The art has a nostalgic feel, the concept grabbed my interest, and the story is good. However, I just feel like this was not for me. I hope it finds its readers and have no doubt that it will! Usually, I will pore through a graphic novel in one sitting and did not find myself doing that with this one, unfortunately. It is a unique story that I think many people will enjoy. I did appreciate the smooth non-binary and queer rep as well as the climate activism, but something about this read overall just did not hit the target for me. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

Thank you to Netgalley and Lerner Publishing Group, Graphic Universe for the eARC.

I wanted to like this more than I did. I wasn't a fan of the color scheme or art style, at all, and I feel like Davidson tried to put too many subplots in the text -- none of them felt properly developed or explored, and there was no connection between individual scenes or characters.

Graphic novel set in a small town on the Florida coast. Two high school best friends must take part in a community college film class as instead of getting detention after their last prank. Dana Drucker likes make-up special effects and dreams of film school at NYU. The story is told from her POV. I like that she is curvy and looks like a teen. Lily is the better student and has an eye for design. While working on their film project Lily gets a new romance that draws the two apart. Dana emotionally is all over the place. There is a long time guy friend that likes her but she isn’t kind to him. Her family life adds to her mounting pressure. Meeting an older eco activist gives her some focus for her energy.

This is a coming of age novel where Dana learns find her voice and step out of being in her friends shadow. And it is realistic in that she doesn’t magically get all of her hopes and dreams. I also like the story is inclusive. I will say the art style grew on me but it was not attractive to me as I started reading. No one is pretty and the tones are less colorful that some graphic novels. But I can easily see this being enjoyed by older middle school readers and up.

Thank you to Lerner Publishing Group, Graphic Universe and NetGalley for the temporary ARC and I am leaving a voluntary review.

This was a fun and well paced read about growing up and finding your voice. Dana is authentic narrator, from her passions to her flaws. This would be an excellent read for teens, and I can’t wait to include this in my classroom library. 4 stars instead of 5 because the art style was not my favorite, although I got used to it throughout the novel.

Night and Dana was a really great graphic novel, with themes of friendship, finding your voice, and fighting for what's right. I loved the graphics as well as the depiction of the monster make-up and special effects! It was a great story about a co-dependent friendship. I loved Dana's story and finding her voice and standing on her own away from Lily.

A mix of Daria and the Amelia notebooks I loved back in elementary school! I Could not put this down because it brought two very nostalgic themes that I love together!
This graphic novel really represented how a community college class can bring people together. While that may not have been exactly the point of the story, I appreciated how the girls were able to meet people of all different backgrounds and realize that not everyone around them was a “mortal” who judged or disliked them.
I love the angst, the bravery, and the self-reflection that takes place. Sometimes, you just have to take a look at yourself in the mirror, even when you’ve special effects’d yourself to look like you came straight out of the night of the living dead.
This graphic novel inspires creativity, sarcasm, and not judging yourself or others based off of the first glance. You meet the best people when you don’t expect it, and I think this story shows how finding friends in unexpected places helps you grow and become a better version of yourself.

The art style is really unique, it’s a mix of traditional comic book style and a more modern less structured approach mixed together.

3.75 ⭐️

The art style of this graphic novel was what really drew me in, and it never ceased to amaze me. I loved the cooking on each panel, it added to the nostalgic, small-town feel of the story. My favorite panel was the one where the three were describing their movie elevator pitch to their professor, I loved the unique presentation and details of all of the characters! I love when coming of age stories have more subtlety, and this one also had great representation. Wye was a nonbinary character, but this was never specifically addressed/called attention to, which I liked. I also liked learning about the production process and taking a peak into what a film class may be like, as this is something I have no experience with. Overall, I think they took a fairly basic setup (teens forced to do something to bond because they got in trouble in school) and elevated it to make it a unique, interesting story.

Loved that this story was set in Florida! (That’s where I live)

I also think a lot of high schoolers would enjoy this. That being said, the color scheme and art style wasn’t my favorite.

Overall—enjoyable read.