saw this ending coming from a mile away!

THAT, was a struggle. I really can't comment beyond that. Whew, it's really more like a 1.5 star. Nope nope nope

Loved this book! 4.5 stars. This is the James Patterson worth reading. A former nun must investigate not one, but two modern day immaculate conceptions. Of course the Catholic Church cannot imagine such a thing actually occurring. There are definitely the expected religious references, and although I was raised catholic, you don’t have to be Catholic to understand. I could actually see this turning into a series. I wanted more when the book ended and I haven’t read a Patterson book like that in a while.

This was Patterson #2 for me and couldn’t have been more different from #1. Full of numberless demons, virgin births galore and more Catholics than I could count, it was a thriller that bordered on the supernatural. And while I was riveted to parts, especially near the end, I was also shaking my head at the incredible coincidences and hard-to-swallow happenings. Pure escapist fiction, for sure, emphasis on fiction.

3 stars for being a quick entertaining read.

A few years ago (like 1980), Patterson dove into the area of religious action and suspense with this novel, which is really the story of the three women. The main narrative character is Anne Fitzgerald, a former nun turned private investigator, who has been hired by the Catholic Church to look into the mysterious case of a virgin from Newport, Rhode Island who is very pregnant. Kathleen Beavier is a young teen from a very wealthy family. She was attacked months earlier, but has no memory of the exact details of the event, but medical examinations clearly show that she is still a virgin. The Church has serious concerns about the pregnancy because of something that was said by the Virgin Mary during her visit to Fatima in 1917 that has been a real-life, well-kept secret by the Vatican ever since. The secrete ties in with the fact that there will be two sets of virgin births with one of the babies is fated to be the Second Coming while the other is the Anti-Christ.

The reason the situation is so troubling is that there is a second girl in Ireland who is also pregnant while still being a virgin. Colleen does not have the positive reputation of Kathleen since she has definitely had some experiences with males, but she is by technicality a virgin.

While all of this is going on, the world seems fraught with disease and natural disasters bringing up concerns that the Apocalypse is upon everyone. And as the story progresses, serious questions about who is good and who is evil arise.

The novel is quick-paced and Anne, Kathleen, and Colleen are all interesting characters that leave the reader really caring about what will happen to each of them. Anne, along with a priest named Justin she has fallen in love with, dig deeper and deeper into the mysteries surrounding the two girls in order to find out the truth and try and prove which baby is fated to be evil so it can be destroyed while the other can be protected from the forces of evil.

Other than the fact that Newport no longer sports any truly wealthy families even though it is so well-known for the beautiful Guilded Age mansions that line the coast, Patterson stayed true to much of the geography and feel of the island community. I could almost see myself joining Anne as she visits local sights from the high school to the historic district.

The one frustration is that while the book has a really stunning and awesome conclusion, a big opening is left for a sequel, which does not appear to have been written. I would really have liked to read more about what happens to Anne, Justin, the two young girls and their families.

This book.. is so much more than a book to me. This book is a beautiful, yet bittersweet memory for me. I remember reading this book when I was about 12-years-old. I had spent the weekend with Nana (my mom's mother). She had taken me to the library that Friday to get me a stack of Sweet Valley High books. I had read through them, and wanted to read something else. Nana grabbed the book she had finished, she had just gotten it. And it was Cradle and All. She figured that I might enjoy it. I began reading it, and couldn't stop. I was excited and into it! I finished the book by Sunday afternoon. I kept going on and on about how great the book was. And how much I loved the ending. How it was a twist I didn't expect.
That evening I went home and I found out that one of my closest friends, a girl I had been baptized with had passed away at 9-years-old of Cancer. And then in 2007, Nana passed away, three days shy of 67 years old. Last year, for Christmas, my husband bought me a First Edition of this book. It is one of my most prized books and will be till the day I die.

At the beginning the book had hooked but then it was just a rollercoaster of meh and uuuaaa.
The whole book was about figuring out who was carrying the son of god and the son of the devil. I knew they were going to get it wrong (very obvious) but it had an unexpected twist. I was left with wtf, is that...how? Then I'm like "ohhh i see. She should have said something!!" And I didn't see that ending coming at all! Like at all. It was like a "come on!!??" Ending.
I liked very much the detective, that was the only character I liked from the whole book, the others you just had sympathy for.

I listened to the teen version audio book. The voice actors were one of the better aspects of the book, especially the woman who voiced Anna, the detective tasked with figuring out if the story of Kathleen, one of the virgin mothers, was true. Between her and Colleen, I dont think there were differences between the teen girls, except for one living in New York and the other in Ireland. They were both very bland and one dimensional. They were described very generically as very good girls who never lied, or even cheat in Goverment high school class!
I thought Kathleen's parents would be interesting, but not really. The mom decided to call the church and the dad kept dismissing his daughter.
On the other hand, Colleen simply had no friends at all and her mom was barely mentioned, either she was always sleeping or resting to interact with her pregnant bullied daughter.

The book's theology struck me as all sorts of wrong. Not only does it depict faith as a force, "pray really hard with your eyes closed and simply believe", and no mention of being saved by God's grace. Reminded me that sadly, saved by works is rampant in Catholic beliefs.
But it also TOLD me a lot of what was happening instead of just showing me. How epic would it have been (because of all the diseases) if the government infrastructure to take care of the problems had been touched on?

Also, not all virgins have a hymen. It's a membrane easily torn in various ways.

**spoilers ahead**
*you were warned*

I did laugh at the true savior being a girl because I liked the twist. But really? Anna just had to believe she was strong enough to withstand the "demon" voice mocking her and showing her horrible visions of the priest and Justin being dead? Believing in herself is not the same as believing that through God, she can overcome temptation and darkness and all the evil, because of His strength, not hers.
I didn't like that there was no explanation as to why Anna was "chosen". It seemed as if she was being tested in order to be chosen and granted this amazing gift.
And finally, What is the purpose of God bringing in a new child through a virgin this time around? To save the world from sin? Already done by Jesus dying on the cross. To end the beast's child?
The book dismissed all the biblical prophecies of the 2nd coming of Jesus, not as a child again, but as a full adult, in all His divine rights. But I did think it was interesting that the Devil had to pervert the divine conception by needing to have intercourse with a human instead of how God did it, by His mighty power of giving life alone.

And what about the girl not knowing if she could bring the crash victims back to life? Jesus was fully God and fully human. He lived the perfect life while struggling just as we do, but always knew His power as part of the Godhead. It struck me that the savior girl (I forget her name) was just a human with some powers, like a mutant from the Xmen who just happens to have been divinely conceived.

Cradle and All is a medical thriller. It revolves around three major characters. Anne Fitzgerald is retired nun turned private investigator. She is hired to investigate a series of unlikely events, including two virgin pregnancies. Kathleen is the first of two pregnant virgins. Kathleen lives in Newport, Rhode Island with her family. Thus, much of the story takes place in Newport. Kathleen denies that she has had sex, yet is unable to remember fully the night she conceived. Therefore, her pregnancy is surrounded by speculation, and even her parents are not supportive. Colleen is the second of the virgin girls. Colleen lives in Maam Cross, Ireland, with her ill mother. She attends a Catholic school for girls. She, too, denies having had sex, but finds herself pregnant. The Irish community is not supportive of her and ridicules her publicly, forcing Colleen to be schooled from home in seclusion. Both girls are independently examined by doctors who confirm that they are indeed pregnant virgins. The mystery of their conceptions is reminiscent of the Immaculate Conception and piques the curiosity of the Catholic Church, both in America and at its headquarters in Italy.

Additional supporting characters also attempt to understand the mysterious pregnancies. Father Nicholas Rosetti is sent by the Pope to research the girls and their situation. Just before his death, Pope Pius XIII entrusted Father Rosetti with all of the details of the prophecy. Father Rosetti has this additional information to utilize when investigating the girls. Father Justin O'Carroll is sent by the Cardinal to investigate as well. Anne, Father Rosetti, and Justin each face the forces of good and evil during their quest. They will hear demonic voices, feel temptation to act in unspeakable ways, and some will experience physical pain. As the story unfolds, the reader also discovers that simultaneous world-wide catastrophies are occurring. Droughts, famine, floods, viruses, genocide, and polio outbreaks are harming humans in large numbers. The Blessed Mother foretold the birth of a savior and also the birth of Satan's son. This prophecy, combined with the world-wide disasters, leads church authorities to conclude that one of the virgins will deliver a savior who will end the suffering. The converse is that the other virgin will birth a powerful beast.

During their research, Anne and Justin rekindle a loving relationship that had previously been suppressed. Father Rosetti is the most deeply disturbed of the three—the Devil visits him frequently. The trio cross the world trying to unravel the mystery. Old medical records provide the details that help Father Rosetti to determine that Colleen is carrying Satan's child. The birth process creates a surge in Kathleen's memory, and she realizes that although she is a virgin, her child's conception is not divine. The true child of God is born unto Anne in the epilogue.

At the French shrine of Lourdes in 1917, three children delivered a prophecy from the Virgin Mary: At some point in the future, two girls will experience near-simultaneous immaculate conceptions; one will give birth to a new Savior; the other will bring the Antichrist into the world. Now, in an undated present, with strange new plagues and catastrophes filling the news every day, and the Pope dying of a horrible virus, private detective Anne Fitzgerald is abruptly hired by Boston's Cardinal Rooney to keep an eye on young Kathleen Beavier, a spoiled, trash-talking (but virginal) rich kid. Kathleen's attempt to get an abortion is stymied when she finds her doctor’s bleeding corpse hanging from a hook in a South Boston clinic. Since then she's been hearing nasty voices and believes she's being watched by animals. An ex-cop with a Harvard psychology degree, Fitzgerald is also a former nun who left the order after falling in love with a priest. Though that love affair was never consummated, fate will reunite Fitzgerald with good-looking Father Justin O'Carroll. Meanwhile, in an Irish village, poor but pure Colleen Deirdre Galaher is getting dirty looks from the nuns at her Catholic boarding school. Sent from Rome to investigate, Father Nicholas Rosetti, the Vatican's international expert on miracles, finds himself aroused by the sight of the girl. Could this have anything to do with the inexplicable fainting spells he suffered in Rome only days ago? And what about that nasty voice that reviles him in his dreams? One can only hope that the ridiculous, cliff-hanging finale’s promise of a sequel will never be fulfilled.

6 out of 10

The first and final chapter was haunting, vile and oh so delightful . The rest of the book was not that great in comparison .

I recommend you to read this book as a start to the thriller/horror genre as I did

I’m just going to list all of the things I didn’t like about The Cradle And All otherwise I’ll be blabbing forever.

1) Too many POV. It switched from the two pregnant teenagers, to an ex-nun, to three different priests, to the pope himself and to whoever happened to be standing by.

2) The book's writing was so simplistic and up-front it hurt. The chapters were short and unneeded, like the author couldn't figure out how to connect scenes. At one point there is even a plane crash. But it left NO impact. It came and went like the snap of a finger.

3) Because the book was written simplistically, none of the characters were developed.

4) With underdeveloped characters, not only couldn't I connect with the characters, but the relationship formed in the book between the characters themselves felt like they came out of nowhere.

5) We focus on one of the pregnant teens, Kathleen, through most of the book, but the other pregnant teen, Colleen, was pushed to the side most of the time until the end of the book.

6) The reasoning behind Colleen getting knocked up was so stupid I couldn't take it. She just happened to be a hermaphrodite!

7) What was the point of having voices in Kathleen’s head if her child was just a normal child in the first place? What about when her housekeeper saw Satan’s flames around her? Maybe the devil was trying to divert the church's attention but still . . .

Now, before I list reason number 8 why this book was horrible, let me say this. I kept reading because I wanted to find out which teen was carrying the devil, and which teen was carry the second coming of Christ. I’ll admit that the way the diversions were written in keeping the reader guessing were entertaining and downright creative at times, but then--

8) The ending completely ruined the entire reason I put up with this book The ex-nun, Anne, all of sudden, right before Kathleen’s delivery, starts to really believe in the power of God and Jesus and what not. Then it turned out SHE was to carry the son of God! She got pregnant through some flash of lightening and then BAM! She knew she was instantly pregnant and everyone got a happy ending--and I am just done with this God awful book.

9) Rewritten 3 different times, for 3 different generations, you’d figure the book would have been decent being revisited and revised that many times. How disappointing.

I’m gonna go and pawn off my copy of this book and try to get some money back.