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  • Didn’t We Almost Have It All

  • In Defense of Whitney Houston
  • By: Gerrick D. Kennedy
  • Narrated by: Leon Nixon
  • Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
  • 3.8 out of 5 stars (17 ratings)

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Didn’t We Almost Have It All cover art

Didn’t We Almost Have It All

By: Gerrick D. Kennedy
Narrated by: Leon Nixon
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Publisher's Summary

A candid exploration of the genius, shame, and celebrity of Whitney Houston a decade after her passing

On February 11, 2012, Whitney Houston was found submerged in the bathtub of her suite at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. In the decade since, the world has mourned her death amid new revelations about her relationship to her Blackness, her sexuality, and her addictions. Didn’t We Almost Have It All is author Gerrick Kennedy’s exploration of the duality of Whitney’s life as both a woman in the spotlight and someone who often had to hide who she was. This is the story of Whitney’s life, her whole life, told with both grace and honesty.

Long before that fateful day in 2012, Whitney split the world wide open with her voice. Hers was a once-in-a-generation talent forged in Newark, New Jersey, and blessed with the grace of the church and the wisdom of a long lineage of famous gospel singers. She redefined “The Star-Spangled Banner.” She became a box-office powerhouse, a queen of the pop charts, and an international superstar. But all the while, she was forced to rein in who she was amid constant accusations that her music wasn’t Black enough, original enough, honest enough.

Kennedy deftly peels back the layers of Whitney’s complex story to get to the truth at the core of what drove her, what inspired her, and what haunted her. He pulls the narrative apart into the key elements that informed her life - growing up in the famed Drinkard family; the two romantic relationships that shaped the entirety of her adult life, with Robyn Crawford and Bobby Brown; her fraught relationship to her own Blackness and the ways in which she was judged by the Black community; her drug and alcohol addiction; and, finally, the shame that she carried in her heart, which informed every facet of her life. 

Drawing on hundreds of sources, Kennedy takes listeners back to a world in which someone like Whitney simply could not be and explains in excruciating detail the ways in which her fame did not and could not protect her.

In the time since her passing, the world and the way we view celebrity have changed dramatically. A sweeping look at Whitney’s life, Didn’t We Almost Have It All contextualizes her struggles against the backdrop of tabloid culture, audience consumption, mental-health stigmas, and racial divisions in America. It explores exactly how and why we lost a beloved icon far too soon.

©2022 Gerrick Kennedy. Published in 2022 by Abrams Press, an imprint of ABRAMS, New York. All rights reserved. (P)2022 Blackstone Publishing

What listeners say about Didn’t We Almost Have It All

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

I will always love Whitney❤️

A sad and very tragic story, told by a lovely
man. May God Bless him.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

super repetitive and uninformative

this has to be the most boring, repetitive, unresearched and uninformed attempt at a biography I've ever read. i tried assiduously 3 times to get through it, but it's impossible. 99% of the narrative is just the author shoving his views on racism down the audience's throat and repeating words of Whitney's song lyrics. while many of his views are completely valid, they have very little to do with Whitney's life and career, and do not belong in a book of anybody's life but his own. the constant stream of overly sentimental, empty and unimaginative refrains are positively sickening. i have never given a negative review on a book before, but this is just pure torture to try and get through, especially for someone like myself who was hugely interested in finding out about Whitney's life and career. argh!

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Male narrator for a female character felt odd

When the story is about a female character and written by a female it just seems odd to have a male narrator telling the story. Why wouldn’t they have chosen a female narrator for this?

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Fascinating

A great insight into the life of a legend! I was never a fan due to my age but have a new appreciation for the struggles she had both in and out of the public eye. will never listen to her songs the same way!

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Why ?

It was a story that was interesting at the beginning. Because there was a lot information that I didn't know but there was too much repeating of content. The author uses the race card far too often. I never saw any colour has I grew up and have never felt that Whitney sold out or was too " white" it was music and just that.

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