Dreams of Delphine

by Rich Shapero

How might immersion in a sea of dreams impact a waking nightmare of traumatic loss?

Presden is a lone twin whose fearless sister, Delphine, perished in a horrific accident on the Louisiana bayou when they were eight. The tragic loss destroyed his family, forcing him to grieve in isolation.

Now grown and working as a hydrological engineer, Presden meets Merle, a Dutch woman with a deep affinity for the water—and for family. The two marry and repair to her homeland, where they find a house in a small fishing village alongside a dike that Presden has been hired to fortify. And there, Merle learns she is pregnant.

On discovering he’s to be a father, Presden is hurled into conflict with Merle, and into a series of dream encounters with Delphine that dare him to confront the guilt and shame of his loss, and to prepare for the unimaginable . . .

Genres: Fiction

164 pages, Hardcover

First published July 11, 2022

About the author

Rich Shapero’s novels dare readers with giant metaphors, magnificent obsessions and potent ideas. His casts of idealistic lovers, laboring miners, and rebellious artists all rate ideas as paramount, more important than life itself. They traverse wild landscapes and visionary realms, imagining gods who in turn imagine them. Like the seekers themselves, readers grapple with revealing truths about human potential. All of his titles—Beneath Caaqi's Wings, Dissolve, Island Fruit Remedy, Balcony of Fog, Rin, Tongue and Dorner, Arms from the Sea, The Hope We Seek, Too Far and Wild Animus—are available in hardcover and as ebooks. They also combine music, visual art, animation and video in the TooFar Media app. Shapero spins provocative stories for the eyes, ears, and imagination.

Reviews

[Briann · Rating 1 out of 5]

Chapter 1 of this book was just a mess. The setting was not well established, and it was long and confusing. I should have just stopped reading because the book did not get better.

The book kept relentlessly reusing the man vs. nature conflict. It was annoying and trite.

Most of the book felt like a drug-induced, hallucinogenic guilt trip.

I hated the relationship between Presden, Merle, and Delphine. Merle wanted to replace Delphine, and Delphine and Presden had almost a romantic relationship. It was basically an Oedipus and Electra complex, but with siblings instead of parents. Freud seriously needs to be resurrected to examine this book.

One of the notes I took when reading was – “Oh my God, please no. This is just gross.” And that pretty much summarizes the book.

[Glenda Rutherford · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book in a giveaway. I'm torn as to how to feel. I appreciated the actual writing, but the characters are one dimensional and seem less than real. I couldn't feel any real sympathy for the Presden or Merle. The details around their lives and where they lived needed to be fleshed out more. His dreams were sort of an Alice in Wonderland under the sea thing; interesting in a way. I found myself wanting to tell him to grow up. In all , it seemed more like an unfinished outline for a story, rather than the final product. Hopefully, Shapero's next book will be better.

[Jennichole Arnold Arbucci · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dreams of Delphine by Rich Shapero was Boring to me. I thought the novel was one note. Seemed like one the sentence.
I didn't care for any of the characters and some of them were pointless. The only reason I kept read this book was because of lyrical writting. Rich Shapero has a made this story shine in a way that kept me looking for more. Unfortunately I didn't find it.
Loved the writing style. Didn't like the story.

[Wastrel · Rating 1 out of 5]

They are giving away Rich Shapero's books at SXSW and my GF got four or them at a table on the street, downtown. I started this one...

"A pack of water snakes moved as one, combing the surface. Beneath the wriggling ribbons, something pale appeared -- pale and round."

There, there, that's enough. We already know that water snakes do not come in "packs", that they are not like ribbons, they are like snakes, and the "pale and round" thing was just vaguely suggestive enough. My gorge began to rise... not from horror or fear, but from the inane and insipid writing.

I realize now I had a copy of "Two Far" once and I found it to be unreadable as well. I gave it away.

The writer no doubt has good intentions, but he's just a rich guy who publishes his own books. I will not inflict these four books on anyone else; I will destroy them.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this book as a giveaway. I'm not sure I would recommend it to my friends, but I was able to finish it by speed reading and skipping quite a bit. Honest!y, I could have read the first and last chapter and understood what happened. The characters never spoke paragraphs, only one sentence phrases to each other. I found myself getting mad at both Presden and Merle for not being more interesting. There really wasn't a point to the story except a man that didn't develop coping mechanisms in loss as a child.

[Cameron Little · Rating 2 out of 5]

Descriptions varied from a level of great detail to the simplest metaphors I have ever read. Characters were shallow and hard to care about in such a quick and simple story. The symbolism of water and trauma and grief weren’t anything to write home about. Dialogue was meh. Got this for free at the Printer’s Row book fair and I can see why this guy doesn’t sell his work. And yet, I will try my hand at the other free books I got with this one because I have a yearly goal of twelve books to read and I like a good challenge.

[Jennifer Finken · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magical

This book was unexpected and truly interesting. I wasn't sure what I was getting as a Goodreads giveaway winner, and this was a beautiful story about a man that lost his twin early on and had to go through an emotional journey in his dreams to come to terms with who he is and where he's going. At times I wished the author had made it more clear that I was reading his dreams but I figured it out pretty quickly. It was fantastical and moving. Enjoy!

[Pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

I rounded this up to a three. This was very confusing and hard to follow. Things happen awfully fast in the first chapter and I was struggling to keep up. I even felt like I had skipped a few pages! I liked that it took place in Amsterdam. The parts about the dike were interesting. I won a copy of this on goodreads for my opinion.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wasn't sure what to expect based on the reviews of this book, but I can honestly say it was a five star read for me. This is the first of Rich Shapero's books that I've read, and I've since gone on to read more.

I loved the vivid imagery throughout the story. It begins in the Louisiana bayou and the scenes painted are magical. A tragedy occurs which leads to the destruction of a family, and an emotional journey that one twin, Presden, takes into his adult life. Presden starts having some very strange, hallucinogenic dreams about his twin Delphine, whilst trying to work as a hydrological engineer and have a relationship with his partner Merle whilst learning that he's going to be a father. I thought it was beautifully written and is definitely one of those stories that can transport you away from wherever you're reading it.

This was a quick and easy read and the plot flowed very nicely. You can also read this book in conjunction with the app Too Far Media!

[Megan Westcott · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book felt quite one dimensional with a lack of a clear storyline. The writing style itself was interesting, and I appreciate getting different perspectives of what grief looks and feels like for others. I was hoping to see Presden be able to have a further detachment of sorts from his sister and the tragic childhood trauma that occurred, but it seemed to constantly be overtaking his life.

I think the scenario of the dike highlights how sometimes with grief we have to let it out before it impacts those in our life or even further. The dike being built by previous generations was reminiscent to me of how generational trauma continues to affect us until we decide to be the cycle breaker.

[Adriana Silva · Rating 4 out of 5]

The relationship between the twins and the grieving reminded me of an episode of Cabinet of Curiosities by Guillermo Del Torre. I received this in a giveaway and I was excited to read it but I found it hard to finish. The characters hardly spoke to each other and the setting felt more descriptive than their relationship. This book wasn’t my cup of tea but I do recognize the writing was well done compared to the plot.

[Jasmine · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a little weird off the rip, but I had high hopes for it. A lot of the book set up for Presden learning to live without his sister and make the choices that are morally right to him, but the book ends with him being unable to let go and his decisions meaning nothing. I feel like there was a lot of weird sibling stuff that kind of gave me the ick?

[Jodi Olson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book in a giveaway.
I'm not sure how I feel about this book. It was good enough to finish but I felt like I was missing a moral to the story. I think it will take awhile to really sink in.

[Amanda Estes · Rating 1 out of 5]

Goodreads giveaway

I cannot even describe this book. It was more of a short story that made no sense at all. I finished it but honestly if it had been much longer than it was I would not have.

[Sara Ostrowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to finish this book so bad. I wanted to know how it ended from the first few pages. Kinda got a little weird between the twins, but I couldn’t have expected the ending and how the title plays into it so well.

[Daniel Pineda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Was given this book and two others by the same author for free walking out of class on campus. Oedipus complex but between siblings, very weird + plus the plot was less than half baked and really poorly written. Do NOT recommend

[Mel Ortiz Alvarez · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I found the writing clunky and disjointed, the story behind the words was beautiful. I liked how the author tied in the dream world with the reality happening around the main character. Though a bit cliché in premise, I think the poetic execution of the work makes it noteworthy.

[Erika Ford · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice

I received this book in a giveaway and overall it was a nice read. It seemed like a short read but again just a nice read.

[Eleanor Fostars]

Meh

[Stacey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Weird, very weird

[Sheryl Paul]

I received this book in a giveaway, so didn't really know what to expect. The book was interesting, if not strange. I had trouble putting it down. Strange but interesting.

[Ellison · Rating 3 out of 5]

'swamp people' twins, one is lost, the survivor grows up and has bad dreams.

[Noah Lambe · Rating 4 out of 5]

little weird but well written

[Dani Elliott · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was genuinely insulting.

[Lydia Nagel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Found this book hard to follow.

[Chris Montez · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just don't know...

[Harrison Eckert · Rating 2 out of 5]

There’s a reason they gave this one out for free.

[Chanler Bryant · Rating 1 out of 5]

terrible.

[Emily Kay · Rating 1 out of 5]

If I could give this less than 1 star I would, there are no redeeming factors to this book. The story is boring and the writing is bad.

[Lina · Rating 1 out of 5]

Had potential but the characters were one-dimensional, not relatable, and it was overall terrible writing. It was unnecessarily difficult to piece together the plot in the beginning. I found it absurd how the characters had only monotonic one or two word response conversations like it was a competition to see who could be the most ambiguous. The characters introduced in the beginning just all died off like insects in the first chapter, which made me laugh. Oh gosh, I couldn't continue. Looks like I won't be seeing what dreams Preston had! :p