Review: Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
/
5 stars. I can't get enough. I watched the documentary, I consumed the articles, I listened to the podcast - and now I've read the book. I couldn't put it down. This is by far the most comprehensive, thorough, insanely compelling account of what went down at Theranos and I'm tempted to start over and read it again. I squinted, I gasped, I chuckled, and I could not poker face away my expression of disbelief while reading on the train. I was not prepared for the frankly UNBELIEVABLE stranger than fiction details here.
THIS IS AN ASTOUNDING STORY. THIS IS A MUST-READ.
Who IS Elizabeth Holmes? Through John Carreyrou's impressive piece of investigative writing, we can indulge our fascination with her mystery. Using dry, practical writing to channel the voices of those involved, he pieces together anecdotes from her upbringing, her years at Stanford, her early days as a notably female entrepreneur and CEO, her stubborn rise to the top and her dramatic fall to the ground. He chips away at her quirky appearance - physical and otherwise - in an attempt to reconcile the trailblazer with the crime.
And it's stunning. And it's, awesomely, not just about her.
Here we get a detailed account of Theranos' early days: its attractive mission, the early concerns and the relentless ambition. We meet the Board and the lab techs and the investors and the partners and we learn the ins and outs of lab testing technology. We learn what's possible and what's not possible and we watch open-mouthed as ignorance, denial and fear usurp rational thinking. We get to know the heroes in this story and the man who put pen to paper to make things right.
It's really a story about us. A very human story about ambition, greed, fame, fear, and FOMO. We should absolutely look at this story as a lesson, or as a collection of lessons: fill your Board with EXPERTS. Do your research. Admit your mistakes. Don't manage with intimidation - a "culture of fear" will absolutely backfire. Check your fucking ego. DON'T ENDANGER LIVES. And also oh my fucking god DON'T LIE. But as a whole it's also a heartening reminder, at least in my opinion, that journalism still works, in a sense, for the people.
I hope this comes across as fair, but it's encouraging to know that somewhere out there, ethics still matter. Even in a country that elected a sexual predator to its highest office ... rich, selfish people can still face consequences for their actions. Justice exists somewhere thanks to the lab techs and the interns and the legal underdogs. Recognizing that this story is layered and complicated, and that the case is ongoing, of course, I'll admit that seeing Theranos go down was sickeningly satisfying. Elizabeth, Sunny: you will be remembered as fraudulent fools.
I want to go into the writing, too: it often crossed my mind, while reading, that pulling this together into an accessible narrative must've felt insurmountable at times. John Carreyrou deftly weaves together thousands of tangled, concurrent threads - including a lot of technical, scientific, medical and legal jargon plus some stuff about mechanical engineering - into a powerful pageturner. He never comes across as anything but dedicated to the truth and, maybe in some places, incredulous along with the rest of us.
I will obsessively follow this frightening story until it concludes. It's just interesting. And in the meantime, in-between the frantic Googling, I will re-read this book. I will highlight excessively and send passages to friends and family. Hats off to you, Carreyrou, for taking an incredible story and writing it well. Bad Blood is my favorite read of 2019, so far.