Literature / Foreshadowing

Books with their own pages

Nineteen Eighty-Four:
- Julia, albeit unintentionally. "I bet that picture's got bugs behind it."
- Under the spreading chestnut tree, I sold you and you sold me...
- O'Brien telling Winston and Julia about how they will risk being captured, tortured, and vaporized after joining the Brotherhood.
- Winston once had a dream where he was walking in a pitch-black room, then heard O'Brien on his side say "We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness". Years after that dream, Winston is certain that O'Brien is a heretic just like him, and that eventually they will meet in a place where they will be free. Winston meets O'Brien in the place where there is no darkness, but the place and O'Brien are nothing like Winston thought they would be. The place where there is no darkness is the Ministry of Love, where dissidents are tortured until they believe in the Party, and where there is no darkness because there are no windows and the lights are always on, to the point where it's impossible to tell if it's midday or midnight. O'Brien is not a rebel, but a mastermind of the inner party, and instead of freeing Winston's soul, O'Brien oversees his torture.
- In the Ministry of Love, Winston sees one of his fellow prisoners get called to go to Room 101. As he frantically resists being dragged to his fate, he tries to convince them to punish someone else instead of him, thereby prefiguring what Winston ends up doing. In fact, just as the prisoner tries to sacrifice the only individual who had shown kindness towards him (the other prisoner who had offered to share his last piece of bread), Winston ends up sacrificing the only person who loved him, Julia.
- The last two verses of the arc rhyme "Oranges and Lemons": "Here comes a candle to light you to bed." In the darkness that is Airstrip one, the bed in which he is free to love whom he loves in the room where he can think what he thinks comes as a light to Winston from Mr. Charrington. The line immediately after that goes "Here comes a chopper to chop off your head.". Mr. Charrington is a member of the Thought Police. There was a telescreen hidden behind a carving in the room the entire time. Because of that room, Winston and Julia are arrested, tortured until they lose all personhood, and then left destined to die by gunshot.
- One edition of the book features a rat on the cover. Rats are Winston's worst fear, and threatening to unleash half-starved rats on him to eat him alive is what makes Winston do what he thinks the party can never make him do: stop him from loving Julia. He wants the rats to eat her alive instead and he means it, and then he can never see her the same way again.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea:
- The first time he sees Captain Nemo, Aronnax instinctively trusts him because Beauty Equals Goodness, but later reevaluates his beliefs when it seems that man is going to leave them starving in a cell. Cue the finale of the novel…
- Looking at the marvels of the South Pole, Ned Land says that These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know… just next chapter, the Nautilus is Almost Out of Oxygen.
- Ned Land, Great White Hunter, is ashamed when Ubermensch Captain Nemo slaughters a group of sperm whales in a terrible massacre. At the end of the novel, Nemo will commit slaughter again…
4 Kids in 5E and 1 Crazy Year: The Reveal that Ms. Hill's boyfriend is local boxing legend Vinny the Hammer is subtly foreshadowed by how she mentions they visit his grandmother at the nursing home where Max's mom works, where it's mentioned Vinny's grandmother lives, and she gives her students boxing tickets as class prizes.

Accel World:
- Haru once says that "I want to fly up." Guess what Silver Crow's signature ability is...
- Notice how Chiyu's 'healing' ability depletes her target's special gauge? She's really reversing time, rather than healing them. On top of that, whenever she uses her ability, you hear the sound of bells, similar to those of a clock, and on at least one occasion clockwork gears are visible inside the cannon itself.
- In the animated adaptation, as Rust Jigsaw is entering the net café at the end of episode 21 he passes by a poster of a character dressed as Snow White. Given who leads the Acceleration Research Society and that person's relation to Kuroyukihime (Princess Snow Black)…
- When Crikin hands her the Mystical Reins Enhanced Armament, Black Lotus rejects it, saying she has no use for it. He insists, including mentioning some enemies that could be tamed with it( flying horses). Mana also suggests that she would soon have need of it. In the next to last episode, her Big Damn Heroes moment comes with her riding in on, you guessed it, a flying horse.
- In the first volume, Taku casually mentions Haru getting "the Chii special" for Lunch (the lunch that Haru had refused), even though he shouldn't have known about that. Chiyu later denies telling Taku about Haru being bullied, (something she'd learned about from Haru, but he insisted that she not tell Taku). Both of these foreshadow that Taku has a backdoor program in Chiyu's Neurolinker and is spying on her.
- When discussing her "parent"- the person who installed Brain Burst on her Neurolinker, which requires a close relationship in the real world- Kuroyukihime mentions how she utterly hates that person, but due to the nature of their relationship, she can't fight against them. When later talking about the three healer types- Chiyuri, someone who left the Accelerated world and the White King- Kuroyukihime says she doesn't want Haruyuki to get anywhere near the latter individual. As you can likely tell from Kuroyukihime's similar disdain for both individuals, they're actually one and the same, as White Cosmos, the White King, is Kuroyukihime's parent.
Adrian Mole: In some of the books, this is done with occasional illustrations, appearing about every three months. Some examples are:
- Noddy smeared with black paint marks, when Adrian decides to paint over his Noddy wallpaper.
- A Charles and Diana tea towel stuck to the front door, for the Royal Wedding.
- Adrian's packed suitcase, before he runs away.
Agatha H. and the Airship City: Othar's comment upon being told by Agatha that she is not The Baron's Beautiful But Misguided Daughter: "Are you sure? I'm usually very good at spotting the offspring of evil geniuses."
Agatha H. and the Clockwork Princess: The (wasped) messenger from Sturmhalten is identified as a Count of the Blitzengaard family, making him a relative of Tarvek, and Martellus (whose appearance is a long-way off in the books). That he is wasped is also a minor factor for the next book.
Agatha H. and the Voice of the Castle:
- The Corbettite Railways get a mention, with their having a station only a kilometre from Mechanicsburg, though the railways and the order do not make an appearance yet. The man who developed The Lion was one of their members as well.
- When Agatha trips on the stairs leading to Castle Heteorodyne, and Zola picks her up, the narration notes that despite her very pink outward appearance, she does so with surprising strength.
- During the bar fight, not only is Higgs the only one not fighting, but the Jägers are giving him a very wide berth. Even when he throws a chair into the fray, they ignore him. Not to mention he's in suspiciously good shape for a man who went through all the nonsense he'd gone through just two days prior.
- A subtle one: It's been more-or-less confirmed outside the comic/novels that Gil and Zeetha are unknowingly brother and sister. When they first meet, she pinches at her nose while thinking, a mannerism that in turn makes a slightly-puzzled Gil think of his father.
Agatha H. and the Siege of Mechanicsburg:
- The sideplot with Zeetha and Higgs foreshadows a few things that had only been recently revealed in the comic by the time the book was released. In addition to Higgs being a Jaeger and in the employ of the Heterodynes, Higgs notes that Mama Gkika did something to Zeetha in order to heal her, and is pleased that she immediately shows loyalty to Agatha. She was actually given the Jaegerdraught, theoretically transforming her into a Jaeger.
- While using the equipment at the top of the Heterodyne Observation Tower, Agatha catches a glimpse of The Awful Tower in Paris, a place she has no reason or motivation to visit yet.
And Then There Were None: Soon after arriving to a manor with several others, one of the characters goes into his room and takes a bath while pondering what he's going to do next: "Warm steaming water - tired limbs - presently a shave - a cocktail dinner. And after - ?" He dies during the dinner.
Angela Nicely: Early on in "Matchmaker!", Miss Darling says she has hay fever. At the end, it’s revealed that this is why her eyes were red and she hadn’t been crying after all.
Animorphs is full of this, usually in the form of remarks the characters make. Read the series. Then read it again. You will be amazed.
Here are only a select few examples from only the first book:
- Marco: "We'd be totally famous. We'd get to be on Letterman for sure."
  At the end of the series, they're practically the most famous people on Earth. Marco not only gets on Letterman, he even gets his own show.
- Visser Three: "[...] And then I'll be Visser One."
  He does get promoted to Visser One near the end of the series.
- Jake (as narrator): "I think maybe the Andalite meant even more to Tobias than to the rest of us."
  Elfangor, the Andalite in question, is later revealed to be Tobias' father.
- Marco: "Maybe it's your own brother you'll end up destroying."
  Jake: "Yes, maybe that's what will happen."
  Jake ends up ordering his cousin to kill his brother.
- Jake: "Tobias! Get a grip. Don't start eating mice just because you're in a hawk's body. What's next? Roadkill?"
  Tobias ends up eating mice exactly because he gets stuck in a hawk body. He also resorts to roadkill when he has bad hunting luck.
- Cassie: "What are we going to do with dolphin morphs?"
  They acquire dolphin morphs shortly after, and use them on quite a number of underwater missions.
- Jake (at Tobias): "Too late for you to morph back now."
  Uttered in reference to the strategic situation, right before Tobias passes the time limit and gets stuck in his hawk body.
- Also done without words in the first book. Tobias is the one who has the deepest connection with Elfangor, who stays with him the longest. He does not know why, but we find out why in The Andalite Chronicles, with the parental reveal.
- The Ellimist Chronicles begins and ends with the Ellimist visiting a dying Animorph. He admits that he did not cause him/her to be an Animorph, and that it was random chance. According to Megamorphs 4, this means that this can only be Jake or Rachel. It turns out to be Rachel.
- Most of the information about Z-Space's finer workings comes from the books narrated by Marco. Marco's Dad is the first human to discover the existence of Z-Space and build a transmitter.
There's plenty of this to go around in An Outcast in Another World. Notable examples including the cryptic note left in Rob’s pocket in Chapter 1, the hidden Skill on his Character Sheet that has yet to reveal itself, and the continued references to Earth culture that keeping popping up in a fantasy world that is supposedly separate from it.
Anxious People:
- During an early interview with one of the witnesses, Jack just assumes the bank robber to be a male, prompting the question, "What, so only men can be bank robbers?" Basically handing the "twist" to the reader on a silver platter. The bank robber is a woman. Also note that the narration never actually refers to the bank robber as "he" or "him," just "the bank robber."
- While talking to Anna-Lena and Julia in the closet, Estelle snoops in one of the chests and finds some bottles of wine. She says that she would do the same thing in her own home. It is Estelle's home. This is also foreshadowed in her confidence that the fridge still has food in it, even though the apartment is for sale.
Area 51: Several hints that humanity was actually created by the Airlia occur before the revelation, for instance Che Lu mentioned that splicing their DNA with ours should be impossible absent a close biological connection.
In the last book of Artemis Fowl, when watching Gobdaw's soul move on to the afterlife in bliss, Artemis wonders when that happens to them, if they would react the same.
Isaac Asimov:
- "The Callistan Menace": Whitefield tells a story about Magnet Worms from Europa. They're little things (about six inches long) that can manipulate magnetic fields, giving them the power to kill from a distance. Knowing how the Magnet Worms work gives the crew a solution to the unnamed Callistan Menace.
- "The Dead Past": Potterley's distaste for cigarettes is a reference to his past; he may have left a lit cigarette that caused his house to burn down and kill his daughter.
- Foundation Series' "The Mule": Several plot twists are implied or stated explicitly before they become clearly revealed. The Mule being a Mutant is mentioned as early as the fourth chapter. Guesses that the Seldon Plan cannot account for those is mentioned soon after and they get paid off in "Fall of the Foundation". Ebling Mis makes some guesses about the Mule's physical appearance, in contradiction to Magnifico's description, during "The Search Begins". Which fleets are defeated in a Curb-Stomp Battle, and which win against the Mule, are a clue to his Psychic Powers and alternate identity. Even the Mule's manipulation of Toran is apparent once you know what you're looking for, but appeared to be natural in the original context.
Early in Aunt Dimity Goes West, Bill marshals many arguments to convince Lori to vacation in Colorado with the boys and Annelise; among them, he cites the many wonderful activities available to the boys and says, "They'll have a tale or two to tell their friends when they start school in the fall, that's for sure." Yes, and some of those tales will prove more exciting than even he bargained for—so exciting that they prompt the school's headmistress to summon Bill and Lori for a conference early in Aunt Dimity Vampire Hunter.

In A Bad Day for Voodoo, after Adam gets a voodoo doll made of Tyler to ensure that he won't tell the cops about the voodoo doll Adam got made of Mr. Click, Tyler asks him how he paid for another one when they cost 80 dollars, since Adam was out of money. Adam doesn't answer. As it turns out, Esmeralda the doll-maker made the doll for free because Adam is The Chosen One.
Best Served Cold: "Be nice to come out of this with both his eyes."
BIONICLE:
- The 2003 book Tales of the Masks is full of foreshadowing, hinting at a mysterious, forgotten past and an ancient city called Metru Nui. The following two years focused entirely on this. Later, in the '05 book Time Trap, Toa Vakama received a vision that faintly hinted at the '06 storyline.
- Earlier than that, the Bahrag queens in the 2002 book Beware the Bohrok compare their minions, the titular Bohrok to the Toa heroes, calling them their brothers. Some years later, it's revealed that the Bohrok and the Bahrag weren't evil at all, they had only been serving the will of Physical God Mata Nui, the same as the Toa. Later still, we learn that the Bohrok were once Matoran, the same "species" that the Toa belong to.
Lucy Pavlov of Blonde Bombshell decides that her amnesia of everything past five years ago is either the work of her enemy or something she had done to herself, with good reason. Turns out it's because she's not actually human, but a bomb.
In Broken Gate, this is rather subtle at first, but it can be seen with Nezumi's surroundings being dismal and her Floral Motifs being lycoris flowers, a flower being associated with death and despair, however, it becomes more obvious when Miyako's "GO! Go and never return but, remember, if you seek her out, then you will have killed her." If any of those things aren't indications, this story has a Downer Ending.
Bruce Coville's Book of... Ghosts II: In George Pinkerton and the Bedtime Ghost, a family reveals that they're being haunted by a shrieking spirit whenever they try to tuck their daughter in at night. As they first explain the scenario, their little girl chimes in with one phrase — "No story" — meaning that she didn't get her usual book read to her at night. That turns out to be the key to the whole problem: the ghost died before her own parents could finish reading her The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and now any attempt to read aloud in her room ends with a tantrum.

Carmilla: The evening Carmilla is taken in at the schloss, Laura, her father and her two governesses go for a walk in the moonlight, and Madame De Lafontaine opines that the intense moonlight indicates "a special spiritual activity", and underpins her claim by remarking that the windows of the schloss reflect the moonlight "as if unseen hands had lighted up the rooms to receive fairy guests". She also tells a story of how her cousin on a moonlit night dreamt of "an old woman clawing him by the cheek", and woke up with "his features horribly drawn to one side" and "never quite recover[ing their] equilibrium." Moments after, a troupe of (so we must assume) vampires stages a carriage crash in front of the schloss (vampires are ghosts, i.e. spirits, hence "a special spiritual activity"); Carmilla is taken in at the schloss (a "fairy guest" received); and finally Laura is attacked (physically and figuratively) by Carmilla, and, like the cousin's face, never recovers her former balance again.
Bokonon tells the protagonist of Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle what he would do if he were "a younger man"...such as the protagonist. It is heavily implied that John does exactly what Bokonon says. We know for a fact that he does part of it by the end of the book.
Cerberon: When George and Cerberon are discussing what to do with the bodies of two highwaymen they had just killed, Cerberon asks, "Shouldn't we bury them?" to which George replies, "No. Leave them for the carrion birds. Maybe they can carry their wretched souls up to Heaven." Later on, they meet a family of skraad, human-sized intelligent avian carrion birds who can lead lost spirits on to their afterlife. In an interesting Call-Back to George's foreshadowing statement, one of the skraad tells another character, "There is nothing in the sky for the soul. It returns to the Source and the body nourishes more life."
Use of Weapons from The Culture series by Iain Banks has a recurring motif of a chair, which at times seems to haunt Cheradenine Zakalwe. Only at the end does the reader realize the full meaning of this seemingly innocent object.
In the first chapter of Dead Souls the author mentions that Chichikov (the protagonist) is able to talk about custom officials "as if he had been one of them". Much later we'll learn that this has indeed been the case - and that he tried a big smuggle operation, which almost would've made him a rich man.

From the Deryni works by Katherine Kurtz:
- Early in The Bishop's Heir, Bishop Henry Istelyn is enthroned as Bishop of Meara in his new cathedral, which is dedicated to Saint Uriel and All Angels. Istelyn's tenure will be short, for Uriel will be paying him a visit.
- Also in The Bishop's Heir, Dhugal is found to have very strong shields which no one can account for in his known heritage. Kelson's mental touch is unbearably painful, Morgan's less so, and Duncan's even less. This makes sense later when it's revealed the Duncan is Dhugal's father, which makes Morgan also a blood relative.
- Early in The Quest for Saint Camber, Rothana asks Kelson to help encourage a love match between his squire (soon-to-be knight) Jatham Kilshane and the Princess Janniver. At the time, Kelson teases her about playing matchmaker, and she will do so again two years later for Kelson himself.
- The morning after Duncan reveals himself as Deryni by showing his aura while bestowing Dhugal's accolade, Arilan gives him a severe reprimand for doing it without discussing it with him and Cardiel. At one point, he says, "It could be worse, I suppose. You could have done it at the altar, in full pontificals. Now, wouldn't that have been a coup?" A couple of years later, Duncan will do exactly that, consecrating a new altar by extending his aura over it, with an archbishop standing at each elbow, and again while elevating the Host and the Chalice in the celebration of the basilica's new Camber chapel's first Mass.
In Destined to Lead, Resurge mentions that a 'game' wouldn't be so fun if someone breaks an arm. Later on, guess who ends up breaking a few ribs? In book one, Kajiya encounters a spiede, in book two- she gets captured by them! (Even more subtle, the first cave had jagged walls as opposed to the second's smooth ones, signifying it was unused by spiedes, the first speide was there as a messenger for the Big Bads!)
The Dinosaur Lords:
- Several people mention offhandedly the Grey Angels, part of local lore used to scare people into behaving prudishly. They're said to come down to Paradise on Crusades to cleanse the world of sin. Guess if they turn out to be real.
- Raguel's decision to go to Providence in the prologue, Violette's talk of "higher mysteries" and Longeau babbling about Fate Worse than Death awaiting followers of the Garden all build up to The Reveal that Garden's highest ranks are in cahoots with Raguel.
- Bogardius' deteriorating health, silence in the north of Providence and strange behaviour of the few people encountered there foreshadow the nature of a Grey Angel Crusade.
In the Discworld series:
- Early in Wyrd Sisters, Granny Weatherwax says "You'd have to be a born fool to be a king." By the end of the book, the court Fool has become the king. And not only that, he is a 'born fool'—his father and grandfather were Fools before him.
  - A similar one was used later in Men at Arms. It's stated that you'd have to be a fool to try breaking into the Assassin's Guild. The perpetrator actually disguises himself as a fool to do just that.
- Characters in previous City Watch books remark that there's no reason why the older but perfectly healthy Lady Sybil shouldn't be able to have children. It still takes her husband the whole length of The Fifth Elephant to get the happy hint.
- In Thief of Time there's a weird little section where Lu-Tze cuts off a Yeti's head in order to show Lobsang their ability to manipulate time and avoid death. It seems sort of out of place, especially considering they're supposed to be in a bit of a hurry to get to the city, until Lu-Tze says "I hope I'm never that desperate," at which point you are absolutely, without-a-doubt certain that by the end of the book he will be. Of course, this may also just be an example of The Law of Conservation of Detail.
- More cryptically, Death in the same novel is unable to see Lobsang Ludd. This appears to be hinting that Lobsang is immortal, until Fridge Logic reminds the reader that Death has seen plenty of other immortals before. The real reason turns out to be far stranger than that: Lobsang's life as an individual isn't destined to end with his death at all; instead, he ceases to exist as Lobsang when he merges with his other self, Jeremy Clockson.
- In Monstrous Regiment, Corporal Strappi says to the Ins-And-Outs:
  Strappi: Hands off—well, you lot wouldn't be able to find them anyway—and on with socks!
  - It's funny because Polly had just received a pair of socks from an unknown benefactor to help her more convincingly pass as a boy. By the end of the book, it's revealed that every member of their squadron, even Sergeant Jackrum, is a woman in disguise. And Jackrum was the one who gave Polly the socks, which quickly caught on.
- In A Hat Full of Sky, Tiffany thinks "When I am old, I Shall Wear Midnight".
The Divine Comedy:
- In Canto 4, Virgil tells the protagonist about how Jesus came to Limbo and took many of the Old Testament biblical figures to heaven, including Adam. Two-thirds of the way through Paradiso, our protagonist meets Adam as he describes how long he had to wait in Hell before being saved.
- Canto 5 starts with one of the lustful, who mentions her husband-murderer will be punished in a part of Hell called "Caïna." It takes until the 32nd canto for the pilgirms to arrive there and see that it's a region of the final circle where the traitors of family are punished.
- In Canto 9, Virgil tells Dante that shortly after his death, Erictho forced him to retrieve a soul from the "the circle of Judas". It turns out that he was referring to Judecca, the lowest region of the Ninth Circle of Hell which is named after Judas Iscariot.
- Halfway through Inferno, Virgil explains that all the rivers of all deposit at the bottom to form Lake Cocytus, but stops describing it since they'll get there later. Needless to say, the last circle damns traitors to suffer in the bitterly frozen Lake of Cocytus.
- One of the gluttons in Purgatory mentions his sister has ascended ahead of him into Heaven. Surely enough, the first person Dante talks to in Paradise is Piccarda, sister of the glutton.
Dragaera: A very coy example appears in Phoenix, in which Vlad asks Loiosh if Rocza is pregnant in passing. This seems innocuous at the time, except that Loiosh replies that Rocza isn't pregnant, but is "a little closer to Cawti". Turns out that Vlad should have been asking Cawti whether she was pregnant.
In the Drenai novel Waylander II: Morak, while weighing the benefits of betraying and murdering Belash, worries that he is strong enough to ignore a fatal stab wound long enough to kill Morak regardless. Later on, Belash takes out the leader of the Dark Brotherhood in exactly this manner.
The Dresden Files:
- Multiple books foreshadow the death of Harry Dresden. Prominent examples include Quintus Cassius' death curse: "DIE ALONE!", and the tombstone Harry was given as a threat by Bianca. Its epitaph: He died doing the right thing. It's not wrong.
- The fact that Harry is pregnant with the spiritual intellect created from Lash's Heroic Sacrifice in White Night was foreshadowed in the next several books with Harry having increasingly painful headaches.
- In Summer Knight, diminutive, nervous changeling Fix wales the tar out of Lloyd Slate, who would be well out of his weight class even were he not the powerful Winter Knight, with a wrench. By the end of the book, Fix becomes the new Summer Knight, designated opponent to the Winter Knight.
- Early in Blood Rites, when Harry returns the box of stolen Foo dog puppies to Brother Wang, the monk mentions that not all of the puppies are there. Since Harry finds one of them, who he dubs Mo use, hid in his car, it seems that's all... except that much later, in the short story "Zoo Day", Mouse meets his Evil Counterpart older brother, who along with Mouse's elder sister were stolen by dark forces before Harry retrieved the dogs, implied to maybe be Cowl and Kumori.
- In Dead Beat, when Harry is being tortured by Cassius, he uncharacteristically convinces himself that he'll be saved by divine intervention, hoping for the appearance of one of the Knights of the Cross. Instead, he's saved by Waldo Butters, one of the least likely heroes imaginable. Eight books later, at the end of Skin Game, Butters takes up the sword Fidelacchius to become one of the Knights.
- In Ghost Story, when Skaldi Skjeldson, one of the Einherjar, asks Butters when he's going to enter the sparring ring, his response is "About five minutes after I get a functional lightsaber." Come the climax of Skin Game, Butters gets exactly that in the form of the reforged Fidelacchius.
- Battle Ground:
  - Rudolph's Reckless Gun Usage gets brought up early on. Murphy later talks about basic gun safety with the volunteer fighters, stating that rule one is "Don't point your weapon at something you don't want dead." Murphy winds up dying as a direct result of Rudy's piss-poor trigger discipline when he has a pistol aimed at her.
  - When discussing how to crack Ethniu's defenses, it's mentioned that sufficient angelic power would be able to pierce Titanic bronze. Mab mentions that sufficient infernal power would have the same effect and that Nicodemus Archleone might be able to manage it. Sufficient infernal power winds up doing the trick. Only the Denarian in question is not Nicodemus, but John Marcone, who has secretly had Thorned Namshiel's coin since the end of Small Favor.

Earth Girl mentions that all planets colonized by humans have, in part, been chosen because their stars are less active than the Sun, as solar activity interferes with the Portal Network connecting humanity. Now, take a wild guess as to what the cause of the Handicap, which makes those who have it unable to live on any planet other than Earth, is revealed to be in Earth Star.
Elantris: Near the start there is a mention of Hrathen as the savior of Arelon, which most simply put down to simply stating his thoughts. It isn't until the end that you find out that Hrathen defects when he realizes how evil Dilaf is, and then sacrifices his own life to kill him, saving the entire joint population of both Arelon and Teod from being annihilated by the Derethi cult. One of the other main characters even says that he was their savior, calling back to the original line.
The Empirium Trilogy:
- There are several hints behind the Prophet's true identity hidden throughout the series before the reveal. One of the earliest is the voice that urges Simon to make a portal. It's described as sounding feminine and familiar to him. Since Simon has already met Ludivine by that point, it's little wonder that he can recognize it.
- When Zahra first feels Simon's presence, she remarks that his mind is so scarred that not even she can read it. This is because his mind was broken years ago by the Prophet in order to make it more difficult for Corien to read.
In the beginning of Robert Harris World War 2 spy novel Enigma, the protagonist, one of the Bletcley Park codebreakers, explains the beauty of mathematics by showing how a seemingly random string of numbers (pi) can be turned into a well-ordered sum of fractions. Later in the book he discovers the identity of the traitor when he realizes that a seemingly random string of letters in a decoded telegram is actually a list of Polish officers murdered by the Soviets.

In Dale Brown's Fatal Terrain, Brad Elliott says that he "always thought I'd buy the farm in the cockpit of a B-52 after just saving the world from thermonuclear meltdown". Guess what...
In The Fault in Our Stars, when Hazel, Gus, and Hazel's mom are on the plane, it's mentioned that Hazel and Gus pushed the play button on their movie simultaneously, but Gus's movie started before's Hazel did. This foreshadows that Gus dies later in the book: just like his movie starts first, his movie, i.e. his life, ends first.
In Fiasco, Parvis meets with a friend of Pirx's who says they are quite similar to each other, they have the same eyes. What he actually means is psychological similarity, but later in the story, Parvis-or-possibly-Pirx is being rebuilt with bits and pieces of other people, possibly including Pirx (or maybe Parvis). Yeah, bit squicky.
- Also, the story is interspersed with other short stories the characters are reading or viewing on the Holodeck. These stories tend to be about exploration of strange worlds that end in complete failures. Just like the entire novel. In what may or may not be a hint as to the real nature of the local Starfish Aliens, some of these strange worlds have eusocial insects (termites) in them. Lots and lots of insects.
Happens throughout the second part of Foundation and Empire, this part of the book being full of situations that not only hint the powers of The Mule but also wouldn't have been possible without them; the casual reader passes by without noticing anything out of place, is only when you have completed the book and start rereading it that everything makes sense.
In the Franny K. Stein book The Fran That Time Forgot, it is noted in an early chapter that the only thing more dangerous than a mad scientist is an angry one. This foreshadows Franny visiting a Bad Future where her teenage self is terrorizing the world with an army of elephant monsters, all because Franny had earlier used time travel to alter her Embarrassing Middle Name, was still laughed at for her new middle name Kaboom and worsened how much the humiliation affected her by telling her infant self that there is nothing worse than being laughed at.

Gangsta Granny:
- There are a few hints that Granny was lying about being in good health and actually has cancer.:
  - At one point, despite Granny allegedly having been given a clean bill of health, the doctor mentions that he and she were talking about "lady things".
  - When she claims to be in good health, she says, "Erm".
  - Instead of leaving the hospital normally, she abseils down the building with bedsheets.
- On a less serious note, towards the beginning, Granny has an apparent lapse of memory when allegedly recapping her exploits. This foreshadows that she made the whole thing up.
The Giver: Early on, we learn that Jonas' younger sister Lily has a stuffed toy elephant as her "comfort object", and that she believes that elephants are imaginary creatures that never existed (when he was little, Jonas had a bear, which was also supposedly imaginary). Much later in the book, Jonas receives a memory of an elephant being killed for its ivory by poachers. This is a major step in Jonas learning about the lost memory of sorrow, and it makes him realize just how much of the old world people have left behind.
From Joanne Harris's The Gospel of Loki:
- The "Characters" page at the beginning of the book contains several veiled references to events in the story.
  - Hoder is "a better shot than you might think".
  - Njörd has "nice feet".
  - Brokk is "good at sewing".
- There's also a blink-and-you'll miss it moment where Loki can be seen checking out a labourer's horse...
Go to Sleep (A Jeff the Killer Rewrite): On the evening before Halloween, Jeff smiles madly as he carves a large grin into a jack-o-lantern. On Halloween night, he carves an outstretched grin into his cheeks and his brother's.
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi:
- The story hints that Lan Wanji already recognize Wei Wuxian after the events of Mount Dafan, long before Wei Wuxian finds out that he knew.
  - When they first "meet" after Lan Wanji saves "Mo Xuanyu" from Jiang Cheng, he merely nods in acknowledgement to "Mo Xuanyu" and leaves without a further word. But after Wei Wuxian plays the flute to calm Wen Ning, Lan Wanji immediately sticks close to him like glue and his attention is purely focused on him. Whenever Wei Wuxian attempts to escape later on, Lan Wanji promptly thwarts his every attempt.
  - After encountering a dog, Wei Wuxian calls Lan Wanji by his birth name out of instinct rather than his title (like he had previously been doing). Yet Lan Wanji never questions why "Mo Xuanyu" would refer to him in such a familiar manner. Similarly, he doesn't react when Wei Wuxian clings to him out of fear, even though it is well-known that Lan Wanji doesn't like physical contact with others.
- After telling her story to the cultivators, Wei Wuxian asks Sisi why she is the Sole Survivor and who helped her escape from prison. She honestly answers that she doesn't know. Which character tends to answer questions with "I don't know"? Nie Huaisang.
- There are plenty of hints that Lan Sizhui is actually A-Yuan.
  - In Yi City, after Wei Wuxian feeds the junior disciples spicy congee, Sizhui comments that the taste is nostalgic somehow. Wei Wuxian often feed A-Yuan spicy food when he was a toddler.
  - In the same arc, when Wei Wuxian reassures Sizhui to not be afraid, he remarks that like with Lan Wanji, he feels safe around them. Sizhui subconsciously knows that "Senior Mo" is the same person who cared for him years ago.
  - When he and the other junior discples are rescued in the Second Siege arc, Sizhui comments that he knew Wei Wuxian was poor. In the past, he had called Lan Wanji "Brother Rich" while Wei Wuxian was "Brother Poor".
  - When the deceased Wen refugees return to protect Wei Wuxian from the corpses controlled by the Yin Tiger Tally, one of them, an elderly and hunched over figure, walks towards Sizhui and attempts to reach for him in a non-threatening manner. A-Yuan is said to hang around his grandmother a lot and the description of that particular corpse matches his grandmother.
The Grandmother: In-universe. More than once, the Grandmother affirms to the children that one day, she will also die. The book ends with the Grandmother passing in deep old age, surrounded by her family.
The Great Gatsby:
- A man that Nick dubs "Owl-Eyes" wrecks his car. Guess what happens with another character involving a car?
- Tom Buchanan was involved in a car incident previously … with a chambermaid in the passenger seat, revealing his infidelity. Another similar car incident later on in the book reveals adultery.

The lovely thing about the Haruhi Suzumiya novels is the anachronistic order which it's presented. There are foreshadows almost everywhere. For example, in Snow Mountain Syndrome, Kyon casually mentions a crazy ex-classmate who wanted to confess to Nagato. In the next novel, there's a story about it. The best foreshadow was from the first book, Melancholy, where Kunikuda mentioned that Kyon liked strange girls, and Kyon protests, claiming that she was just a good friend, and nothing more. In the ninth novel, Sasaki is introduced, and she IS strange enough to have her own anti-SOS Brigade.
- A truly hilarious example in the first novel. When Haruhi decides to recruit (kidnap) Mikuru into the (then unnamed) SOS Brigade, as Haruhi runs off to retrieve her, Kyon jokingly wonders if Haruhi had finally found an alien. Having run into Haruhi as she was leaving the club room, the next paragraph (only a sentence long), describes him entering the room. The very next line after that is, "Yuki Nagato was already in the club room." (From the English translation)
Heralds of Valdemar: In Brightly Burning, Kalira is wounded by an arrow, and seeing her injury motivates Lavan to become a better pyrokinetic. In the finale, she is killed by a crossbow bolt, and Lavan's resulting anger burns a forest down.
The Heroes of Olympus:
- When Reyna summons Percy to a private meeting with her in the principia, he sits in the other praetor's chair while waiting for her.
- The Mark of Athena brings up a few times the fact that all children of Athena are afraid of spiders.
A Hole in the Fence: Flammèche and Antoine invite Prune to their foster son Grisón's birthday party, even though she is not one of his closest friends; and given that both farmers finally intend to tell Grisón about her biological's mother, the presence of Prune (who did not even knew Grisón was adopted like her) at such a personal time seems really out of place. Several chapters later, it is revealed that Prune is Grisón's sister.
In Holes:
- Mr. Sir tells the kids that "This ain't a Girl Scout camp". At the end, when Camp Green Lake is shut down, it actually does become a Girl Scout camp.
- Elya tries and fails to find Madame Zeroni's son in America, but admits that he has no clue what he'd do when he did. What, carry him up a mountain and sing the pig lullaby to him? Took several generations, but that's exactly what happens with Elya's great-great-grandson and Madame Zeroni's great-great-great-grandson.
Hollow Kingdom (2019):
- In the fourth chapter, Genghis Cat mentions that he caught a Humboldt penguin. This is some time before it's confirmed that the Woodland Park Zoo animals breached containment.
- Zombified MoFos are frequently described to be jabbing and dragging their fingers on the wall or in thin air. The virus that transformed them is transmitted via electronic technology.
- The presence of broken glass is repeatedly mentioned. As it turns out, the MoFos keep smashing into glass because they're under the delusion that they’re screens.
Matthew Reilly's Hover Car Racer has several bits of foreshadowing for important races. In professional races, the steering wheel is the only part of the car required to cross the line to finish the race if the car crashes close to the line (except for a particular race, and this becomes important too). Jason has dreams about blacking out on Liberty's Elbow (a tight hairpin turn around the Statue of Liberty). The Bradbury Principle is mentioned a couple of times before it happens.
How to Train Your Dragon: In "The Day of the Dreader", the Dreader turning out to be the father of the baby dragons is foreshadowed by him saying something in Ancient Dragonese that Hiccup mentions could be "you stole my future", but he's not entirely sure. It implicitly actually meant something along the lines of "you stole my children/descendants".
The Hunger Games:
- Catching Fire contains two. Katniss has a dream that essentially depicts the epilogue and the resolution of the love triangle is foreshadowed when the characters describe the wedding ritual of District 12 which includes the couple starting a fire and toasting a piece of bread. Take one guess as to whether the girl on fire ends up with the boy with the bread or with the other guy.
- In The Hunger Games, she first notices Rue in training while practicing with spears. In the Games, Rue is killed by a spear.
- The first time Gale appears he's holding a piece of bread pierced by an arrow. Foreshadowing that Katniss will choose the boy with the bread. Tough luck to foreshadow that you'll be the Romantic Runner-Up.
- In The Hunger Games, Peeta explains to Katniss that he wants to die as himself and not to be turned as a monster, and to show to the Capitol that he does not belong to them. It is cruelly ironic when you know that in Mockingjay, he is submitted to painful torture and brainwashing which turns him into a "mutt" eager for killing Katniss.
Hurog: In Dragon Bones, Oreg, who is a magically bound slave, whose life is connected to castle Hurog, and a ring which Ward inherited, tells Ward about the time when he annoyed his then master so much that the man had him whipped - by someone else. Oreg points out that, had his master himself beaten him, he would have run the risk of killing him (which would have been what Oreg had planned, his unlife was that miserable). Only the wearer of the magic ring can kill Oreg, otherwise he's immortal. Some time later, they all have become traveling adventurers, Ward finds a man with a painful stomach wound, and puts him to death, using a specific method that kills immediately and painlessly. He later kills Oreg, as this is the only way of preventing the eponymous dragon bones from falling into enemy hands. It turns out that Oreg had planned his Heroic Sacrifice for a long time before Ward realized he would have to do it.

In Dostoevsky's The Idiot, Nastassya Filippovna makes a comment about Rogozhin becoming consumed by his passions and ending up being exiled to Siberia. Much later on, Rogozhin murders her...and is sentenced to fifteen years' hard labour in Siberia.
There are many, many, many signs throughout I'm Thinking of Ending Things that it's all imagined inside Jake's head. Notable ones include:
- The narrator commenting that a picture of Jake as a child looks exactly like her.
- The contradicting nature of the narrator's childhood stories.
- The symbolic painting in the basement of the house.
- The narrator recognizing the girls in Dairy Queen and the layout of the school despite never meeting them or being to the building.
InCryptid:
- Fran's death in "Broken Paper Hearts" was heavily foreshadowed, for instance in Juniper's fortunetelling.
- In "The Lay of the Land", Mary jokes that Thomas is "doomed" and should "just accept [his] fate now". Becomes a Harsher in Hindsight when we find out that Mary brokered the deal between Thomas and the Crossroads.
- Timpani reflects on the danger of a Mara in a carnival. A Mara with whom she is acquainted as Annie Thompson aka Final Girl shows up when Timpani and Sam go to the roller derby for a date.
- In "Balance", Eliza the Johrlac reflects that she wouldn't want to be chosen to be a queen. She doesn't go into the details, but it's clear that it's less a position of authority and more being used as an extremely powerful tool by your hive. Sarah later finds out the dangers of becoming a queen personally, although with the help of her family she escapes and turns the tables.
- In Tricks for Free, Rose mentions that stealing the power from distance traveled is one of the main aims of snake cults. It turns out that's what Naga has been doing to Alice.
- There's several moments in Spelunking Through Hell where Alice notes that she recognizes the style of building that the Autarch's compound is. Astute readers will realize before she does that it's the same as lamia architecture, foreshadowing that they were originally from that world.
Inferno Squad: One mission that Inferno Squad and the Dreamers work on has them kill a corrupt Imperial official who profited off deadly water pollution. They pretend to serve some of the contaminated water to his family, and when the man reacts in grief and horror, berate him for only caring about how awful his actions are when his loved ones are being hurt. In Star Wars Battlefront II (2017), after all of the morally gray or outright cruel things that Iden condones or participates in, the incident that finally destroys her loyalty to the Empire is when it tries to destroy her home planet.
In the Inheritance Cycle, Eragon at one point asks Brom what his mother was like. Brom describes her as proud and dignified, which led to her downfall, but also willing to help others. Fridge Logic kicks in when you realize that Brom was an outsider to Carvahall who shouldn't have known this. When we are told that Morzan was Eragon's father, that makes even less sense; why would Brom say that about Morzan's consort? How could he have known she had a nicer side. In the third book, we get an answer: he and Selena had fallen in love and conceived Eragon.

Jane, Unlimited: Small details bleed inbetween stories, functioning as either foreshadowing or continuity nods depending on what order they're read in. One example is Aunt Magnolia's photo of a large gray fish with a much smaller yellow fish peeking out of its mouth pops up in each story; it's only in the first section that its significance is revealed (a priceless painting was hidden behind it), but Jane will stumble across it in all section.

In the first book of the Kane Series, Darkness Weaves, Kane mentions offhandedly that later copies and transcriptions of Alorri-Zrokros's Book of the Elders can be deadly because of errors and omissions. Which comes to bite him in the next book, Bloodstone.
In The Kite Runner, Amir reads Hassan a story about Rostam and Sohrab. Rostam kills Sohrab in battle, not knowing that Sohrab is his son. Later in the book, Amir blames himself for Hassan's death, and learns that he was his half-brother.

The Saga of the People of Laxardal: In Kjartan's swimming contest with King Olaf, Olaf pushes Kjartan under water three times. This is a foreshadowing of Olaf bringing about Kjartan's conversion: In medieval baptism ceremonies, adults were submerged in water three times.
The Legendary Inge: There are multiple hints to Bergstrom's true nature:
- It's remarked that Bergstrom is a well-beloved and well-respected figure throughout the kingdom, yet he is mostly unpleasant to Inge during all their interactions together. This is because he is putting up a front from everyone else to earn their trust; Inge, as someone he does not feel the need to earn the trust of, is the only one privy to his true face.
- The real name of Raske's Virtue Sword is "Mercy", but his mentor Bergstrom insists it should be called "Bloodfang" because it sounds more fearsome. Bergstrom disdains anything that he perceives as "weakness", so it makes sense that he wouldn't like the idea of a weapon being given a name like Mercy.
- Upon learning the "virtue" Bergstrom's sword represents is "strength", Inge is unimpressed, remarking that her father must not have thought much of Bergstrom at all, as strength is a common virtue that any man can have, and one that can be easily abused. She is completely correct. After Bergstrom is defeated and killed, it's revealed by Harvald that Torvald didn't want to make Bergstrom one of the Virtue Swords in the first place and only did so at Harvald's insistence; he speculates that Torvald gave Bergstrom Strength for exactly the reason Inge mentioned.
Liv in the Future: Alix’s gaze briefly lingers on the body of Braeyleighe Smmythe, the girl whose Unizon watch Liv takes. Later on, Liv's looking through records at the library and learns the two of them grew up in the same orphanage.
Lord Peter Wimsey: In Busman's Honeymoon, Peter and Harriet arrive at their honeymoon cottage and send Bunter to knock loudly when nobody lets them in, saying 'Wake Duncan with thy knocking'. This is what Macbeth says when Duncan is dead (Wake Duncan ... I woulds't thou coulds't). The person being knocked for is dead.

The Machineries of Empire:
- Vahenz' messages to Liozh Zai repeatedly state that Shuos Jedao has his own plan and that it's not necessarily aligned with Kel Command's plans. Additionally, during the first attempt to cross the invariant ice shield, Jedao has Cheris send a message claiming that he's working against the Hexarchate and wants to join the rebels. Of course, it eventually turns out he has a plan to bring down the Hexarchate (though not with the Liozh).
- The Hafn are mentioned several times as the most likely reason the Kel Command isn't reinforcing Cheris' forces. While Kel Command's reasons are different, the Hafn do become a major problem in the second book.
Originally, each Magic School Bus book ended with Ms. Fizzle setting up classroom decorations and donning an outfit relating to the subject of the next book. (eg, the book preceding the class' trip inside a hurricane ended with her displaying weather-measuring equipment and wearing a dress boasting stormy imagery.) Series Fauxnales had Ms. Frizzle wear a dress covered in question marks on the last page.
MARZENA: In Book One, on the first meeting between Lauren and Marian, Lauren has some weird feeling of déja-vu, a weird itch, like she's already seen Marian in a magazine or something, but she can't recall what exactly. Sure enough, we later learn that Lauren is really an Anti-Manchurian Agent briefed for a mission where she would need to get close to Marian, so that her Traumatized brain could absorb Marian's personality therefore cloning the Alpha Bitch's brain.
Jack McDevitt really likes to do this before killing off any vaguely important characters. When he starts talking about how one character will think back to this moment, later, it's often because it's the last time they'll see another character alive. He's deliberately not very subtle about it.
Midnight's Children takes this up to eleven, possibly even to the point of parody. The Framing Device is a narrator writing his autobiography, but he acts like a literature student performing a deep reading of a work, and excitedly references future events whenever he notices something significant. May even overlap with Doomed by Canon, as the narrator will sometimes spoil future events outright (particularly the deaths of certain characters).
In Moby-Dick, the landlord of the inn at the beginning of the book is named Peter Coffin. At the end, Ishmael survives by clinging to a coffin.
The Mortal Instruments:
- In City of Bones, Simon makes a joke about Jewish Vampires. That's exactly what he ends up becoming in City of Ashes.
- Witchlight stones will only illuminate in the hands of those who have angelic blood, and are thus typically only used by Shadowhunters. However, when Alec drops his, Magnus picks it up and it proceeds to glow, albeit in changing colors rather than pure white. Magnus's father, Asmodeus, is not one of the demons spawned by Lilith, he is a Fallen Angel, one of the ones that originally rebelled against God.
Early on in The Mote in God's Eye, there is an extensive discussion of how an intelligent species can't evolve further, since much of the species' efforts go to eliminating selective pressures. Guess what the main characters discover a few chapters later?
In The Mouse Watch, Bernie watches a training video for the titular Heroes "R" Us team that shows text messages from agents, one of which reads "Need more intel on something called KRYPTOS. Please advise." "Kryptos" is eventually revealed to be the leader of R.A.T.S., the Nebulous Evil Organization that the Watch spends much of its time fighting.
Myth Adventures: In Myth-Chief, Aahz and Skeeve are competing over who gets to be the new president of M.Y.T.H., Inc. Early on, Nunzio accidentally calls Bunny "boss", foreshadowing who eventually gets the job.

Noob:
- As early as the first novel, Arthéon considered the possibility of the Soulless forming their own faction. It ended up actually happening a little before the fourth novel rolled in.
- The third novel had a potion that disguised the Noob guild into Coalition players by changing the cursors, which are color-coded depending on in-game factions, from the Epire yelllow to the Coalition red. Gaea's cursor turned red for real between the third and fourth novel.
- In the second novel, it's repeated several times that Sin, at the time assumed to be some kind of ancient artifact (he's actually a Source, basically a god), is supposed to be stronger than Lys and Ark'hen (Olydri's founding Sources) taken to together. Not only are the two basically his parents, but the fourth novel reveals that Dortös (another Source that live in Olydri) pitched in for his "conception" also.
- In the third novel, upon finding out that Master Zen, the founder turned evil of the Noob guild, started a new guild in his new faction, Omega Zell sarcastically asks him if he called it "The new Noob guild", "Return of Noob guild" or "Noob guild two". The fourth novel starts with the Noob guild disbanded and getting restarted by Sparadrap. The chapter depicting the latter is titled "The new Noob guild".
- The third novel has some members of the guild crack a couple of Nerds Are Virgins jokes at Arthéon, who replies that his love life is going perfectly fine. The fourth novel starts some time after the end of his relationship with Kary.
- The third novel has Spectre call Tenshirock "his old friend", long before Tenshirock's past was revealed in Season 5 of the webseries version of the story.
- The fourth novel has Mist hesitate to join Justice without Saphir's explict approval, as the latter is in charge of recruitment and another member of the guild than her is inviting Mist to join. The webseries and comic versions of the story have revealed that Mist and Saphir are sisters since the publication of the novel in question.

John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men: In the very first scene, George complains about how Gentle Giant Lennie always accidentally kills his pet mice. About halfway through the book, Carlson shoots Candy's dog. Both of these nicely build up the drama of the last chapter. The whole book is dripping with foreshadowing if you know where to look.
In One Cool Friend, whenever Elliot's father shows up, he has his feet propped on a large green footstool, and he owns a lot of green and turtle/tortoise-themed items. Turns out the footstool is his tortoise, hence why he has no qualms about Elliot keeping a penguin.
Used somewhat comically in One Fat Summer. After his first successful day working for Dr. Kahn, Bobby comes home sweaty and exhausted, immediately crashing in his bed. Half asleep, he dreams that his fat body is melting into the sheets and he wakes up as a skinny, good-looking version of himself. Come the end of the book, after a full summer of hard lawn work and abstaining from binging on junk food, Bobby has indeed become visibly slimmer, though it takes a few characters telling him for Bobby to realize it. Followed through in the sequel where he apparently not only kept the weight off, but slimmed down further much to his delight.
One of Us is Lying: When investigating Simon's online persona, Anarchi SK, Maeve finds a 4Chan post where he criticised the perpetrator of a recent school shooting on their lack of originality. He invites people to surprise him when they "take a bunch of asshole lemmings with them." This foreshadows that his murder was actually suicide, designed at ruining other people's lives in the process.
In The Osmerian Conflict, Marina's true identify is foreshadowed through a series of events. Firstly she never interacts with any Silician. Secondly she is found alone twice speaking to herself in a language not Terran. The third bit take a bit of a Genius Bonus in that a medic administers a test and says her tissue is highly dense and lacks any form of Silicon.

The Parasol Protectorate:
- Soulless:
  - In the first chapter, there's Lord Maccon telling Alexia that if the moon had been full even he would have attacked her, and wondering to Professor Lyall why she doesn't get married. Later on, the villains throw her into a cell with him at full moon to determine her Power Nullifier abilities, and he does attack her before she gets in contact with him. And as for married...
  - During Alexia's conversation with Queen Victoria, it's mentioned that vampires in particular have very strong taboos about getting into relationships with preternaturals.
- Changeless:
  - During the meeting of the Shadow Council, Alexia finds it odd that the potentate asks her if she's feeling well and if she's had any stomach ailments, and later on Professor Lyall overhears some rather interesting conversation from two Westminster vampires lurking outside Lord Akeldama's for Alexia to emerge. Then there's the poisoned meal on the dirigible intended for her... almost as if the vampires are highly concerned about Alexia getting pregnant.
  - Connected to the above, the potentate makes a cryptic remark about the fact that preternaturals are only the second-worst creature in the world to vampires, and when Alexia asks Conall about this, he mentions that there's an ancient myth about something terrible that werewolves call a "skin-stealer", but the details are lacking. Let's just say that the both of them are going to find out first-hand exactly what that is, and soon.
  - Lord Maccon mentions that there's only one vampire hive left in Egypt, the Ptolemy Hive in Alexandria, only six vampires strong. Come the fifth book, they play a major role.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: In The Last Olympian, when Percy is trying to determine the most strategic location for his one mortal point, he chooses the small of his back in favor of an armpit, being more dignified. Anyone want to guess where Luke's body's Achilles spot is?
In Please Don't Tell My Parents You Believe Her, When chatting with Penny before a mission, Ampexia mentions that a lot of superheroes think Penny's mother, The Audit, could defeat Mourning Dove without breaking a sweat. Come the final battle, there's a side fight in which exactly that happens.
Pride and Prejudice:
- Early in the book, when Jane is ill, Darcy and Elizabeth discuss the eventuality of Mr. Bingley suddenly leaving Netherfield at a friend's request. Darcy thinks it would be a lack of character to yield so easily to a friend, and Elizabeth thinks it's perfectly natural to be influenced by those who are dear to you. Guess who changed their opinion when Bingley does leave Netherfield in a hurry at his friend's request?
- About halfway through, Elizabeth says to Darcy, "I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry." He is.
Professor Mmaa's Lecture: In a one-off gag, the termite student Nonobody wonders what are the chances that an auspicious miracle, such as an earthquake or another cataclysm, would happen before the professor asks him for his homework. Guess what happens near the end...

Qualia the Purple:
- The call Hatou receives in chapter 8 is a foreshadowing of both Yukari's death and her power of interacting with her Alternate Universe selves.
- In the manga adaptation, the first few pages foreshadow the darker nature of the series, despite the lighthearted start.

Ratburger:
- Sheila hated Gingernut and didn't seem sad about his death, then later, Zoe wonders if he was murdered, since he was young "even in hamster years". This foreshadows that Sheila killed Gingernut.
- While Burt's burgers being made from rats isn't really a twist, his ketchup being made from cockroaches is foreshadowed by it being brown and tasting bad.
- At the beginning, it's said that Dad has always wanted to be an ice cream salesman. He becomes one at the end.
Robin Hobb's Realm of the Elderlings: In Assassin's Quest, the character Kettle is part of a group who's looking for the White Prophet, and says with respect to their search "Perhaps it is a fool's errand that I go on." The White Prophet turns out to be the Fool.
In the first Redwall book, Cluny had a nightmare where he was being chased by Martin the Warrior, and as the sword "struck" him, he was woken up by a giant bell. His final battle is in the bell-tower, where Matthias uses Martin's sword to chop the rope keeping the bell up, and it lands on Cluny.
The Reluctant King: In the beginning of the third book, Jorian tries to see if he can spot a Paaluan Dragon while they're flying over the Moru Swamps. When they enter the swamps much later in the book to recover the Xylar Crown, an actual Dragon shows up.
In Conspiracies, Repairman Jack encounters the Twins, agents of the Ally who are the basis for that Verse's "men in black" rumors, and are noted for driving around with their headlights off. After his attempt to get away from the pair causes their deaths, Jack vacates the area, driving away in the dark with his headlights off. Guess whose job he just inherited?
The Ripple System:
- Kline calls Ned a failure who ran his father's company into the ground and has done nothing worthwhile in his entire life... and Ned doesn't so much as blink, much less defend himself. Kline clearly expected him to rant; Ned has obviously been called worse before, and it doesn't bother him. Because he intentionally gave up on his father's company after realizing it was too immoral for him to participate.
- Despite supposedly ruining his father's company, Ned proves great at economics in the game, even milking a trader NPC for everything she has... before feeling guilty and giving her a giant tip for a minor piece of information. He brought his father's company unparalleled profits before he broke under the moral strain of having to screw over innocent people.

Sandpaper Kiss has a couple of examples.
- In the first chapter, Mark narrates "While I don’t know if my future family would involve babies or kittens crawling around our feet, that’s all in the hands of genetics, and you can’t fight nature." He ends up with Lucy, a feline/human hybrid, by the end of the story.
- Also in the first chapter, Mark's narration says "One false move, just upsetting the wrong natives, and this jungle could rain spears or bullets, neither of which would be significantly slowed by a veritable wall of foliage." He later ends up getting shot at, with a tree in between him and the bullet, ending up with wood shrapnel embedded in his leg from the tree trunk exploding.
Savvy:
- Will Meeks Jr.'s father actually being his grandfather is foreshadowed by him having a "Jr." in his name despite his father supposedly not being named William, and his living tattoo saying that he had a secret.
- At the end, Mrs. Beaumont wonders if she's pregnant. In the next book, Scumble, it's revealed that she had indeed been pregnant and she has another son, Tucker.
Secret Vampire:
- When James goes to see his father about Poppy following her cancer diagnosis, his father cryptically brings up an earlier incident involving a human, asking if he's getting too attached again. James is clearly upset but lies through his teeth that it's not like that. James later reveals to Phil that he was once very attached to his human nanny, Miss Emma. His parents arranged her death to break this attachment and James attempted to save her by turning her into a vampire...but it didn't end well.
- There's quite a bit of foreshadowing that :oppy and Phil are lost witches.
  - Both the North siblings tend to get "hunches" or just instinctively sense things, which is due to their latent psychic abilities.
  - Poppy's picks up telepathy and learns how to block her thoughts very quickly after becoming a vampire because she's already got natural mind-reading abilities.
  - Poppy has a dream during which she's given a black poppy. It foreshadows that she was never really human in the first place, as black flowers are symbols of the Night World.
17 and Gone drops many hints that something isn't quite right early on, as Lauren's visions result in her losing time and stripping in the snow, she begins to obsess over the missing girls, and all of her dreams get more complicated and confusing over time—all signs of a mental illness.
In Shiver, while Grace is buying a new car Sam jokes to Grace that if the car "hit a deer it would just hiccup and keep going". Much later the car does in fact hit a deer and breaks down. To make matters worse, without the car heater keeping Sam warm, he finally shifts permanently into a wolf but not before tearfully saying goodbye to Grace and Beck.
The Sister Verse and the Talons of Ruin has foreshadowing everywhere, either directly or through metaphor. If something happens, it's probably been hinted at earlier in the story, particularly through the hallucinations of the characters under the Lord in White's influence.
From Small Game: "If there was ever a routine at camp it was those first days... Mara did not enjoy the days nearly as much as she would later miss them." Things get substantially worse from there.
A Song of Ice and Fire is so full of this.
- One example, right from the start: Lord Eddard Stark, on his way back from an execution, finds a direwolf (the symbol of his house) killed after being run through with the horn of a great stag (the symbol of House Baratheon). Sure enough, the coming of his old friend Robert Baratheon leads to the crippling of his son, the outbreak of civil war in Westeros, and his execution. It's also an example of in character foreshadowing: everyone else gets really uncomfortable when they see it, and his wife Catelyn wishes he would put more stock in its meaning.
- Beyond the Wall, Jon Snow is told a tale about his ancestors that involved two people hiding the crypts of Winterfell so well that no one found them. Guess how Bran, Rickon, and their group survive the Greyjoy-Bolton attack on Winterfell.
The Spirit Thief: In the third book, Josef's narrative makes a passing reference to him having fencing tutors in his childhood - something only a very rich noble family would be able to afford. In the following book, it's revealed he's a prince.
A Study in Emerald:
- The story is chock-full of clues to the big twist, namely that the Narrator and the Detective are not Mr. Sherlock Holmes and Doctor James Watson, but rather Professor James Moriarty and Colonel Sebastian Moran.
- The narrator, early on, launches into a Purple Prose-laden monologue, and then excuses himself with "I am not a literary man." While this could easily be a bluff man-of-action's self-deprecation, Watson most definitely was a literary man; he is the in-universe author of the "Sherlock Holmes" stories! Moran, on the other hand, was never noted to have any artistic inclinations.
- The narrator also laments that he was "... a deadshot, perhaps even something of a marksman..." before he was tortured, and could no longer shoot because his shoulder never healed properly. Watson was by no means a bad hand with a gun, and was frequently called on to be Holmes' back-up gun. However, his skills were never described as exceptional. Moran, meanwhile, was one of the top dozen marksmen in the British Empire.
- The narrator was left with a phobia of caves that meant he "... would gladly pay sixpence of [his] Army pension for a Hansom cab, rather than a penny to travel underground." Watson, who was a practicing doctor, would have gotten a pension from the Army too, but would have made enough money as a physician in civilian practice to make cab fare a non-issue. Moran, who was an officer, sniper and hunter by trade, would have had no other income without his gun skills, and shelling out for a cab regularly might well become a financial problem for him.
- When the Narrator and the Detective decide to share apartments, they mention several things about themselves that might annoy the other. The Detective never mentions a violin, and the Narrator does not have a dog.
- The Detective is just as brilliant as he is in most adaptations, but significantly more short-tempered and abrasive. It's not just the darkness of the setting, but another clue to the Detective's identity.
- The Detective's writings are shown. They are not Holmes' eclectic monographs, but rather Moriarty's mathematical papers. Holmes was interested in a wide variety of topics, but never pure mathematics. Moriarty, on the other hand, was a professor of Mathematics.
- When the Narrator and Detective go off to confront the villain, they do so under the aliases "Henry Camberley" and "Mister Sebastian", and in order to get a sample of the villain's tobacco ash (an important clue), the Detective brings a new pipe and no tobacco. Holmes was a prolific smoker, and while he switched over to cigarettes fairly early on, he did own a pipe. Moriarty was never associated with tobacco use. Also, "Sebastian" is hardly an alias, it's the Narrator's name.
In the Sword of Truth novels, the best example is in the sixth book, Faith of the Fallen. Right after Nicci forcibly takes Richard prisoner and right before he leaves with her to the Old World, Kahlan tells Richard that he should "Carve something to make Nicci see that you should be free." Richard dismisses this as unnecessary and silly. At the climax, when Nicci sees the statues on the cover of the book that Richard carved, she has an epiphany, sets Richard and Kahlan free, and pulls a Heel–Face Turn.

In the Tairen Soul's first book, Lillis remarks that Ellie (her older sister) '[kisses] pain away better than anyone'. This comes several chapters before The Reveal that Ellie has a latent talent for healing magic, which the Fey theorize she has been using subconsciously all her life.
Near the beginning of the first Tales of the Otori book, Across the Nightingale Floor, Kaede complains about how little of use she's been taught: "I learned embroidery, but you can't kill anyone with a needle." Much later, she kills one of the main villains, with a needle.
In Temple Trouble Verkan Vall is rattling off a bunch of information for a couple pages. Buried in there is the source of the story's problems, the name of the syndicate.
In Terra Ignota, Mycroft gives out names based on characters from the Trojan War to his fellow Servicers in order to preserve their anonymity. He names one of them Outis, which is not part of the mythos and is later revealed to mean "no one" in his native Greek. "No one" as in "anonymous". Since Mycroft never planned to stay the Anonymous for long, he already had a candidate to succeed him ready, which "Outis" does at the end of The Will to Battle.
Early in S.E. Hinton's That Was Then... This Is Now, Byron muses about how Angela would look beautiful even with all her hair cut off. Later in the book, his friend Mark does exactly that to her while she's passed out drunk.
In Lost In a Good Book, second of Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series, pairs of amusingly named agents appear throughout the novel. Examples include agents 'Kannon' and 'Phodder', and 'Lamm' and 'Slaughter'. These names foreshadow their inevitable horrible deaths.
Jack London's short story, "To Build A Fire", is most frequently used to teach this trope in high school English classes. The reader knows the main character's a goner long before he does.
To Kill a Mockingbird:
- The story spends an entire chapter detailing local racist Bob Ewell's attempts at getting revenge on everyone he blames for being outed as a liar (he had beaten his daughter after catching her trying to seduce a black man and forced her to accuse the innocent man of rape. Despite evidence of his innocence, the man was convicted and fatally shot trying to escape.), stalking the man's widow, the trial judge, and explicitly threatening the man's lawyer, Atticus Finch. In the next chapter, as Atticus' children prepare to go to a Halloween party, their aunt mentions an uneasy feeling, "Something just walked over my grave". The children are viciously attacked by Ewell on their way home, and it is all but stated that they would have been killed had someone not heard their screams and come to help.
- When Atticus, who has made it clear that he is adverse to violence, goes out into the neighborhood to "take care of" the rabid dog it foreshadows both his battle against the legal system and the climax of the book.
Tolkien's Legendarium:
- The Lord of the Rings:
  - The Fellowship of the Ring has this ironic example: Frodo says, "So far, my only hope has been to get here [Rivendell]. I hope I shan't have to go any further. ... I have had a month of exile and adventure, and I find that has been as much as I want." Guess what the next two books are about?
  - There is also Gandalf's statement that, "There are older and fouler things than orcs in the deep places of the world." when they enter Moria and only shortly before they encounter the balrog.
  - Also in Fellowship, Elrond says to Boromir, "Slow should you be to wind that horn again until you stand once more on the borders of your land and dire need is upon you." The next time he uses the horn, just before his death, fits these circumstances perfectly.
  - Early on, Frodo finds that he cannot cast the Ring into his own fireplace. Ultimately, Frodo is unable to destroy the Ring when he reaches Mount Doom.
  - On a more positive note, his encounter with Ringwraiths at Weathertop ends the same way his quest does. Namely, Frodo keeps on fighting till he really can't, then has to get rescued, but that's only possible because he fought to the last earlier.
  - Sam mentions that his cousin once spotted a walking tree in the Shire, but his tale is considered unbelievable. Much later on, Merry and Pippin run into Ents, who are in essence walking trees.
  - Just before the Fellowship leaves Rivendell, Aragorn is noted to be unusually pensive and that only Elrond knew what this moment meant to him. It's later revealed that this journey and Aragorn's goal to reclaim Gondor's throne was an Engagement Challenge for him to marry Arwen.
- The Fall of Númenor: Because of the conflicts between her and her ship-loving husband, Erendis used to say that the sea will be the death of her. The exact circumstances are unknown, but it is known that she travelled to the haven of Rómenna in her old age and perished in the water.
In The Traitor Son Cycle, the topic of organizing a tournament gets mentioned occasionally as a preamble to a discussion on more pressing matters or as an offhanded "he has responsibilities as a nobleman" scene. In book three, this tournament becomes the focal point of the story.
Twilight (2005): Bella says something like "nobody's gonna bite me" in the first chapter of this book about vampires.

Universal Monsters:
- Early in book 3, Nina is told about an exhibition opening in a month, which students interested in Western civilization and humanities can help out with... and it includes an Egyptian exhibit, including a mummy. This reveal comes long before the Sequel Hook at the end has Joe realizing the implications and figuring out that their next monster to deal with will be from The Mummy.
- In book 4, Levi Tovar mentions he's claustrophobic... hinting that he's really Imhotep, because "Who wouldn't be claustrophobic after centuries of being cooped up in a tomb?"

Villains by Necessity:
- There are several hints about Blackmail being Sir Pryce and Sam being Mizzamir's son. Blackmail is from Kwartz, Sir Pryce's country, and defeated when a paladin whom he's fighting prays to Sir Pryce for aid. Also, Blackmail lingers over a mural showing Sir Pryce arguing with Mizzamir. Similar conflict led to him breaking with the Light.
- Robin, while looking at a painting depicting the youthful Mizzamir, finds his features to look oddly familiar. Because he resembles Sam. Plus the fact that a magical ward reacts to him and he can get a magic mirror to work, which shows he has latent ability inherited from Mizzamir.
- There's a hint also that Nightshade is not a normal raven before he's shown to be Valeriana's familiar. When he gets noticed by Arcie in the woods watching him while they're hungry, his suggestion is they eat Nightshade. He reacts by shifting away while on a branch. While ravens are pretty intelligent, a normal one probably wouldn't understand and react like this. Later he also sticks out his tongue at Arcie in clear mockery.
Les Voyageurs Sans Souci: When Sébastien and Agathe are dragged to an abandoned castle, they find a sign that reads "Warning: Haunted Castle" on the door. They are arguing about the alleged presence of ghosts when they get scared by a white shadow flies over their heads. They then realize that it is not a ghost but a scops owl. Later, they decide to spy on the supposedly haunted garret, and discover the "ghosts" are a colony of eagle-owls.
Vorkosigan Saga: In The Warrior's Apprentice, Miles says at one point that there is almost enough medical data to build him a new body. He needn't have bothered with the almost, for later on, his clone-brother enters the scene.

Warhammer 40,000:
- In Black Legion, Djedhor is more responsive of the two Rubrics and Khayon hopes that he has retained more of his humanity. In the end, however, it's subverted, as it's the less responsive Rubric, Mekhari, that regains his sentience and sacrifices himself to save Khayon.
- The Horus Heresy books, particularly early on, seem to be a contest between the authors as to who can foreshadow the Foregone Conclusion best. There are a lot of comments about how space marines fighting other space marines would be unthinkable, gods and religions, particularly malignant ones, are a silly idea, etc etc.
- In Angel Exterminatus, Forrix comments that he's always hated a model Warhound Titan Perturabo owned. In Storm of Iron, set ten millennia later, he gets into a fight with one and comes off second best.
- Bequin:
  - Judika and the Secretary react strangely when Beta asks them if the secret heretical society working against the Maze Undue might be the Cognitae. This is because they are Cognitae agents, as are all the Maze Undue’s staff and graduates.
  - Grael Magent first appears shortly after Judika tells Beta to turn on her cuff while they’re chasing the telekinetic spy. Later, when Magent is slashed by a Word Bearer’s cursed sword while rescuing Beta, Judika turns up soon afterward , badly hurt. Naturally, this is because he is Grael Magent, or at least the host of it.
  - The books which Lupan leaves out for Beta include one of Lilean Chase’s journals. Lilean Chase was the founder of the Cognitae, again foreshadowing the reveal that the Maze Undue is a Cognitae-run institution.
  - Alace Qatorze’s true name, and her reaction to Beta asking her if there are children in the house, foreshadows the involvement of the Emperor’s Children.
  - When Beta complains that she would have trusted Nayl and Eisenhorn if they’d just identified themselves as agents of the Inquisition, Nayl asks Eisenhorn if they do that still. This innocuous comment foreshadows the reveal that the Inquisition has officially declared Eisenhorn a rogue and a heretic, and that he is not acting with their authority.
Wet Desert: Tracking Down a Terrorist on the Colorado River: The first chapter opens up with the controlled demolition of a dam in Colorado, foreshadowing the bombing and destruction of the Glen Canyon Dam during the course of the story.
The Wheel of Time: In The Great Hunt, Turak mentions that the Empress of the Seanchan Empire rules from the Court of the Nine Moons, and her favorite daughter is named Tuon. In The Shadow Rising, Mat Cauthon is told he will marry the Daughter of the Nine Moons. Guess who the Daughter of the Nine Moons is? To put this in perspective The Great Hunt is the second book in the series, The Shadow Rising is book 4, and The Winter's Heart where Tuon actually enters the story is book 9.
In The Widow of Desire Natalie Stuart accidentally sets off the alarms at a department store. She wasn't shoplifting, so it just seemed like a mistake. It turns out the alarm was set off by magnetic tape her husband hid in the white Russian lynx coat he bought her. The tape contained proof of a Russian conspiracy to overthrow Gorbachev.
The Witchlands is very fond of this:
- Early on, when Safi and Iseult fight as Back-to-Back Badasses, a Carawen monk hunting them notes that they briefly formed the Cahr Awen symbol, foreshadowing the reveal that they're the latest in the line of Cahr Awen pairs.
- Corlant turns the crowd against Iseult by convincing them that she's a Weaverwitch, because like the Puppeteer, she can't create Threadstones. Eventually, it turns out Iseult actually is a Weaverwitch.
- When Esme teaches Iseult how Cleaving works, she mentions that the man she's using as an example used to have a Threadbrother, and somehow the magical bond between them survived the Cleaving. At the end of Windwitch, it turns out that Merik's survived his ship's explosion because he's still tethered to his Cleaved Threadbrother, borrowing some of the latter's indestructibility.

In The Yellow Bag, when first noticing the "thin-but-long pocket" of the bag, Raquel wonders what she could put there, considering an umbrella as one of her options. Sure enough, she later meets the Umbrella, who goes into that very pocket.

In Z for Zachariah, a character tells the protagonist "Ann Burden, you're going to wish I'd never come here." At the time he doesn't seem serious, but turns out to be very right.

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