katie0528's review

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emotional funny informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

A brutally honest and funny memoir from Tom Felton, best known as Draco Malfoy, as his life before and experiences filming the Harry Potter movies, and his struggles in adulthood after as he tried to find himself apart from his fame.

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savshanae's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

Amazing. So good. Will recommend to everyone. Even better when listened to. I didn’t think it was possible, but I finished this book being even more in love with Tom. 

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amandaacat's review

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted reflective medium-paced

3.5

If you’re a fan of Tom Felton and Harry Potter, this is a great book to listen to the audio for. Tom does a great job narrating his own stories and does give you a glimpse of life of set - which was fun. I can’t say anything he wrote about was groundbreaking and I liked his recap of his substance abuse struggles towards the end, but overall it seems that growing up on set wasn’t too bad for him. Would only recommend if you’re a fan!

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arcookson's review

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

4.0


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cristinar1800's review

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emotional funny inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

4.0


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alyxbeau's review

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funny inspiring lighthearted relaxing slow-paced

3.75

I loved that Tom narrated this audiobook himself- I think I would have otherwise enjoyed it less. There were some really interesting stories in here that im glad I have as bits of trivia now! I am not a non-fiction fan by any means, so this was never going to get a crazy high rating, but it was good. Hes an interesting guy and was pretty vulnerable in the stories he shared. While I cant relate to any of his antics, I think a lot of people probably can and the target audience for this is not all harry potter fans, but fans of tom in general who were a bit of a trouble maker themselves. 

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r_j_setser's review

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emotional funny inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

In Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard, Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) recounts his acting career up to the point of this publication and gives special attention to his time at Hogwarts (filming the Harry Potter movies). Any fans of the Harry Potter series should consider this memoir a "must read" as it is both full of behind-the-scenes and nostalgic memories of the movies.

Tom's memoir is everything I hoped it would be. I laughed so much at his forward and no-nonsense way of telling stories. Listening to the audiobook (which he narrates himself) felt like listening to theatrical takes from the set of the Harry Potter movies. Many of his stories had me laughing out loud and I loved this rare glimpse into the life of a child actor. He was very good about explaining things that aren't common knowledge, so I feel that I learned a lot about the acting industry by reading this book, as well.

After the first half of the book, which is where spends his time describing his Harry Potter experience, the book takes a more personal turn and focuses on his life after the films and his journey through rehab and finding himself again. While there are a few chapters that made me incredibly sad and worried for him, I feel that with the conclusion of this book, he's doing much better now.

I will caution readers who haven't finished the Harry Potter series that there are many spoilers to the series mentioned throughout this book! Tom Felton assumes that his readers have watched all the movies and talks about the endings often, so don't read this if you're trying to avoid spoilers!

Overall, I enjoyed this audiobook so much and recommend it to anyone who loves Harry Potter or even just if you'd like to read about the behind-the-scenes of filmmaking! 

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reading_on_the_moon's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective relaxing sad fast-paced

4.5


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aseriesofmegan's review

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lighthearted medium-paced

3.0


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dakotajade's review

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5.0


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