All the Noise at Once follows Aiden, a 16 year old autistic boy who loves and finds peace in the organized chaos of football more than anything. His brother Brandon is the star quarterback of the team and local, burgeoning on national, celebrity because of his capabilities on the field. In their final year of high school together, Brandon as a senior and Aiden as a junior, Brandon manages to get Aiden a chance to play as running back on the team after Aiden's tryouts the previous summer ended due to a meltdown from overstimulation. The night of their first game together a moment referred to The Incident occurs, changing Aiden and Brandon's lives forever.

I picked this up on a whim at a bookselling conference because I was told it was a Middle Grade novel about two brothers with one being autistic. Within the first few pages I realized that it was definitly Young Adult and not Middle Grade, but that was just fine with me. DeAndra Davis is a phenonomal writer and created such a special relationship between Aiden and Brandon. The love they have for each other is insurmountable and even though Brandon is the most popular guy in school, he never tries to hide or change Aiden for who he is. Davis writes very deep and insightful conversations about Aiden's experiences as a Black autistic teenager that feel natural to the characters and story. The everyday microaggressions he experiences because of his race and autism, and more often than not how they intersect, were so disheartening to read about, but for those moments there were just as many where Aiden or one of his loved ones dismantled the basis behind those microaggressions. I would recommend All the Noise at Once to those looking for a powerful YA coming of age with strong family relationships.

TWs: police brutality, violence, racism, and ableism