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A review by freadomlibrary
Ice Massacre by Tiana Warner
4.0
Actual rating 4.5 stars
I NEED MORE!!
This review was originally posted at https://freadomlibrary.wordpress.com/
Critically
Plot – 4.5 out of 5 stars
This book is so good! The plot is intense and exciting. This is not the usual mermaid tale that you’re used to. These are man eating, gruesome, violent mermaids and the plot definitely shows that. It’s bloody and harsh and all about survival of the fittest. It’s about how you can lose yourself in something you believe in, and not in a good way. There’s also an LGBTQ+ aspect that I wasn’t expecting but really enjoyed.
Writing Style – 4 out of 5 stars
The writing style definitely lent well to the kind of story the author was telling. It was dark and intense. Strong and gripping with great descriptions and lots of details. It’s extremely graphic so if you get squeamish easily, I wouldn’t recommend it but I loved it because it was real and powerful. It caught me completely and made me devour this book.
Characters – 4 out of 5 stars
There’s a few characters in this book though only one narrator which is Meela, a girl from Eriana Kwai who is preparing for the first Massacre with only female fighters. I really liked her. She’s strong, brave and smart. She’s conscious of what she’s doing and isn’t emotionally closed off to being affected to the act of war and of killing which I really appreciated. She’s determined to get through the Massacre and is looking out for the rest of the crew. Not only do we get to meet Meela’s crew but we also encounter a mermaid up close and personal. The side characters are all very interesting and complex. I definitely like some more than others as Meela did. Some let the environment get the best of them and others were just plain crazy pants. I really liked how the author showed those differences, how these extreme situations affect different people and what this thought process makes you do. This book focused a lot on friendships and what makes someone else an enemy to you.
Emotionally
The plot is graphic. We follow the story of the small island Eriana Kwai that has been at war with an underwater colony of man eating mermaids and our main character, Meela, is one of the the nineteen 18 year old girls who are sent on a mission to battle the mermaids in the water for control of the sea. First things first, the prologue automatically discards any preconceived ideas you may have about these mermaids. They are not the ones you would find in a Disney movies. These mermaids are straight up vicious savages with the power to lure men their deaths. Almost like a mix between sirens and mermaids, except without the singing but with a powerful compulsion. The plot revolves around two things: the battles between the girls and the mermaids as well as the overall war as well as the girls spending time on a boat together for a really long time. The first was intense and powerful and freaking violent. Neither group of females mess around whatsoever. The mermaids are caught off guard so they need new tactics and the girls prepared as much as they could but it doesn’t compare to the real thing. There were so many powerful scenes that I was affected emotionally like the main character. As for the later, it surprised me how intense that was too. The girls spend months in the middle of the ocean on a boat with each other as their only company. Not everyone got along with each other and as their number dwindle, so does their sanity and their trust with each other. It was psychologically intense to see their lives unravel and their minds as well. The whole thing was gritty, gruesome and unlike anything I’ve ever read which means it was FREAKING AWESOME.
Meela was a great narrator in my opinion. She’s strong and fierce but she’s also disturbed by what she’s doing. War is ugly guys and I was glad that the author didn’t give us a main character that just killed without remorse or without guilt, no matter who the enemy is. That didn’t earn her a lot of favor with the other girls but I appreciated the honesty and realness that came with her mental battle. But at the same time, she has a secret that could alter the fate of her entire island which is not cool at all. There’s a lot of things warring inside of her, choices and opinions and feelings. It’s so honest and realistic and I really loved reading all of this from her point of view.
I mentioned the LGBTQ+ aspect briefly in the above section and while I don’t want to give away any spoilers (even if this is the spoiler section) I did want to mention what I think of it. I thought that aspect in particular was very well done. I can’t even call it a romance because it’s like a thread of one, a possibility of one and I like how that was handled.
Overall, this book was awesome! The plot was intense, violent and gruesome. It depicted the reality of war even when it is one fought with paranormal creatures. Also how isolation affects the mind of an individual and how that affects the group setting. The characters are all very complex and intriguing, some even go so far as being a bit unhinged but I loved seeing how they interact with each other. I can’t wait to continue the series.
I NEED MORE!!
This review was originally posted at https://freadomlibrary.wordpress.com/
Critically
Plot – 4.5 out of 5 stars
This book is so good! The plot is intense and exciting. This is not the usual mermaid tale that you’re used to. These are man eating, gruesome, violent mermaids and the plot definitely shows that. It’s bloody and harsh and all about survival of the fittest. It’s about how you can lose yourself in something you believe in, and not in a good way. There’s also an LGBTQ+ aspect that I wasn’t expecting but really enjoyed.
Writing Style – 4 out of 5 stars
The writing style definitely lent well to the kind of story the author was telling. It was dark and intense. Strong and gripping with great descriptions and lots of details. It’s extremely graphic so if you get squeamish easily, I wouldn’t recommend it but I loved it because it was real and powerful. It caught me completely and made me devour this book.
Characters – 4 out of 5 stars
There’s a few characters in this book though only one narrator which is Meela, a girl from Eriana Kwai who is preparing for the first Massacre with only female fighters. I really liked her. She’s strong, brave and smart. She’s conscious of what she’s doing and isn’t emotionally closed off to being affected to the act of war and of killing which I really appreciated. She’s determined to get through the Massacre and is looking out for the rest of the crew. Not only do we get to meet Meela’s crew but we also encounter a mermaid up close and personal. The side characters are all very interesting and complex. I definitely like some more than others as Meela did. Some let the environment get the best of them and others were just plain crazy pants. I really liked how the author showed those differences, how these extreme situations affect different people and what this thought process makes you do. This book focused a lot on friendships and what makes someone else an enemy to you.
Emotionally
Spoiler
Considering how I got this book as a free Kindle ebook, I wasn’t really expecting anything good to come out of it but it really blew me away.The plot is graphic. We follow the story of the small island Eriana Kwai that has been at war with an underwater colony of man eating mermaids and our main character, Meela, is one of the the nineteen 18 year old girls who are sent on a mission to battle the mermaids in the water for control of the sea. First things first, the prologue automatically discards any preconceived ideas you may have about these mermaids. They are not the ones you would find in a Disney movies. These mermaids are straight up vicious savages with the power to lure men their deaths. Almost like a mix between sirens and mermaids, except without the singing but with a powerful compulsion. The plot revolves around two things: the battles between the girls and the mermaids as well as the overall war as well as the girls spending time on a boat together for a really long time. The first was intense and powerful and freaking violent. Neither group of females mess around whatsoever. The mermaids are caught off guard so they need new tactics and the girls prepared as much as they could but it doesn’t compare to the real thing. There were so many powerful scenes that I was affected emotionally like the main character. As for the later, it surprised me how intense that was too. The girls spend months in the middle of the ocean on a boat with each other as their only company. Not everyone got along with each other and as their number dwindle, so does their sanity and their trust with each other. It was psychologically intense to see their lives unravel and their minds as well. The whole thing was gritty, gruesome and unlike anything I’ve ever read which means it was FREAKING AWESOME.
Meela was a great narrator in my opinion. She’s strong and fierce but she’s also disturbed by what she’s doing. War is ugly guys and I was glad that the author didn’t give us a main character that just killed without remorse or without guilt, no matter who the enemy is. That didn’t earn her a lot of favor with the other girls but I appreciated the honesty and realness that came with her mental battle. But at the same time, she has a secret that could alter the fate of her entire island which is not cool at all. There’s a lot of things warring inside of her, choices and opinions and feelings. It’s so honest and realistic and I really loved reading all of this from her point of view.
I mentioned the LGBTQ+ aspect briefly in the above section and while I don’t want to give away any spoilers (even if this is the spoiler section) I did want to mention what I think of it. I thought that aspect in particular was very well done. I can’t even call it a romance because it’s like a thread of one, a possibility of one and I like how that was handled.
Overall, this book was awesome! The plot was intense, violent and gruesome. It depicted the reality of war even when it is one fought with paranormal creatures. Also how isolation affects the mind of an individual and how that affects the group setting. The characters are all very complex and intriguing, some even go so far as being a bit unhinged but I loved seeing how they interact with each other. I can’t wait to continue the series.