Almost Flying is a 2021 Juvenile Novel written by Jake Maia Arlow
Dalia is a teenager who's currently grappling with the fact her divorced father is now seeing someone new. Dalia isn't ready to accept having a new stepfamily yet. All she wants to do is hang with her new best friend from swim team Rani and try to figure out how to tell her father she wants to go to an amusement park and ride her first roller coaster. But it's hard when her father and future stepmother keep pressuring her to bond with her future stepsister Alexa. When Dalia finds out Alexa is going on a road trip with her friend Dhruv to visit 5 amusement parks in one week, she quickly figures out how to kill two birds with one stone. After getting permission to go on the trip and take Rani with her, Dalia is soon is in for a fun week of coasters and funnel cake. But while on the trip she finds out she may have deeper feelings for Rani...
This work provides examples of:
- Calling the Old Man Out: At the end of the story Alexa and Dalia call out their respective parents for different things. Dalia calls out her dad for not telling her about Vanessa until 6 months into the relationship and Alexa calls out her mom for treating her more like a friend than a daughter.
- Cast Full of Gay: Dhruv, Dalia and Rani are gay whereas Alexa is implied to be bisexual.
- Coming-Out Story: For Dalia.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Both ways with Alexa and Dalia. Neither of them are really fond of the other at first but over the course of the trip, they develop a real sisterly bond.
- Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Downplayed. Despite being extremely knowledgeable on Roller Coaster facts Dalia hasn't ridden one yet. That changes during the story
- No Antagonist: The story lacks a traditional antagonist.
- Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure: After Dalia accidentally implies she sees Rani as just another rich girl, Rani and Dalia's friendship becomes threatened. Likewise, when Dalia thinks Alexa told Dhruv about her secret crush on Rani they get into a fight.
- Road Trip Plot:
- Shown Their Work: All of the parks the Dalia visits are real parks in the United States and the coasters are depicted accurately as well.
- We Used to Be Friends: Dalia used to be best friends with another girl called Abby but the two stopped hanging out when Abby started hanging out with the popular crowd. During her Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure with Rani and Alexa, Dalia desperate for someone to talk to texts Abby. After it goes well Dalia makes plans to try to rebuild her friendship with Abby even if it won't be the same as it was before.
