Harris's Reviews > Night and Dana

Though a little less anarchic and strange than the previous two works by Anya Davidson I’ve read, School Spirit and Band for Life, Night and Dana is a strong and perceptive depiction of being a teenager coming of age in an increasingly uncertain, maddening world. Lifelong friends Dana and Lily, bonded over monster movies, comics, and art, begin their senior year planning to leave their quaint Florida resort town and head to NYU together after graduation but their relationship begins to fray while working on a student film as Lily becomes smitten with another classmate, Wye.

Dana, feeling increasingly shut out of Lily’s life, shifts her interests to the local environmental movement protesting the city’s response to the increase of devastating red tides strengthened by climate change. Dana’s angst, even when it makes her not the most sympathetic person, is as understandable as it is realistic and as she works to find herself in the absence of her friend she channels her anger into activism. All in all, Davidson captures the shifting emotions and mix of unwelcome and yearned for changes of growing up, dealt with in both constructive and less mature ways that really brought me back to those years.