This book has been a great reading experience. Thanks to the author and the publisher for bringing this book to life.

A thought provoking book best read in solitude with nature. I absolutely love that the author speaks without judgment. She just speaks calmly about what she has experienced. I really do wonder how this would be, 20 or more years from now, when a young person would read this. I highly recommend this book to just about anyone.

If You Exist is an intelligent view of the world today as seen by a reader of the future. Lillian Moats has done a brilliant job of painting the picture of the world today and everything that is worrying about it from the lens of someone who would probably look at the present day as a significant historical moment. She has tried to explain things in the most objective way possible, but you can see hints of bias here and there. I truly enjoyed the play with time as a construct and the uncertainty that the author expresses about the reader.

Overall, it is quite an impactful book that makes you think about who we want to be seen as your future generations and re-evaluate your behaviour and attitude towards important topics like climate change.

I personally did not appreciate a few parts where she takes the trouble of explaining some simple concepts to the future reader on one hand while on the other, she assumes that the reader will easily understand some complex ideas.

I would give a 3 on 5 rating, and would highly recommend you to pick it up. Would love to see more from the author!

This book uses a creative format to express the existential concerns of the author. The book is written as a kind of “note in a bottle” to a reader in the distant future, that may or may not exist. The author uses some of her own terminology to describe the current conditions in the world as she sees them, and wonders about how things might change over time. She wonders if the world might be very different for the future reader, and attempts to describe the current world in a way that the future reader might be able to understand. There are 17 short chapters, with the entire book being less than 100 total pages.

This is certainly not a politically neutral book, as the author makes it quite clear how she feels about certain issues and what ideologies she agrees with. She does not use the more commonly used current terms like “left vs right” or “liberal vs conservative”; but instead chooses the terminology of “Gatherers vs Hunters”. It is still quite obvious who she is referring to in each group, as she explains the differences between the type of people she calls “Gatherers” (which she seems to be a part of), and the less inclusive “Hunters”, who focus on profit and oppressing people that don't look like them.

There is not much subtlety here; this is more of a cathartic writing exercise, as the author mentions this process might help her deal with some depression about the state of the world. You can certainly feel her frustration and concern as she describes current events like the pandemic, immigration issues, climate change, and police brutality; writing as if she is explaining these concepts to someone in the future who might not be aware of what life was like during this current era.

Overall, I thought that this was a fairly creative way of expressing the author's concerns and feelings, without being TOO offensive to people that might have different opinions. However, it probably goes without saying, that if you tend to be on the conservative side of the political spectrum in America, you might find this book to be annoying.

A very interesting idea which the author delivers beautifully. It will not appeal to everyone - perhaps a bit too honest for some - but will make everyone who does read it think.

If You Exist by Lillian Moats

Thanks to Netgalley I have this opportunity to post this review.

The book “If You Exist” is an interesting concept. It is, as the author describes, like a “message in a bottle” to future humans many generations from now... if they exist. But “If You Exist” is really a message to all humans whether living now or in the future.

Moats thoughtfully and painfully describes her greatest sorrows and worries of today and the distant tomorrows. She worries about climate change, racism, pandemics, technical progress and more. But Moats is not just expressing her worries to what form of human may exist in the future, she is begging humans of today to solve these issues before they end us.

The last chapter ends with an intriguing and hopeful scenerio. Worth the read to find out what outcome she might imagine.

This little book moved me almost to tears. While it was a bit too on the nose sometimes, there is no reason to pretend that things shouldn’t be this obvious. We need a warning. I will be adding this to one of my courses in 2022. It comes out too late for me to add it in 2021. My senior seminar students need to read this, think about this, and process what is happening here.