Bad Blood
Bad Blood will officially be known as the slump-breaker. Sometimes, I need a break in my romance reading. If I read too many books—back to back—in the same genre, I hit a wall. After my lovely roommate patiently listened to my whining about having nothing to read, despite owning 500+ books, she suggested Bad Blood. She knew I had wanted to read it and a coworker had just lent her a copy.
I devoured it.
I don’t read a lot of nonfiction, though perhaps it’s all about finding my niche. If my enjoyment of Bad Blood is any indication, my niche is bonkers-level “truth is stranger than fiction” nonfiction.
If you are unfamiliar, Bad Blood is about the biotech startup, Theranos, and its implosion after the company’s multi-billion dollar technology was found to have been nonexistent. My knowledge of both medical engineering and the startup world is extremely limited, but author, John Carreyrou, does a fantastic job making the environment approachable to any layman. There is, however, a revolving door of employees at Theranos and some sort of flowchart would have been helpful in keeping the hires and fires straight.
I do want to note that due to the pressures of working with Theranos, one of its employees does commit suicide and the relationship between that employee and Theranos, and the work pressures that led to his suicide, are researched in the book. Take care while reading.
Aside from that, there are also multiple instances of bullying and intimidation by Theranos’ founder and upper management.
A bulk of the book is about how Theranos began and how it brought in many famous, rich, and male investors. Things abruptly end at the big reveal, where people begin to learn about Theranos’ duplicity. I was disappointed that it seemed to pull up short, as I wanted to have a more satisfying resolution, but with the SEC currently investigating Theranos, there isn’t really an end just yet.
At times unbelievable, this book will definitely have you yelling in frustration, “Are you fucking kidding me?” It’s truly a testament to how much someone can get away with when they have money, connections, and charm on their side.
– Amanda
The full inside story of the breathtaking rise and shocking collapse of a multibillion-dollar startup, by the prize-winning journalist who first broke the story and pursued it to the end in the face of pressure and threats from the CEO and her lawyers.
In 2014, Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes was widely seen as the female Steve Jobs: a brilliant Stanford dropout whose startup “unicorn” promised to revolutionize the medical industry with a machine that would make blood tests significantly faster and easier. Backed by investors such as Larry Ellison and Tim Draper, Theranos sold shares in a fundraising round that valued the company at $9 billion, putting Holmes’s worth at an estimated $4.7 billion. There was just one problem: The technology didn’t work.
For years, Holmes had been misleading investors, FDA officials, and her own employees. When Carreyrou, working at The Wall Street Journal, got a tip from a former Theranos employee and started asking questions, both Carreyrou and the Journal were threatened with lawsuits. Undaunted, the newspaper ran the first of dozens of Theranos articles in late 2015. By early 2017, the company’s value was zero and Holmes faced potential legal action from the government and her investors. Here is the riveting story of the biggest corporate fraud since Enron, a disturbing cautionary tale set amid the bold promises and gold-rush frenzy of Silicon Valley.
Nonfiction
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