Lata's Reviews > The Electric State

Nineteen-year-old Michelle, and her companion, robot Skip, drive through a damaged western US, which is full of relics and ghosts. Massive, dead battleships litter the landscape, and there are huge, ambulatory drones, and, most chillingly, people everywhere wearing neurocasters, large VR headsets, who are sitting or standing motionless, unaware of anything around themselves.
Michelle gradually relates the unhappy story of her childhood and later foster care. We don’t know immediately where she’s going or why, but it’s clearly important she get there. She’s driven and hurting, and she’s surrounded by ghosts, addiction, and death.
Simon Stålenhag's artwork is a mix of breathtaking and horrifying, while the story is so bleak, including its gut punch ending.
I absolutely loved it.