If you're of a certain age... Then you read, watched, and/or consumed media about a certain series. You know the one I mean. You're reading this review, and it's for a memoir about one of the actors. This series' prevalence in our popular culture has permeated the veil of basic cultural knowledge—for good or for ill—and it is a massive part of my generation's upbringing and cultural sense of identity. Read this if you were one of those kids like me. It was a wonderful experience, and Tom's narration on the audiobook was perfection. I recommend giving it a listen! i just love how much tom felton loves harry potter... because same. i read this via audiobook the past few days at work and it was SO good! i really enjoyed tom felton's narration, it made it really personal. i also really enjoyed hearing more about his childhood and what it was like to be on the harry potter set! you could really tell how much he appreciated the opportunity to have been in harry potter, and how much the relationships be made with everyone impacted his life positively. it was so cute how he had a chapter talking about emma, rupert and daniel individually, and i don't care what he claims, him and emma watson are in love!!! Here's my side note ~ there is quite a bit of swearing. I know this is an adult book, but I feel that maybe some parents would read/listen to this one with their Harry Potter loving children, just like I did. Yes my daughter is older and it's not anything she hasn't heard before, but it might not be suitable for the younger ones. This was the cringiest book I’ve ever read. I felt like DNFing it the whole time. It’s short, so it should have taken me half a day to read it, but it kept dragging on for a whole week.

He tells his story of being in the public eye and his struggles with alcohol and drug use. Of course I wasn't aware of his struggles, since I don't follow him, so I appreciated his candor and willingness to get help. Beyond the Wand is nothing less than the perfect nostalgic trip through time condensed through the keyhole of Tom Felton's particular experience in an extraordinary childhood and surrounded by the culture of the 1990s, 2000s, and now. All of that being said, once I hit chapter 26? Holy shit. That was what I was looking for, with this book - it's raw, unappealing, and it's genuine. It's unflattering, it's heartwrenching, but more importantly, it's honest. Felton talks frankly about his mental health struggles, his time in rehab, his time out of rehab, and for the first time in Beyond the Wand, it felt like he was actually writing his story as opposed to trying to please a bunch of Harry Potter fans. Honestly, I think chapter 26 and 27 had the fewest amount of Harry Potter references in them, and good - which, by the way? Way too many HP references in this book. I get it, man, you were in Harry Potter. We know. We read this book because of it. You don't need to keep dropping a 'my family is more like the Weasleys than the Malfoys haha!' or 'the building was so big it reminded me of Gringotts.' Way too many forced HP references. Way too many. I don't read too many biographies/memoirs, but if I do it's on a celebrity. Since my daughter and I read the Harry Potter books together a few years ago I thought it'd be nice to read this one together. As a person who’s not particularly drawn to memoirs nor to the evolution of child stars into adults, I find myself having just finished my THIRD such book this year! I’m sure a therapist would tell me that I’m processing my own childhood through the safe lens of looking at someone else’s. I’m also sure my parents would be pleased that my expensive college education in psychology has served me so well. 😉 Whatever the reason, when I saw that Tom Felton - “Draco” of Harry Potter movie fame - had written a memoir, my curiosity was piqued!It’s worth noting, too, that Tom stayed away from mentioning J.K. Rowling too much and his praise of her was minimal. I think she was mentioned by name only four times in this book and that was a really smart move to mention her so little since J.K. Rowling is engaging in so much hateful rhetoric online. Felton shares so many terrific stories – from his childhood, from his years playing Draco Malfoy on the Harry Potter set, and later, from his battle with depression and substance abuse – and they are all told with refreshing frankness and a dry, acerbic wit. It’s just story after story; laughter followed by more laughter.

overall, my only complaint is the god awful cover. otherwise, this is a great read for all wizards, witches, and muggles 😋 Ok, firstly, wanna say that I grew up reading Draco Malfoy fanfiction, he was my favorite character in HP. And yeah, I realized pretty fast that Tom Felton was nothing like Draco Malfoy, but still, I admired him for portraying Draco so well. I just though that Tom was just a chill boring dude from suburbs in England, obsessed with fishing for some reason. But as it became clear after finishing this book, he’s actually self-obsessed and probably even narcissistic d-bag. Now, don't get me wrong: Tom's life was large outside of his time as Draco Malfoy. And it's had some bumps in the road. This book got much heavier than I expected, and much more honest. Tom's here to share his whole life's story, after all, and not just a part of it. I appreciated that. I feel like Tom and Draco are more separate in my head because of it—and that's probably a good thing. Being an actor sure comes in handy when recording an audiobook. Tom Felton’s narration of his memoir, Beyond the Wand, may very well be the best celebrity performance I’ve heard yet. TW// mental illness, alcoholism, rehab, mentions of mental hospitals/psych wards, mentions of drug addiction, bullying, underage weed use, divorce, mentions of puking

Also, I’m very disappointed that he missed an opportunity to tell us something interesting about all the truly great and experienced actors and directors he worked with. He mentions almost everyone noteworthy in his book, but it’s all just censored and sugar coated empty compliments with zero substance. It almost feels like Tom was too self obsessed to learn anything about these awesome people or to learn something from them.