Who Is Tom Ditto

Brilliantly entertaining...and masterfully read!

Would you listen to Who Is Tom Ditto again? Why?

Again and again and again......this book is very entertaining and has a twist that is fascinating. I LOVE the style of the author and the narrator. I am wild about the expertise of Kobna Holdbrook Smith in delivering all his expertise and art in a truly magnificent rendition of personalities..his ability to do many other voices give one the feeling of real separation...like listening to a play.

What did you like best about this story?

The story was innovative and superbly executed.

Which character – as performed by Christopher Ragland and Kobna Holdbrook-Smith – was your favourite?

Pia was my favorite character apart from Tom Ditto

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Thoroughly enjoyed it immensely..it made me smile.

Any additional comments?

Kobna Holdbrook Smith is an excellent narrator. Cant get enough of him! Listened to the London River series and just long for him to read us more and more. Rarely have I ever enjoyed a narration so much. I hope he does more and more narrations because I would read the books just to be with his voice and characterisations.

13 of 13 people found this review helpful

Surprising, relatable, and excellently narrated.

The story was intriguing and the characters well-developed - I really cared about them by the end. As someone in her late twenties who lives in London there were parts of the tale that resonated with me particularly. I feel that there's this myth that our parents generation had their life sorted out by 30. As it approaches it can feel like you're not going where you thought or that you're living someone else's dreams and ideals - whether that someone was once you or not. It was interesting to explore that and how the characters change in response to the absurd and the pointedly not.

I chose this because I really enjoyed Kobna-Holdbrook Smith's narration in the Rivers of London series. He is brilliant. I was worried that I would get character bleed - having associated the narrator with the aforementioned 5 books (that I've listened to multiple times each). However, his performance and the writing create a character that has, perhaps a touch ironically, a strong sense of self.

11 of 11 people found this review helpful

Brilliantly original

I enjoyed listening to every second of this audiobook... and was so sad when it finished. I may just have to listen to it again!!

Who is Tom Ditto has a surprisingly original premise. The book is well (and cleverly) written and the narrator was absolutely perfect for it!!! At times it was laugh out loud funny (I certainly got a few funny looks on the tube!), but also deals with serious issues (like depression) in a realistic and honest way. If you're looking for something a bit different, yet really enjoyable, with an original premise and bizarre twists and turns... this is the book for you!

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

satisfying ending but a little slow getting there

Intriguing and enjoyable start and satisfying ending, but the book got a bit lost in the middle which was a shsmr

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Great story, great narration

What did you like most about Who Is Tom Ditto?

Its easy listening. This is one of several books I have listened to narrated by Kobna, all are great. The story keeps you interested all the way through. There's a marmoset loose in London somewhere.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Best book this year

The narration suited this book perfectly. The story drew me in from the first, and I didn't want it to end. Tom finds an answer to the question posed by the title through a series of adventures that get increasingly surreal, but I was drawn into the world created by the author. A well-deserved five stars.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

I so wanted to like this book

What would have made Who Is Tom Ditto better?

Perhaps I am the wrong audience for this book, but I just did not like any of the characters.
Thus, I didn't really care what happened and skipped many of the chapters.

What was most disappointing about Danny Wallace’s story?

I do like Danny Wallace's other books (non-fiction) so was disappointed that his fiction was not so engaging. The story just felt like he could miss out large chunks of the irritating detail.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The narrator was OK

What character would you cut from Who Is Tom Ditto?

Alex the radio announcer - and actually most of the characters were pretty annoying.

Any additional comments?

Maybe this book is meant for a different audience - people in their 20s to 30s perhaps?

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Who are you, and who could you be?

I bought the audiobook after searching for books read by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith (great narrator of the fabulous Rivers of London books by Ben Aaronovitch.). While I'd never heard of the author, the story sounded interesting enough to try the book - and I wasn't disappointed.

Who is Tom Ditto is a story about a man in his thirties (Tom, an early-morning news-reader on the radio) who is left by his girl-friend without any warning and with only a strange letter as fare-well. Thoroughly unsettled and unable to cope, Tom starts to look for clues as to where and why Hayley might have disappeared.
Without becoming too spoilery I can add that Tom begins a journey that will change his life and, maybe more importantly, his perspective on life.

It is a quiet, quaint book, there's not much drama going on, but it isn't a boring book. The story is told with much sympathy for the protagonist, who is trying to lead a normal, stable life. I'll certainly listen to the story again and I am sure that I will discover new aspects that will add to the facets of the characters.

Why only 4 stars? Well, there is kind of a sub-story in the book, and this part is narrated by Christopher Ragland. He also did a good job in reading the story, but the sub-plot is, in my opinion, totally superfluous and distracting. Thankfully, these interludes are always brief and therefore negligible, but it made me wonder why the autor thought them important enough not to leave them out completely.

So, all in all, if you like character development, normal life and thoughts about the nature of men, then you could very well enjoy the book.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Thoroughly enjoyable

Really enjoyed the whole premise of the story based around 'carbon copy'. Good character build up such that you felt much on the side of the two main characters.
Time well spent.

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

If only the whole book was as good as the ending!

Slow to get in to. I nearly didn't return two or three times. I'm glad I persevered though, as its not until the end that I felt any sort of real empathy with the characters. The secrets Pia kept were worth waiting for.

3 of 4 people found this review helpful