight, to some realisations she comes to while on board, that I won’t spoil for anyone, and she never stops fighting for what she believes in. The other characters are all great too. Meela’s best friend Annith, I especially loved. You could tell that they loved each other but like all friends, they argued and kept secrets.
The world building was great. At the beginning I was slightly confused as to what time period the novel was set in but it soon became clear that it was in the modern day, which I love. This is the first book of its type that I’ve read set in our own time period, and I felt like it worked really well. The relief attempts in the form of food brought in on helicopters, the mention of spongebob squarepants, it all added to the atmosphere and provided a great contrast to how the weapons and the ships used give the novel an older feel. The change in the usual mermaid behaviour was also done extremely well. Mermaids are one of my favourite topics; books like Ingo were my favourite when I was younger, and Ice Massace adds a grown up touch to that, because it is definitely a dark book in a lot of ways. There is a lot of death and violence, which I expected going in from reading the title. In places it really is a massacre.
And of course, the reason that this book is on this blog, is because of Meela and Lysi. I don’t want to spoil their relationship too much for anyone, but I liked how it unfolded, and I can’t wait to see what happens in future books. This is the first book I’ve read that I can remember (that I haven’t written myself) where a girl and a mermaid fall in love.
Goodreads link: HERE. You can find links to the websites where it’s available to buy through the goodreads website.
