Imperfect Creatures
Diachroneity Books (November, 2025)
Reviewed by Christina Persaud
Clare doesn’t reach her father’s funeral unscathed, no matter how many times she tries. She crashes her car into a tree, a hitchhiker, a deer… Stuck in a strange, infinite time loop, Clare finds herself reliving the same horrific scenes over and over again. However, when she meets a woman named Jack, she begins to unravel the threads of their stories in a desperate attempt to escape. What she discovers is something monstrous and straight out of Lovecraftian lore.
Joe Butler’s latest book, Imperfect Creatures, offers readers a mind-bending experience into the vast unknown. A visual delight accompanies this beautifully told story about a young woman confronting her tragic past. Tackling trauma, grief, and the human condition, Imperfect Creatures wades deep into the cosmic universe for answers. Will Clare ever find peace? Or will she be trapped in a never-ending cycle of remembrance, never to be the same?
It all starts at home, or rather, The House – an eldritch creature hellbent on collecting our sorrows.
The nature of the story is heavy. Butler expertly conveys experiences like PTSD, Complicated Grief, and Trauma Recovery with an empathetic approach. How does one move on after suffering heart-wrenching loss? Is it even possible? Clare can’t help but feel that death looms over her own life, and may be waiting right around the corner for her as well.
“There’s also the inarticulate ghost of a nightmare inside me. That uneasy relief of being left in the wake of some nebulous terror that’s swept through me, leaving only the dry channels that it’s carved through my body. This is what PTSD feels like.” – Imperfect Creatures, Joe Butler
I found Imperfect Creatures to be a mesmerizing dance between wonderful prose and creativity. The experimental writing style reminded me of ‘House of Leaves’ by Mark Z. Danielewski, and the book itself was an artistic surprise in its expressive formatting. For those who’ve experienced grief, the story is validating. To others, it is a horror-filled cosmic ride. But together, Imperfect Creatures is an impressive feat in horror literature, and one readers won’t soon forget.
Imperfect Creatures is available everywhere books are sold.
Joe Butler is a writer based in London. He has published two other novels – Of All Possibilities and Strange Days in the House of August. Imperfect Creatures is Diachroneity Books’ first published novel in the horror genre. Find Joe Butler online at www.writelikeashark.com, home of the Haunted Hotel Project.
