Tom Felton - Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard

I love the Harry Potter books and films, and I saw that a few of my friends had read this book. One of my coworkers suggested that I should bump it up in my to-read list, and so I did.

Tom Felton outlines his experiences getting into acting, growing up with all brothers, and his early family life. Felton details his experiences working on the Potter films, and the actors, crews, and directors he got to work with. He is so complimentary of these great people, and he makes it clear how privileged he felt to get to rub shoulders with all of the people he worked with. He then tells of experiences after Potter, and his eventual spiral into substance abuse and eventually how he ended up in rehab.

I found Felton's story honest. He doesn't hide behind the mistakes he made, or what he ended up doing. I also found his account humble, and he takes great care to recognize all of the people he worked with. His tributes to these actors is sweet, complimentary, and really interesting. I loved how he talked about people like Alan Rickman, Michael Gambon, and Jason Isaacs, and how these people worked with him, inspired him, and coached him.

I loved Felton's voice and his writing style. He comes across intelligently, and I loved that aspect of this book.

I think the only thing I didn't really like was how it's constructed. It was easy to get lost in the chronology. I felt that Felton bounced around a little, and it wasn't always clear to me.

As far as content, there wasn't any explicit sexual content. Brits use the f-word a lot more than Americans, so that is everywhere in the book. Felton also makes no secret of his substance abuse, and the spiral he took.

I rated this ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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