Reviewed by Lee Ashford for Readers' Favorite

Fauxpocalypse is a collection of 13 stories written by 11 different authors… including a 13-year-old girl with a bright future ahead of her. What sets this apart from a “normal” short story collection is that each story is about a specific person or group of people, and how they individually cope with their knowledge that a massive comet is on a collision course with the Earth. What would you do if all the experts had agreed the comet would smash into and totally destroy the Earth on a specific date and time? Would you continue life as you had known it? Would you try to live out some fantasy, perhaps one that would shame you horribly if life was not about to end? Would you seek the comfort of home and hearth? Become religious? Kill yourself? There are as many possibilities as there are people.

Fauxpocalypse begins with a scenario set up for the subsequent stories to expand upon. The resulting collection is a masterpiece depicting human behavior in a dozen different ways. These stories are very believable, because you know people who would respond the same way as the characters therein. You may even recognize yourself. There are no zombies, vampires, or werewolves in this collection. The only monsters are humans, and some are frighteningly horrendous. The many writers contributing to this collection have each done a superb job of creating unique characters and situations to populate their fated world. The concept behind this impressive collection is a fascinating one… particularly since I’m intentionally NOT telling you about one very significant fact which colors the entire collection. Fauxpocalypse is one apocalyptic short story collection you really must read; it is head and shoulders about the rest.