from typing import List


def get_instance_state(client, instance_id) -> List:
    """Get the state of an EC2 instance."""
    reservations = client.describe_instances(Filters=[]).get("Reservations")
    instance_info = [
        {ins["InstanceId"]: ins["State"]["Name"]}
        for res in reservations
        for ins in res["Instances"]
        if instance_id == ins["InstanceId"]
    ]
    instance_state = [
        list(ins_state.values())[0] for ins_state in instance_info
    ][0]
    return instance_state