Whitney Houston!: The Spectacular Rise and Tragic Fall of the Woman Whose Voice Inspired a Generation

by Mark Bego

Whitney Houston (1963–2012) was a superstar. Few in the world of show business reach the career heights that she attained with what seemed such ease. Her megastardom peaked in 1992 with the release of the hit movie The Bodyguard and the international Number One hit “I Will Always Love You.” The movie soundtrack still stands as one of the bestselling albums of all time. She won six Grammy Awards, two Emmy Awards, thirty Billboard Music Awards, and twenty-two American Music Awards, and amassed a vast fortune. Her death has shocked the entertainment world and her fans.

Whitney Houston! traces the life of this American icon. Here is her childhood in Newark, New Jersey, growing up in a family with a strong musical legacy. Her mother, Cissy, sang professionally with such stars as Aretha Franklin. Her cousin was Dionne Warwick. Share the joy as Whitney signs with Arista Records and the legendary Clive Davis and becomes an international star. Here superstar biographer Mark Bego offers a unique look at her family and immense talent, the secrets behind her years of erratic behavior, the truth about her tumultuous marriage to bad boy Bobby Brown, her mother’s desperate attempt to control her, her dynamic final film role in Sparkle (which will be released posthumously), and the events that led up to her tragic death.

Whitney Houston! will stand as a singular tribute to, and a revealing look at, one of the great superstars of our time.

Genres: Biography

256 pages, Paperback

First published March 2, 2012

Reviews

[Whitney · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’ve been down the Whitney Houston rabbit hole, and this is the fourth book I’ve read in a row about Whitney (the other being the memoirs of her mother, Cissy Houston, her husband, Bobby Brown, and her lover/assistant Robyn Crawford). This book is so poorly written the only reason I finished it was because I’m an obsessive completist, and I got some satisfaction out of red-inking it as I read. I have never seen this many typos and writing errors in a published book, and I worked in the book industry for 16 years. I don’t understand how this man made a career of this - I can only assume that he rushed this out as a cash grab after Whitney’s death. It’s quite clear that 99% of it is based solely on generic research (I will say that it is a very thorough listing of her music releases and awards throughout her career), and stealing quotes from other popular published interviews (many of which I recognized). The author also interjects his judgements of his subject, which is annoying and unnecessary in a biographical piece. I hate-read this book and recommend skipping it if you’re not also a hyper-focused researcher on Whitney’s life.

[Jeff · Rating 2 out of 5]

The only thing more tragic about this book is that the author couldn't find an editor, or his editor is utterly incompetent. I found so many typos I started correcting them as I read along. Get it together!

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Truly awful writing. This was a book in severe need of editing. The wrong words, wrong tenses (changing mid sentence), names spelled wrong. It was so incredibly distracting.

[Electronic87 · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book about Whitney Houston touched me deeply—not only as the story of a global superstar, but above all as a relentless account of addiction, loss, and fragility. It impressively shows how even a person with immeasurable talent, fame, and success can lose everything. Not just money or career, but relationships, trust, oneself—and in the end, even one's own life.

I was particularly moved by the honest description of how insidiously addiction spreads. At first, it seems controllable, almost harmless. But bit by bit, it takes over. The book makes it clear that addiction does not discriminate – it affects not only “weak” people, but also strong, admired personalities. Whitney Houston had one of the greatest voices of all time, and yet she couldn't withstand the inner pressure and dependence.

While reading, I often thought about my own life. I, too, have lost many things I loved because of my addiction. Relationships, trust, perhaps even a piece of myself. The book painfully showed me where this path can lead—in the worst case, to death. At the same time, however, it also showed me how important every conscious decision to stay clean is.

For me, this book was not only a biography, but also a warning and motivation. It reminds us that fame and success do not protect anyone from the consequences of addiction.

[Christine Le · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's been stuffed in my bookshelf for awhile so I gave it a go. As turns out, not my tea because the author wrote in a newsworthy way that made it look cheap and dishonoring the queen of soul and R&B. Because it was written from a third person perspective, it left out the important parts and highlights that defined Whitney Houston career. Much is needed for a biography to be fairly written is by through research and personal interviews. This was done as a moneygrabber I say for sure.

[Lisa Brandt · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don't. Just don't. Even if it's on sale for 1.99, don't. A glaringly obvious grammatical error (not a typo) in the first couple of pages had me worried. Then repetitive paragraphs with a barf bag full of adjectives sealed its fate. This could actually be AI. Regardless, it's poorly written with nothing original or insightful to say. Just vague words filling meaningless pages.

Don't!

[rad librarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Felt like I was reading a book full of tabloid rumors.

[Suzanne Olson · Rating 1 out of 5]

So many grammatical errors, I couldn’t get past the first page. Verb tense matters!!

[Sue Ricketts]

I didn't like this one

I thought this book was about Whitney Houston. but I was about 20% into the book and it wad still all about her extended family. Not what I hoped for.

[Serenity · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title of this book Whitney Houston!: The Spectacular Rise and Tragic Fall of the Woman Whose Voice Inspired a Generation. The author is Mark Begeo. He did a great job on describing Whitney Houston's life. He gave so many great facts and details about her life.The setting was, well there was no one specific setting. The major settings were the places she performed at and the places she lived. I found this book on small shelf in the library. There were not that many characters in this book. The main character was Whitney Houston. The minor characters are her daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown, her husband Bobby Brown, and Clive Davis. Whitney Houston had a great life. She had several downs but then she also had a lot of ups too. Whitney was a superstar as well as hero. A hero is someone who is admired by many people and they often time has courage they have many achievements. She held all of these traits she was a icon.


You might think you know a lot about Whitney, but I promise you do not.Her life was like a rollercoaster. She started off well her voice was just amazing. Her voice sounded like gold. Her number one hit was “I will always love you”. However she was being abused and doing all types of drugs. She went on a trip with her husband, and he put his hands on her. It was so bad she went to the hospital. She told them that she fell off the boat,but the paparazzi said that they saw him put his hands on her. She lied because she loved Bobby. With her always doing drugs on a day to day basis, she was about to get her daughter taken because she was being accused of child abuse. The effects of her drug use led to no communication between her and Bobbi Kristina.


This book ended sorrowfully. Mrs. Houston was pronounced dead, found in the hotel bathtub before her show. She was underwater and apparently she was pronounced unconscious according to this book, which later ended in her death. Her dead body was transported on a plane back to her home state which was in New Jersey. My favorite quote was “Crack is cheap, I make too much money to ever smoke crack, crack is wack”. I like this book because she is telling a story about using drugs.


In my own opinion I believe this book was extraordinary. I learned so much about Mrs. Whitney. I never knew she had such a crazy life. The way she showed her life on the stage as being perfect person,but in reality it was not so perfect. If you like reading biographies and want to learn a person's life in another perspective, then this book is meant for you.

[Joshua Wiles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whitney Houston's story is a familiar one: rise to fame, become America's sweetheart, and then fall from grace in spectacular fashion. It's a story almost as old as the Bible. And it's becoming an ever more familiar Hollywood story. From Marilyn Monroe to Lindsay Lohan, we've seen the themes of this story in newspapers and tabloid rags for decades. As with those stars and Whitney it takes a book like this to get the full story.

Whitney's story is probably unique in that no star has ever crashed and burned so spectacularly in such a very public way. In this book we not only learn about the tragic events that led to her death, but why. Whitney, the singer and actress was manufactured by the head of Arista, Clive Davis. To make her more profitable, he marketed her and her music towards white people. Amid her struggles fitting into an image that society would find respectable and her sexuality she rebelled by marrying the piece of trash known as Bobby Brown. He soon led her into a lifestyle of drugs and domestic abuse. Despite her success with The Bodyguard and several films that followed afterward (and their respective soundtracks), the drugs and hard lifestyle began to take a toll. Chronic lateness, struggles with her voice, and attitude problems began to populate news stories about her. And then Diane Sawyer interviewed her, showing America just what a mess she truly was. Her struggles continued until she finally divorced Bobby Brown. And once again, Clive Davis worked with her to manufacture a comeback she wasn't ready for. Commencing a tour showed that while she looked better than she had in years, she was pushed too fast into making a comeback. The voice that sent chills down the spines of listeners in songs like One Moment in Time and I Will Always Love You had been destroyed by her hard partying lifestyle. Not longer after, she died, still struggling with a drug problem.

Whitney Houston!: The Spectacular Rise and Tragic Fall of the Woman Whose Voice Inspired a Generation by Mark Bego is a very in depth book into what led to the tragic death to one of the greatest singers ever seen on this Earth. It is not without it's flaws though. Frequent typos, missing words, and spelling errors frequent the text. But they can be overlooked thanks to the detailed outline of Whitney's life. I would recommend this book to any fan of Whitney's music and films as well as those who are simply curious about what led to her tragic death at 48.

[Jeannie Tillery · Rating 2 out of 5]

more if a review of her songs and albums...vague about her life story

[Ryan Scheel · Rating 5 out of 5]

it was a really great book looking into the music and performing side of Whitney. It was entertaining and kept me wanting to read more. I would recommend it to anyone who is a whitney fan