Darian's life-plan is crystal-clear to him. Rank as highly as a basketball recruit nationally for his class. Get himself a full-ride scholarship and spend 1-2 years polishing his game. Get drafted in the NBA. Taste the glory. Yearn for more. The game is him, Darian believes. He knows. It is where he can catapult himself off the ground in a singular, awe-striking moment of defiance against gravity. Probe flyness to the highest. The point where he is free and aim for it again and again. And again. For Darian learned early on that life's got its teeth bared at him. So he taught himself to bare them back. Raw. Incisive. Filed them in order to draw blood. He is boiling rage. With the smell of burnt flesh under his skin. He does not whine. He does not complain. He hollers and slashes and claws his way out. Even if it leaves him starved out. Even if he tells himself he has no need for any of it - anything. Lessons in Landing is a young adult MxM queer-tinged coming-of-age novel, featuring as mainly a bildungsroman centered around its main protagonist and the (un)(re)doing of his ties with family, friends, past/present/future loves, and himself.