Ice Massacre

Ice Massacre is the first novel of the fantasy trilogy of the same name, written by Canadian author Tiana Warner. Published on September 18, 2014, the novel is narrated by Meela, a teenage girl who is sent to battle the hostile population of mermaids that's driving her people into poverty. The Massacre is an annual event in which trained warriors from the island Eriana Kwai are sent to battle mermaids, dangerous sea demons that use their supernatural beauty to lure sailors to their deaths. Meela is among the first group of female warriors to be sent on the Massacre.
Synopsis
To ten-year-old Meela, Lysi is a beautiful mermaid and a loyal friend. To Meela’s people, Lysi is a flesh-eating sea demon who should be killed. That’s why Meela must keep Lysi a secret. Meela knows the mermaids have been attacking fishermen, but she refuses to believe all mermaids are bad. And she definitely doesn’t agree with the Massacres. Every year, she must watch her island’s best warriors depart on the month-long quest to massacre as many demons as possible—and since mermaids have the supernatural ability to lure men to their deaths, the warriors always fail to return.
Meela won’t let anything come between her and Lysi—until Meela’s nasty classmate, Dani, tattles and exposes the secret. Meela’s papa tries to kill Lysi and is furious at Meela for shaming the family. Despite his warnings about a sea demon’s false allure and hostile nature, Meela is determined to believe mermaids are good. Worried Papa might have hurt Lysi, she sneaks out to the beach one more time. But instead of Lysi, Meela finds an older mermaid who tells Meela that she and Lysi were never truly friends. Lysi was supposed to kill Meela. The mermaid attacks, but Meela escapes, her emotional wounds even more painful than her physical ones. Her parents were right: humans and mermaids can never be friends. Meela grows to resent the memory of Lysi as the sea demons push her people into a state of fear and poverty.
When the Massacre fails to bring home sailors yet again, the island decides to try a new tactic that will prevent the warriors from being lured into the water: sending women instead of men. Meela is terrified by the idea of facing more of those evil sea demons, and Papa knows his daughter will be chosen to go because of her tall build and fiery personality.
Seven years later, Meela has been moulded into a ruthless warrior and is determined to get revenge on the mermaid who betrayed her so many years ago. The island is more hopeful than ever as she and nineteen other teenage girls—including Annith, her best friend, and Dani—depart on the first female Massacre. When the demons attack, Meela witnesses the deaths of crewmates and is troubled by how the demons fight and feast on their kills. Her warrior mentality is jostled further when she comes crossbow-to-throat with a familiar face. She and Lysi fight, both after revenge for the past. Then Lysi says she never wanted Meela dead, leaving Meela conflicted.
As they continue on the Massacre, many girls become kill-driven and compassionless. Meela, however, meets with Lysi in secret. They know it’s treacherous, but they don’t want to stay away from each other. Meela soon becomes torn between loyalty to her people and to Lysi. Her feelings are complicated further when their connection begins to feel stronger than friendship. Is this emotional pull real, or is this the supernatural allure to be leery of? In their meetings, Meela learns the truth of the war between humans and merpeople: her island can have peace if the merpeople’s tyrannical king, Adaro, is defeated.
Struggling to decide who the real enemy is, Meela becomes hesitant to kill the mermaids in battle. But the reality is that her crew is diminishing, and the remaining warriors are cracking from strain. Then Dani snaps and shoots a crewmate dead. The girls lock her in the brig to keep themselves safe, and the few remaining warriors struggle when they’re attacked again. Meela is about to be killed when Lysi saves her life, revealing their secret to all. The demons capture Lysi, and the crew labels Meela a traitor and throws her in the brig with Dani. Dani tells Meela she could be the best warrior if she didn’t let her compassion get in the way, but Meela sees what that type of warrior mentality has done to the psychotic girl before her, and she decides she would rather be the worst warrior in the world than become as heartless as Dani.
The girls are nearly home, and though less than half the crew survived, they’ve killed more mermaids than any previous Massacres. Meela isn’t sure if this is a victory because she now knows the Massacres are not the solution to her people’s problems—Adaro should be the target, not the entire mermaid population. The mermaids attack one last time; they locate Meela in the brig and take her to Adaro after a violent struggle. Adaro says he will stop attacking Meela’s people if Meela agrees to help him find and release her island’s legendary monster. Meela agrees, feeling that she’s been handed the solution to her people’s poverty. Adaro vows to hold Lysi hostage until Meela frees the monster. She also knows she will do whatever it takes to get Lysi back—because, she realizes, she has fallen in love with a mermaid.
Critical reception
Ice Massacre has received critical acclaim. In a review for Foreword Clarion, Catherine Thureson called it "thought provoking and intelligent, "fresh and thoroughly entertaining", and "a truly exceptional book". The most common reviewer critique is related to the length of the flashback to Meela's childhood at the beginning of the story.

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