Rating: 
Summary: ZERO STARS
Review: I could not read pass 15 pages. The premise is interesting and has been done before by writers who are not as popular as Patterson. Unfortunately, Patterson's storytelling has suffered. I was not hooked at all. The character development lacks and his metaphors are obvious. I'm glad this was a library book and not one I purchased.
Rating:
Summary: Cradle and All
Review: What a disappointment! I kept reading because I thought it would get better. I do not recommend it at all--Especially disappointing because rather than not wanting to put it down I never felt like picking it up. It would have been better had it been kept out of print. Shame, Mr. Patterson. Let's get on with your normal thrillers!
Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating
Review: I thought that "Cradle and All" was realy interesting and different. The book was really, really good. Let's just put it this way, I was left with my hairs standing up and totally in shock. I thought that James Patterson really outdid himself. Yes, it was a different topic altogether but it was a new look at Patterson and what may interest him. I cannot wait until he writes a sequel to this book as well as the new book "Roses are Red" which comes out in November.
Rating:
Summary: Cradle and All - Not up to Patterson's Talent
Review: There's not a lot to say about this book. It's a lot of religeous mumbo-jumbo. Patterson would do better to leave this stuff to Steven King. If I had wanted to read about mysticism and the existance among us of devils, I would have read a King novel, which I have not done, for good reasons.
Rating:
Summary: TOP NOTCH ENTERTAINMENT
Review: This is Patterson's best work. A great read. A major, intense spiritual thriller. Why anyone would get hung up on the absence of Alex Cross, a character from other Patterson work, is beyond me. No Cross...who cares? This book is all time!
Rating:
Summary: Very Very Strange
Review: I was so disappointed in this book. What a waste of money and time. Very flat, one-dimensional characters. I can't believe I even bothered to finish it.
Rating: 
Summary: Barely bearable....
Review: I have been a huge James Patterson fan for many years now. Actually, I should say an Alex Cross fan, as I am usually disappointed with Mr. Patterson's non-Alex Cross work. This book was no different. Reworked from his previous novel Virgin, Cradle and All starts out slowly and doesn't go much faster from there. At times it was hard to understand as I thought I was missing something, but in actuality I wasn't. I didn't grow close to any of the characters as I do in the Cross books but that's a benefit of a series. Short chapters (as is Patterson's usual style) and wondering when the heck things will pick up are the only 2 things that kept me in this book. My advice is to either wait for the paperback or get this second-hand. It is worth finishing (if you bother to start) as things work themselves out and provide a fairly decent ending to a drawn out book.
Rating:
Summary: Ouch!
Review: If I could give a 0 rating, I would. Like many others here, I wish that I would have read the customer reviews before I bought the book. I really enjoy Patterson's work, but this book offended me. I won't even keep the book in my house - it's gone to the trash - where it should have stayed! Bring back Alex Cross.
Rating:
Summary: Buyer, Beware!
Review: Writers like James Patterson are brands more than authors. Thanks to instant name recognition, their books aren't so much bought as grabbed and gobbled like candy bars. That product familiarity explains the 1-million copy first printing and $1-million advertising campaign for James Patterson's new theological thriller. But it's not exactly new. It's a rewrite of his out-of-print 1980 "Virgin" that includes scenes and characters from the previous book. I haven't read the first version, but this one reads like a first draft in an uninspired freshman college creative writing class. The concept is mildly intriguing. In a very vague atmosphere of famine, plagues and worldwide turmoil, two girls--one in rural Ireland, one in Boston--are mysteriously pregnant even though they have been medically proven to be virgins. Is this the fulfillment of a divine prophesy about the simultaneous birth of God's son and the Devil's son? Written in short paragraphs and short chapters, the book reads quickly but still seems too long. That's because the characters, settings, and scenes are so sketchy they feel like they've merely been outlined and left for filling in later on by someone with more talent. Patterson has no ear for dialogue and overuses exclamation points to help mask the absence of real terror or excitement--the kind of flaw you find in student writers. But then his writing is amateurish throughout. A sky is described as "quite epic-looking" and here's a housekeeper's supposedly terrifying vision: "She'd glimpsed rising, licking, gold-and-crimson flames. She'd glimpsed the terrifying flames of Hell." Scary stuff, huh? I'm not a big fan of Patterson's best-selling Alex Cross novels, but even those are more vividly written than this anemic, dreary book bound for the best seller list thanks to a name that could probably sell anything with words in it no matter how badly written it was. Lev Raphael (Levraphael.com), author of LITTLE MISS EVIL, the 4th Nick Hoffman mystery
Rating:
Summary: disappointing potboiler
Review: James Patterson may have written this book while his mind was otherwise occupied, listening to the ball game or the political news. It's a reworking of his book "Virgin", published in 1980, which some people may have read fairly recently. "Cradle and All" is a disappointing potboiler from an author capable of much better work. It can be consumed while the reader's mind is otherwise occupied with baseball or the campaign. Although it may deal with "adult" themes, the reading level is somewhere around the 5th grade. Here's hoping James Patterson's next book is a good deal better!
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