Ice Massacre by Tiana Warner is the first in the Mermaids of
Eriana Kwai trilogy. It centres around eighteen-year-old Meela, a native of the
remote Pacific island of Eriana Kwai. For all of Meela’s life, and longer, the
island has been plagued by vicious mermaid attacks that are slowly killing the
island’s people. In response, the islanders started sending out warriors on
Massacres every year in the hopes of culling the mermaid population enough for
them to be able to finally resume fishing. But in recent years, less and less
men have been returning from the Massacres, instead falling prey to the
mermaids’ allure, and the island is falling further and further into poverty.
Finally, the islanders decide to try a new tactic: send
women, less susceptible to the mermaid’s allure, instead. And so, after five
years of training, Meela and nineteen other girls set out with the promise of
glory and honour – but without the promise of any of them even returning home
alive. But for Meela, the Massacre isn’t just about saving her people from
starvation. It’s also about Lysi – the mermaid she saved and befriended when
she was ten, and what happened to ruin their seemingly unbreakable friendship.
