Ascendance of a Bookworm: Many story elements are introduced via Cryptic Background Reference and sometimes mentioned repeatedly before being actually shown to Myne or observed by the occasional alternative point-of-view character. Re-reading early scenes with knowledge from later in the story on hand can reveal a few hints not seen during the first reading.
Ehrenfest's archduke gets several mentions before his proper introduction, always in the context of his high-responsibility position. The man's "out of the public eye" personality turns out to not exactly be the sort one would associate with a leadership figure, to the point that Myne has a "Really?" moment when she finds out.
Watching the heavily implied Childhood Friends Ferdinand, Karstedt and Sylvester interact with each other is amusing in its own right, but it only gets better after finding out that all three of them are related to each other and Sylvester is the archduke of Ehrenfest, which means that both Myne and the reader have been watching family bickering between three very high-status men all this time.
One of the means by which Damuel's Impoverished Patrician situation is established is via mentioning he had to borrow money from his older brother's mistress' family to be able to pay a hefty fine. The mistress turns out to be Myne's friend Freida, a young girl from a wealthy commoner family who is already known to be destined to become an unnamed noble's mistress once she reaches adulthood.
Arno's actions throughout Part 2 are best appreciated after reading his Perspective Flip chapter, which reveals several seemingly unfortunate mistakes to have been made very much on purpose.
Ellie spends majority of her time floating in her pool and this leads her and everyone else to suspect she is the reincarnation of Elaine, who killed herself in the water after being betrayed by her love. Ellie is not Elaine, but actually the Lady of the Lake, thus retaining her link with water.
Mr Morton pairs Ellie and Lance on a project as a way to subvert the Lancelot and Guinevere issue, since Elaine was in love with Lancelot. Except Ellie barely tolerates Lance. It makes sense since Ellie isn't the reincarnation of Elaine after all.
After calling out Mr Morton for his cowardice, Ellie leaves with her head held high "as if I, and not Jennifer, had been a queen in a past life". Ellie wasn't a queen but she was a goddess, higher than any mortal monarch.
Brother Cadfael: Rereading "The Pilgrim of Hate" leads one to realize Matthew's comments make equal amounts of sense coming from an anxious and protective friend or a warden preventing a murderer from escaping.
It's both enlightening and funny to read Daddy-Long-Legs again after you know that Daddy-Long-Legs is Jervis Pendleton. Some of the title character's apparent caprices make much more sense once you know his motivations, and the irony becomes visible in Judy wishing "Daddy" would visit her one day, and imagining that visit being like one of her encounters with Jervis.
Robin Jarvis' Deptford Mice books were made for this! Only after you read through all of them will you pick up on scenes and lines you passed over before and realise how significant they really were. For example, the bats' prophecy in the first book, The Dark Portal, will become clear upon reading the main trilogy in its entirety. According to the author:
"Before I even began writing the first chapter, however, I worked out the storylines for all three books. This meant that I knew precisely who was going to survive and who was not! It also enabled me to put in hints of what could happen later."
The Saga of Darren Shan has a ton — the author was working on book 9 before he submitted the final draft for book 2 — but what deserves special mention are all the moments related to the title character and Kurda Smahlt, and the way their fates reverse in books 4-6. Darren was supposed to be executed and Kurda was supposed to become a Vampire Prince. The opposite happens. Look at the very first words Darren says to Kurda when they meet: "He (Harkat) told us the messag ("The Night of the Vampaneze Lord is at hand") was for the Vampire Princes only". Look at the last words of book 4 —Kurda telling Darren that Darren will be killed in the Hall of Death if he fails his trials and how they compare with the last words of book 6 — not to mention the last paragraph of book 5.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel: Abigail and her boyfriend Michael can be seen on the relationship chart, as well as the girl Michael cheats on Abigail with (who's listed as having a crush on him).
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency is filled with subtle foreshadowing and clues. The fact that they're in an alternate timeline, Reg's agelessness, the existence of Reg's time machine, the alien ghost possessing Richard and Michael, and indeed the meaning of the entire opening chapter will go unnoticed by a first-time reader but become gloriously clear on re-reading.
Nearly every Discworld novel happily survives multiple readings. Once you know the surprise that inevitably happens near the end, you can go back and pay attention to all the little things that hinted to it. There's also a whole whack of references and Shout Outs which you may miss the first time. It's also true for the series as a whole; once you've seen how, for example, Lord Vetinari's character ends up, it's extremely satisfying to go back to his first appearance and see his Character Development.
Don't Look Back: In the flashback Sam has at Cassie's funeral to a conversation with her in her room, where Cassie first expressed her envy of Sam and desire to have her things, the first thing Cassie mentions that Sam is lucky to have is "a dad who wants to be in [her] life". The line makes much more sense after The Reveal that Cassie was Sam's illegitimate half-sister who sought acknowledgment from their father.
Several of the novels contain revelations that, once learned, make it worthwhile to go back and re-read not only those individual books but the entire previous series to catch all the newfound implications. Most notably, re-reads can get really interesting once you know that (major spoilers for all of the books) Thomas is Harry's half-brother, Ebenezar is their maternal grandfather, Susan gets pregnant from the love scene in Death Masks, Bob has a hidden evil side, Butters is a prospective Knight of the Cross, Molly is a prospective wizard, Peabody and Martin are moles, Maeve and Justine are both infected with Nemesis, the Winter Court protects the known universe from the Outsiders, and Harry gets "pregnant" with a spirit of intellect created by Lash's Heroic Sacrifice in White Night for the last several books.
More directly, Skin Game is made for this. Harry is forced into planning The Caper with Nicodemus Archleone and a group of hired baddies with differing agendas that Harry is almost certain he can't trust. The whammy occurs near the end of the book, when it's revealed that Harry had gotten wind that Goodman Grey, a mysterious shapechanger, was on Nicodemus' short list and hired him before Nicodemus could and that Grey and Harry have been communicating in code and hidden subtext the entire book. It's fascinating to go back and read through these sections of the book and see how this knowledge changes the tone of these conversations entirely.
Ender's Game can receive this thrice, first with the reveals that the war simulations are real, that the Buggers/Formics have been trying to communicate with Ender and Ender's Shadow's reveal that Bean has been secretly navigating the formation of Dragon Army. The pre-chapter conversations also make much more sense with a reread.
Many scenes in the first half of Evernight become this after The Reveal that it's a school for vampires and Bianca's one too, most of which are quite subtle. This includes scenes where Bianca goes to eat dinner with her parents (if you pay attention, she's the only one ever mentioned being served food and eating), Patrice spending ages looking at her reflection in the weeks leading up to the Autumn Ball (she cuts down on blood to 'look her best', which causes her reflection to begin fading), Patrice making a rude sound in response to Celia mentioning slavery (her reaction isn't just because she's biracial, but because she was a slave), Mrs Bethany having strict rules about students 'running wild' which could result in "tragedy" (it's not just hyperbole; the vampire students really could seriously hurt humans and/or risk the vampires' safety if they were to reveal their true nature to the outside world) and so on.
And again when Lucas turns out to be a member of Black Cross. He thinks Bianca is being chased when they first meet because he knows he's in a school full of vampires; he's surprised and uncomfortable to meet Bianca's parents not just because they're his girlfriend's parents, but because he realizes they're vampires (he doesn't yet know Bianca isn't fully human) and more.
Rewatch bonus horror in The Fifth Season: Damaya at one point is exploring the Fulcrum, finding corridors of deserted bedrooms full of cool books, jewelry, and other personal possessions—"it appears that many of the inhabitants simply walked off and left their belongings behind". In the sequel, we find out that if a Fifth Season happens, the orogenes of the Fulcrum are expected to commit suicide, so as not to be a drain on the resources available to keep everyone else alive. (This is hinted at in The Fifth Season, when Damaya mentions that the Fulcrum doesn't have any storecaches.)
Gone Girl has a scene near the beginning when Amy explains about the Amazing Amy books written by her parents loosely based on her childhood, and how the fictional Amy always did everything right, succeeding every time the real Amy failed. When you read the book with the knowledge that Amy is completely insane, this scene really hits you hard.
The song Wei Wuxian played to calm Wen Ning at Dafan Mountain is revealed to be a song that Lan Wanji had written when both of them were trapped in Xuawu Cave, a song that only the two of them had ever heard. This song is how Lan Wanji realized who "Mo Xuanyu" actually is.
Every instance where Jiang Cheng, Lan Wanji and others either scold Wei Wuxian for not using his sword or demand that he stop using demonic cultivation, whether out of concern or jealousy, becomes heartbreaking on second viewing as Wei Wuxian had secretly sacrificed his golden core to Jiang Cheng and is incapable of using his sword ever again.
All the interactions with Wei Wuxian and Lan Sizhui takes on a different significance once the reader realizes that Sizhui is little A-Yuan and Wei Wuxian was reunited with his adopted son all along.
Harda Horda anthology provides two, each for a different story:
Anywhere But the Head: At first glance, it seems that the looters robbing the store are a bunch of petty, Stupid Crooks, stealing luxuries and electronics, while leaving everything else in the middle of the Zombie Apocalypse. Except after The Reveal you realise they were stealing all that stuff, because it's a case of a Cosy Catastrophe and those things still retain their value, while food and other survival stuff is accessible with ease - they just made a venture into an exclusion zone.
Where the Shadows Have Gone: When Lilijas joins the ghost dancing in the ballroom, Lord Casian's spirit is clearly shocked that she can act of her own free will, rather than being forced to dance like everyone else. His reaction can be easily chalked up as surprise at interacting with an outsider upon reading their exchange, but once knowing that Lilijas is also a ghost herself, his shock is in fact a foreshadowing of her real nature, rather than being outside the influence of the curse.
Reread Heretical Edge after reading New York Minutemen 27-04. See how many scenes come off completely differently now that you know where Flick's flashes of intuition come from.
Thanks to Douglas Adams's fondness for dropping massive ret-conningBrick JokesThe Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy "Trilogy" can be re-read in its entirety with jokes from several books down the line giving meaning to silly throw-away gags in earlier books. For example: the girl in the cafe in Rickmansworth is Fenchurch, Arthur and Ford are at Lord's with Slartibartfast a few days before the action of the first book, the Bowl of Petunias is Agrajag (along with many other living beings in the series), the Ultimate Answer is flawed because the Golgafrinchams took over from the Neanderthals and became modern humans, Gag Halfront ordered the Vogons to destroy Earth with the Hyperspace Bypass being a cover story, Zaphod stole the Heart of Gold so he could meet the Ruler of the Universe but then wiped his own memory, Roosta tells Zaphod to climb out of the window of the crashed Guide offices on the Frogstar so he won't leave the artificial universe in Zarniwoop's office... etc. Then there's everything going on in Mostly Harmless from the "Temporal Reverse Engineering" thing to the fact that Elvis Presley also appears to have survived the destruction of the Earth.
In the early Horus Heresy novel Prospero Burns, we see Kaspar Hawser's archaeological dig interrupted by a random Thousand Sons marine, who asks Hawser his name, and then demands to know if Hawser is joking when he gets his answer (Hawser is himself a reference to an old legend). The interruption and the random Thousand Sons marine are never explained in the novel. Fast forward to The Crimson King, and we see the other side of that exchange: The Thousand Sons marine is a time-hopping Ahriman, and he's interrupting Hawser's dig because it's encroaching on a shard of Magnus the Red's soul that Ahriman is searching for. Hints are dropped in that book that it was that proximity that made Hawser so susceptible to being used as a spy for the Chaos gods.
Re-reading The Hunger Games trilogy makes you see countless bits that make it clear which one of her two suitors Katniss is falling in love with, long before she herself realizes it. It also makes you pick up on numerous hints towards the rebellion, the people involved in it and the reason why several people sacrifice themselves for Katniss and Peeta in the Quarter Quell.
Throughout The Ink Black Heart of the Cormoran Strike Novels, the identities of many of the key players are hidden behind online aliases. Having finished the book, a lot can be picked up on a re-read, knowing who is who, including the Two Aliases, One Character nature of Anomie and Paperwhite.
Throughout Steven Erikson's ten-book series, the Malazan Book of the Fallen, he runs with every form of rewatch bonus from subtle foreshadowing (Karsa Orlong casually destroys a small Fener statue in the fourth book, House of Chains, while the event foreshadowed does not occur until the final book in the series) to entire events, characters and subplots that will simply go right over the reader's head or utterly baffle them on a first read. Erikson himself has said that the series is written to feel entirely different on a re-read, and many fans who've undertaken the not-inconsiderable feat of re-reading have described it as a massively rewarding experience.
The chapter headers in Well of Ascension are quotes from a journal that was carved into a steel plate. Some of these fragments appear in the story proper, from a rubbing. At the end of the book, it turns out that an entity called Ruin has the power to alter the words in anything not written in metal. The version the heroes discuss was doctored, and the chapter headers are the genuine article. Early in the book, there is a quote that says that the author noticed the Hero for his stature, especially how he towered over others. When the doctored version appears, it's close enough to the original, saying that the author noticed the Hero's small stature, since he could still tower over others.
Hero of Ages reveals the existence of Hemalurgic spikes, and that the mists reject those with spikes. Rereading Final Empire, Vin only calls upon the Mists after the Lord Ruler removes all metal on her person, including her earring, which is a Hemalurgic spike.
The Mysterious Benedict Society starred a group of kids, one of which is Constance Contraire, a girl who is equally short in both height and temper. The other kids even ask why Constance was selected to join the group, seeing how the other children are all gifted, and Constance doesn't seem particularly smart. Only at the end of the book do you realize that she isn't a dwarf at all, she's a very intelligent toddler. When reading the book for a second time, you'll notice that although there are many references to Constance being short, at no point does anybody use the words 'dwarf' or 'midget'. There are many other small touches that set up the twist.
My Sweet Audrina. Readers who don't figure out the book's secret until near the end, when Audrina's father finally tells Audrina that there was no older sister who was raped and murdered and that she's the only Audrina, will reread it and kick themselves for not noticing the various clues to this effect. For starters, Audrina flashes back to the First Audrina staggering home after the rape, which would be impossible if she'd been killed. Later, when she has another flashback about the rape, she recalls her boyfriend/husband Arden being there, also impossible if the First Audrina was nine years older than she was.
Pretty much all of Vladimir Nabokov's books have this, on account of his belief that the first time a reader reads any book they're just coming to grips with it, and you only really get to know a book on successive readings: the way he put it was "We do not read books: we re-read them." He actually built hidden spoilers into his work, for the benefit of people re-reading them. The first time you read Lolita, you're informed in the fictional 'foreword' that "Mrs. Richard F. Schiller" died in childbirth. You then wait almost the entire book, and a character of that name never shows up. Only in the final pages do you realise who she is.
Origami Yoda: It's revealed in the last book that Harvey has always liked Sara. Going back through the previous books, it becomes so clear that Harvey was only mad at Tommy being able to dance with Sara because he was jealous, and why he's also been nicer to Sara than anyone else.
PEACE by Gene Wolfe is a completely different read the third time through. Neil Gaiman notes that on first read PEACE seems to be the quaint memoir of an old man in a dying town, but on the second or third read through, the story is a full-blown ghost tale.
Nico di Angelo's often contradictory actions in Percy Jackson and the Olympians become much more comprehensible after the second-to-last book of the sequel series The Heroes of Olympus reveals that he had a crush on Percy at the time. Particularly The Battle of the Labyrinth, where the ghost of Nico's sister, Bianca, insists he's angry at her, not Percy, for her death, after which the ghost of King Minos is able to lead Nico into a trap by convincing him Percy is in danger. Percy is utterly baffled by everything Nico does or says and frequently laments his inability to understand him and questions his trustworthiness, verging on the edge of Unreliable Narrator as a result.
In Realm of the Elderlings, specifically in the Liveship Traders trilogy, a lot of things Amber says and does make a lot more sense once you know they are The Fool. There's a few subtle hints if you're paying attention, but you almost certainly will miss them the first time around.
Rereading The Thrawn Trilogy with the knowledge of what Delta Sourcenote Thrawn's method of getting information out of the Imperial Palace is allows the reader to understand some of Grand Admiral Thrawn's seemingly inexplicable insights, cringe when characters unknowingly deliver secret information directly to his ears, and realize just how close he comes to learning things that could win him the war right then. For example, Luke stops himself one word away from revealing that he spent time on Honoghr, which is all Thrawn would need to halt the Noghri betrayal in its tracks.
The Sister Verse and the Talons of Ruin has a lot of details that are only implied through metaphor and poetic verse, which is difficult to completely understand on the first read of the book.
A Song of Ice and Fire. Sure, the main plot is much easier to follow than a lot of other highly elaborate fantasy epics, but you can only really appreciate the rich backstory of Westeros and its families by rereading the books several times over. Other bonuses include all of the visions experienced by Bran Stark in his dreams or by Dany in the House of the Undying (which foreshadow heavily a lot of what happens in the series), as well as the seeds of Roose Bolton's betrayal of the Starks.
Rereading the Star Darlings books while knowing Lady Cordial's a disguise for the villain makes the twist pretty obvious in hindsight.
The Stormlight Archive is very satisfying to re-read, as you connect the prophetic epigraphs to the actual events from the books. It gains an additional bonus once you read Edgedancer and learn that there's a species which can use cremlings — tiny animals that are as popular on Roshar as sparrows are here on Earth — to spy on people. Suddenly, every mention of a cremling becomes a game of "Aimian or not?"
Sympathy for the Devil is a novella set in the universe of the sci-fi series The Orville, based on an unproduced episode. Certain things become obvious upon a second reading, including the fact that the main character "Otto Vogel" never seems to feel any pain or suffer injuries when he should, or the fact that he gets certain things basically just handed to him, including marriage to beautiful woman, a gorgeous home and a series of promotions. This is because Otto Vogel is actually Adam Collier and his entire life is a simulation of the events leading up to and during World War II, with him ending up becoming a Nazi commander within the simulation. The simulator has safety protocols on to keep him from feeling pain and is designed to respond to his desires.
The Unexplored Summon://Blood-Sign: Rereading the seventh volume with the knowledge that Kyousuke's partner Aoi is really the White Queen in disguise casts the character's behavior in a new light. It also contains hints of Kyousuke being aware of the disguise from the start.
If you reread Warrior Cats, you notice all sorts of foreshadowing that you'd have missed the first time, especially with the original series and Power of Three. For the original series, this includes things such as Yellowfang's affair with Raggedstar, the true parentage of Mistyfoot and Stonefur, and Tigerclaw trying to get his apprentice killed. If you reread Power of Three after finishing the series you notice that the whole thing with Leafpool was really obvious.
Steris at the start of Wax and Wayne is the only noblewoman in the city whom Wax hasn't offended, and is his last hope for a marriage that will save his house. She appears to be a stuffy, domineering Alpha Bitch, but she has a Hidden Heart of Gold upon later reads. Most of her off-putting behavior in her first appearances isn't because of malice, but because she has No Social Skills and tends to overcompensate.
Within moments of meeting each other, Steris makes it clear to Wax that this is a marriage between houses and not each other, going as far to neatly schedule future interactions in the marriage contract, leaving little time for them to get to know each other in private. Seems like she already dislikes Wax? She’s afraid that he'll dislike her once he gets to know her, just like her previous fiances.
When Wax wonders why she schedules all their public appearances, she says moving too quickly would be scandalous, and while she doesn't make or like the rules of Society, they have to live with them. It seems like she’s being pushy, because Wax chafes under High Society parties. Turns out that she’s just as uncomfortable with it as he is, just better at hiding it.
The schedule looks like she's going to dictate Wax's whole life. It turns out that she only wrote it for when they're together, and doesn't care what he does alone.
Her marriage contract allows both of them to take potential mistresses, remarking that she’ll abstain from a dalliance until an heir is produced. On the first reading, it’s foreshadowing for how Marasi is her half-sister by her father’s mistress, not her cousin. On the second reading, it’s an implicit way of telling him that she’s fine with whatever he does in his personal life; at the end of the book, she tells him that neither of them can expect the other to change, but she's content with that.
During their first public appearance together, Steris dictates the topic of conversation, and is distressed when Wax, Wayne, and Marasi eagerly jump on the topic of the Roughs, especially when they talk about how Wax once shot a dog’s balls off. Later conversations reveal that the topic itself was irrelevant; Steris has difficulty being spontaneous and needs to plan her sentences in advance, and so any digression took her out of her depth.
In The Well of Moments, on reread you get to see exactly what happened in Toshiro's original lair that messed up his face, explaining his unusual display of anger. Maxwell's indignation when Jasmine steals the Well from him makes way more sense, and is much funnier, knowing what his preconceptions were (and also that he was forewarned she would shoot him, albeit not fatally).
The Westing Game has so many such bonuses that, even after a hundred times, with each reread you notice some new facet of Sam Westing's manipulations that led to every single character getting their own individual happy ending. Plus tons of foreshadowing and other hints planted throughout the book.
The Witcher saga is so heavy with foreshadowing and elaborate plot weaving that second reading feels more like The Annotated Edition, so many previously unnoticed details strike into eyes.
