Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard
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Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard
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Description
From Borrower to wizard, Tom Felton's childhood was anything but ordinary. His early rise to fame saw him catapulted into the limelight aged just twelve when he landed the iconic role of Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter films. Speaking with candour and his own trademark humour, Tom shares his experience of growing up on screen and as part of the wizarding world for the very first time. He tells all about his big break, what filming was really like and the lasting friendships he made during ten years with the franchise, as well as the highs and lows of fame and the reality of navigating adult life after filming finished.
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. 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. 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. 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!There was no discussion on set about whether Draco knows for sure if this is Harry. My opinion is that he knows exactly who it is. So why doesn't he say so? The reason, it seems to me, is that the boy who had no choice finally gets one." 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. 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!!!
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. TW// mental illness, alcoholism, rehab, mentions of mental hospitals/psych wards, mentions of drug addiction, bullying, underage weed use, divorce, mentions of puking 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.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.
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. I grabbed a physical copy from my library too so I could leaf through it. I enjoyed looking at the pictures that showed his life growing up with his family, and on sets, and the lifelong friendships he made along the way. My first five star read of 2023 and easily one of the best non-fiction books I’ve ever read. Tom has a fun personality and sense of humor that shines through in all his stories. Reading this book was like watching one of his panels at a comic con and it made the experience really enjoyable. If you’ve had the pleasure of meeting Tom and seeing him speak, you’ll know how well he translated his personality into his writing. It is truly phenomenal.There is something uniquely nostalgic about listening to your first movie crush talk about his time as a child on the set of your favorite childhood fictional world. (If you’re planning on reading this, get the audiobook!!) Tom’s chapters on his mental health struggles hit hard, but it gave great insight into his life and it showed how being in the spotlight from a young age can really impact celebrities. Tom also did a great job of normalizing therapy, mental health treatment, and rehab. These treatment methods are often viewed with a great deal of shame, especially by men, but Tom did a great job at talking about the benefits of those treatments and how those treatments personally improved his life. It was moving for me to be reading Tom’s stories with mental illness as I’m currently in a bit of a depressive episode. Our situations aren’t exactly the same, but knowing that someone I look up to has struggled with mental illness helps me feel less alone in my struggles.
- Fruugo ID: 258392218-563234582
- EAN: 764486781913
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