Review by Frank Plowright

The future as envisaged by Inés Estrada is a place only corporate executives would want to be. Pollution has ravaged the planet, there are no more animals, companies intrude into every aspect of life and few of them employ people any more. What’s left of humanity now lives on the borders of the arctic region.

Eliza and Charly are happy in each other’s company, but represent a society where happiness is rare and most people seem to live aimless lives with all creativity being virtual. She uses technology to make a living as an online sex performer, which is lucrative as virtual online entertainment is all that’s available with people rarely able to be outside for sustained periods. Those sustained periods are spent online, with adopting hybrid animal identities a common practice. However, when Eliza’s online presence is hacked she’s unable to use security features to delete what seems to be an extremely persistent stalker.

Estrada’s dystopian extrapolation about the way society is heading doesn’t make for cheery reading, but that’s not the intention, which is to present food for thought to the online generation. The opening sequence suggests relatively limited drawing skills, but the deeper into Alienation one goes, the more that’s proved wrong, with the relatively primitive style assigned to the reality of life as it is for Eliza and Charly. When they visit other environments or when advertising intrudes in their lives Estrada employs a different style. Design is a strength and decorative patterns are a feature of some more disturbing elements.

It’s a fair way into Alienation before Estrada arrives at the crisis point, and as so much has been almost playful despite the bleakness, the revelation of there being far more to the supposed stalker than anyone might have presumed instantly switches the tone. By then we’ve assimilated both the society and Eliza’s views on how things are, so the revelation is a shocker for her. And if much of what’s commonplace will strike today’s readers as sinister, that’s nothing compared to what drops.

Although set in the future, Alienation has much to say about our world and how we’re slipping into what’s coming. It can be seen as either depressing acceptance or more positively highlighting the ability of humanity to adapt and survive as represented by the strength of the relationship between Eliza and Charly. This is quirky and individual and well worth your time.