OOP. Impressions. Spoilers. Anyone?

[kirst_inn]

Mmmmm, morning folks. Have now had five hours of sleep and wiped all 
the mascara off my face, chest, arms, and armchair. I really wasn't 
even aware I used so much. I need discussion. No-one else I know has 
finished it yet. Hopefully, this pointless yabbering should have 
filled up the space where this message pops up on the homepage, as 
the vertical spoiler signs don't seem to be working.
Here's one for good measure:
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Impressions, spewed out rather randomly in the hope of provoking 
debate: 
1. Did anyone else have an uneasy feeling that they were reading 
fanfic at some points - especially at bits concerning Luna Lovegood 
and other newly-mentioned students, and in some of the early 
(Arabella, Sirius) dialogue? I know this sounds a bit blasphemous. I 
don't mean it to. I'm trying to rationalise it away as my mind 
adjusting to new canon after so long; particularly when the new 
canon is so radically different from the old? Is this a 
narrative/stylistic thing tied in with New, Improved, StroppyHarry? 
Did anyone else get this feeling?

2. Whoo hoo! New female characters! They took up quite a lot of the 
plot! They were all rather active within the narrative! Even if half 
of them were psychotically twisted! 

3.Lily's eyes? Indeed, more "about Lily"? Not much, was there? As 
far as I can tell, there was just And what about the claim that we 
would never see a living Lily or James? I thing that particular 
excerpt counts... (NB - I'm fascinated by the idea, pushed further 
than it was in GoF and CoS, that a recorded memory doesn't just 
record the subjective truth of the person in that memory. Harry was 
able to break away from Snape's consciousness altogether, almost as 
though there is one particular objective standpoint on a set of 
events in existence in addition to the individual consciousnesses 
which experience them subjectively. Harry wasn't seeing through 
Snape's point of view, he was seeing through the eyes of a third 
person narrator. I think I need to think those implications through 
further...)
 
4. Neville, Ginny and McGonagall (esp. the last two). Bravo. Never 
really thought I'd say that.
5. - on the other hand - Arabella Figg and Rita Skeeter...? I felt 
more than a little disappointed. Those were some of the least Bangy 
scenes I have ever read. Maybe not ever. I think I'm exaggerating a 
little because of sleep deprivation.

and finally
6....I never thought I'd miss you/ half as much/ as I do.....
WOW. Where did that come from? Although I suppose you can see a 
certain inevitability about it, re-thinking the book. Ohhh...welling 
up again...

Kirstini