I finally finished Dance . . . what a slog.

A couple of thoughts:
I think he's gonna be back somehow--I just think he's come too far and means too much to the series.

I would like to see them combine books 4 and 5 for the HBO series. Take the high points, move the plot along. There is still enough material to make two seasons out of them. But combining them rather than presenting them as written would make much better drama.

Lastly I'm amazed that in a world full of scum bags Martin can create even worse scumbags. Ramsay Snow has to be one of the single nastiest human beings in literature.

I agree, both for my sake and the sake of good television.

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I'm less interested in seeing Cersei suffer as I am seeing her head wholly removed from her remaining mass. Just kill the bitch (permanently) and put her out of my misery.

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The Stark kids have had a spiritual or at least prophetic relationship to their wolves so while Arya has long since been separated from Nymeria, it made since that she would still have wolf dreams; however, Jon's connection to Ghost has been one that I haven't really gotten, especially since Ghost seems to always prefer being somewhere else, hunting. That, itself, might be a clue but for the most part, I wonder if, whatever their connection, it will come to fruition now with Jon's slaying.

Yeah, the skinwalker thing might become more and more important--maybe? I too have struggled with how important it is to the story.
We see it with Bran and in a different way with Arya. Perhaps something new is coming with Lord Snow and Ghost.

The most common theory I've seen and the one I think holds the most weight ishe dies and fades into ghost. Personally I don't like it, but it explains the opening chapter where the wildling dude has his mind transported to a wolf. Usually those things are there for a reason, some kind of foreshadowing way down the road, so it would make sense that we don't see it till sometime in the next book

HA! It's been so long since I started the damn book that I forgot about the opening chapter. Makes sense.

He's so evil, he borders on uninteresting.

Borders nothing ... he passed uninteresting and shot straight into 'obnoxious slog to read through' pretty quickliy.

I am looking forward to him meeting his demise, so I haven't completely lost interest in the character.

Ramsey Snow is a plot device; that's it.

That's an interesting way of looking at him.