Gone Before You Knew Me – Renate Wildermuth

I was fading myself but didn’t have the luxury of disappearing. He got out, standing behind the open door. “Give up?” he called to me. I could hear the hopeful note in his voice. He still didn’t know me. I wiped my mouth, shook my head, and ran some more. We ended up back at the school. The sun had risen. The world had taken on its hard edges again. We went down to the range.

He put on ear protection and napped, while I fired his 9mm until I couldn’t hold it up anymore. When Axel was rested, we sparred, right there in the range on the mats meant for shooters lying prone. I would have given anything to lie down. My fists felt like they weighed twenty pounds each. By the time we were done, I felt like I was pushing my hands through thick mud.

“Give up?” Axel asked after he’d knocked me to the mat for the umpteenth time. Lack of sleep is proven to diminish cognitive skills, motor skills, and things like place-keeping. I could no longer count. I didn’t have any energy left for talking or shaking my head. I pushed myself up.

Gravity had the consistency of quicksand. I swung at Axel like I was swatting a fly. My own momentum would have taken me down if he hadn’t caught me in a hold that felt awfully like a hug. I gave in to it. “Forget what you see in the movies about torture. You don’t need high-tech gadgets and secret lairs. Low-tech is just as effective. Maybe more so. There are so many ways of obtaining information.” He started a list.

“Sleep deprivation, light deprivation…” I slept through the rest of what he was saying. “Hey.”

Praise for Gone Before You Knew Me Gone Before You Knew Me Copyright © 2026 Renate Wildermuth All rights reserved. Dedication THE END Subject Name: Talya X. Record Group No. 2 Record Group No. 3 Record Group No. 4 Record Group No. 5 Record Group No. 6 Record Group No. 7 Record Group No. 8 Record Group No. 9 Record Group No. 10 Record Group No. 11 Record Group No. 12 Record Group No. 13 Record Group No. 14 Record Group No. 15 Record Group No. 16 Record Group No. 17 Record Group No. 18 Record Group No. 19 Epilogue and New Beginnings Acknowledgments OceanofPDF.com Praise for Gone Before You Knew Me “Gone Before You Knew Me is more than a great YA novel.

It is a great any-age novel. Wildermuth’s characters crackle off the page, flawed humanity in all its glory. The tone is fast and smart, a present-day cousin to Raymond Chandler or Megan Abbott, with whom she shares a great eye for detail. Like her story’s protagonist Talya, Wildermuth is what Shakespeare would have called a first- class “snapper up of unconsidered trifles,” and an author with the skill to weave those tiny, telling moments into a riveting story of school corridors and spy rings.”

—Brendan Foley, bestselling author of Under the Wire “Renate Wildermuth has the recipe for a truly great book. She starts with dynamic characters, adds intriguing mysteries, whisks in radical plot twists and a full cup of killer action sequences, then tops off her marvelous concoction with delightful doses of clever humor, perceptive insights, and the perfect pinch of romance. Gone Before You Knew Me is an absolutely winning read from first sentence to last, an irresistible world I’d eagerly return to.”

—Neil Connelly, author of Into the Hurricane “Not your everyday outsider girl surviving high school story–not by a football field. Twists and intrigue speed down the hallways, along with teen angst and humor. Talya’s voice doesn’t just sing throughout but resonates with life, questions, and all that comes with growing up.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: cf545d2c907c2cb7
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 1,120,367 bytes (1.068 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• ISBN: 9781646036844, 9781646036851
• Pages: 173
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 291.45 minutes
• Total Words: 58,291
• Total Characters: 310,248
• Average Words per Page: 336.94
• Average Characters per Page: 1793.34

Most Frequent Words

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