Hi everyone! Today I’m reviewing Out of Sight, Out of Time by Ally Carter! This is the fifth and penultimate book in Cater’s Gallagher Girl series. If you’ve missed my previous reviews, feel free to go back and read them!
Per usual I’ll start with a spoiler free review and then give a warning before I start talking about spoilers. I’ll put a photo of the book cover before and after the spoilers too.
So the story starts out four months after the previous book left off. Cammie wakes up only to learn that she doesn’t remember her summer break at all. The last thing she remembers is leaving the Gallagher Academy so that no one else would get hurt because of her.
While every effort is made to make Cammie feel safe at school, Cammie is consumed by the desire to learn what happened to her while she was missing. Although everyone that Cammie cares about now reside within the Academy walls she feels alone as her friends are mad at her for leaving them behind, her mom and aunt continue to keep things from her, her sort-of boyfriend is spending time with her best friend, and her favorite teacher is still in a deep coma. Carter writes Cammie’s despair in such a raw way that it’s easy to understand how she feels. It’s very reminiscent of Harry Potter and how Harry feels in his journey, particularly his fifth and sixth years at Hogwarts.
The crew around her remains the same. However they all act very differently around her now. Bex is very angry at Cammie and is quite rude to her all the time. She and Zach have also gotten close which is uncomfortable for all three. Liz is her normal scientist self so she asks Cammie questions that’s she warned not to ask repeatedly but it’s clear that she cares about Cammie and is more relieved than angry. I thought Macey had the most level-headed response. She was angry but still looked out for Cammie and was truthful with her throughout the way. She was the one that explained that they were so openly angry at her because she was home, and they hadn’t been able to feel that way before as they weren’t sure if she would be.
Cammie’s mother, Rachel, and her aunt, Abby, both were against Cammie remembering her time away but ultimately did what they could to help as well. The story was a bit too unbelievable that Cammie would be allowed back to school so quickly and then be allowed to investigate as much as she did upon her return but it is quite exciting to watch it all unfold that way.
Throughout the story Cammie works to regain her memories and a feeling of normalcy. But even as she tries she knows that it’s likely she won’t feel normal again as she continues to delve deeper into unsolved mysteries and well-kept secrets.
I’ll be heading into spoilers next so if you don’t want to be spoiled just skip to the second photo of the book cover!
I think the most annoying part of the story was that we spent most of it investigating past events. While this is a teen book and the author likely couldn’t go into details of torture, it was irritating that we couldn’t just see the story unfold naturally and instead had to wait for Cammie to uncover it and retrace her steps. However Carter did it pretty well and clearly had this set up for ages as the small details were presented. The circus part of Cammie’s previous report was very well done and I was surprised to see that level of forsight was put into the writing.
Like most teenagers, Cammie doesn’t know what she wants. She spends most of the story obsessed with regaining her memories despite warnings that it may not be a good idea and tries to convince everyone that she needs to remember. Once she does, she then thinks that it may be better not remembering. At the end it’s nice to see her finally learn that lesson as she and her friends prepare for winter break. But she is finally seeming to get good at the skills she needs to know, even if she just needs them to spy on herself. Ultimately I think that Cammie might find herself unemployable at this rate by the time she graduates but that’s a worry for another day.
I found that her balance between characters was much better in this book but that may be because everyone had such small parts compared to what they had before. Most of the book was solely Cammie, and the characters seemed to take turns finding her sleepwalking and such. Like usual, I would have loved to get more from the other characters (such as Macey, aka my favorite) but they did have great parts.
Zach is now a student at the Academy so he helps Cammie quite a bit and it was nice to see him support Cammie as he has in the past. Bex finally comes around and jumps into action when needed and Liz is always prepared with her research and even weapons. I loved that Macey finally caught up with the other girls and how she flaunts her contributions to her team (i.e. points to herself and says “jet” a lot, I love it).
Rachel and Abby continue to support Cammie and her adventures although really as the adults in the group they should know better. Still, they take Cammie seriously as well as her friends. Townsend is a welcome appearance as he has also chosen to help Cammie and it was so nice to see Mr. Solomon wake up at last. Cammie was so worried that he’d be disappointed in her for getting caught, and to be honest so was I but he then got distracted with the necklace. Still, I’ll be more disappointed if he doesn’t give her a lecture in the next book at least.
I’m not quite sure how Carter will wrap the entire Circle story line up in one more book. As I’ve mentioned before, she only has about 300 pages per book and the characters themselves spoke about how long it would take to take down the Circle. My guess is that she’ll just have Cammie take on Zach’s mother and then hint that Cammie will take down the entire organization next but we’ll have to wait and see I suppose. I’ve already requested the book from the library so hopefully it gets to me soon!
And that’s my review on the story! Let me know if you’ve read this book or series, and what you thought of it if you did!
Thanks for reading!
Pamela
Follow me on social media!
Instagram | Youtube | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Bloglovin‘ |Pinterest | Email |Snapchat: StarringPamela |
Share this:
