[colpet]

I read the whole book yesterday, after refreshing the story by rereading the Half-Blood Prince (of which I had remembered nothing but Dumbledores' fate).
This last book was much more like an epic fantasy. I remember thinking 'Oh no, not the multiple perspective narrative that so many fantasy books favor' when Ron separated from the group (though the penseive allows her to give some alternate perspective to significant sequences) . Like Jack, I missed the flow of the school year at Hogwart's. I also got the LotR deja-vu feeling from the way the locket affected the characters (ATM's post). I firmly believed that Snape was a 'good' guy, and I think that removed some of the tension and drama for me, since I was running through the reasons for what he did, rather than accepting the 'evilness' of his actions. To finally see his reasons was gratifying.
I think the biggest success of the book was to humanize Dumbledore, and to a certain extent some of the up-until-now nasty characters, particularly the Malfoy family. Most typical fantasys do not round out their characters this way (Guy Gavriel Kay being a favorite exception).
Lastly, I remember thinking that she handled the life/death issues very sensitively, constantly reinforcing it's not the quantity but quality of the life we lead. While Harry's death could have been a very disturbing scene, his acceptance of it made it seem more like an achievement.