Bad Blood explores the rise and fall of both Theranos and the company's founder, Elizabeth Holmes. It details Holmes' efforts to circumvent numerous regulatory agencies in a bid to gain prestige and valuable V.C. (venture capital) dollars while peddling technology that is dubious at best. The depth of her maneuvers defies the political spectrum and exposes flaws of human optimism in a jaw dropping way. The book also shows the precarious and almost superficial nature of life in Silicon Valley and just how much whistleblowing can cost a person's sanity (or even life).

anyone interested in the following topics: ethics, Silicon Valley business practices, medical devices, health care reform, military workings, whistleblowing, cybersecurity, and people wanting to try their hand at reading nonfiction for the first time.

The structure of the book helped move the pace along. It was largely in chronological order, but Carreyrou used some flashbacks to develop more context. His transitions between the most current point time in a chapter and a previous point (plus vice versa) are seamless. Sometimes you don't even notice that you've made your way back to the present time.

Carreyrou repeatedly mentioned how people were surprised at Holmes' baritone voice. He used that phrase a lot, and it was kind of distracting.

find out more about how Medicare regulations impact health care for people of all ages. It was ultimately that regulatory board (and not the FDA) that toppled Theranos for good.

outraged that such IT security practices (such as constant spying on the employees) were outright encouraged. As someone who plans to enter the cybersecurity field, the tactics that Holmes and Balwani used in the offices made me want to go to their trials to yell at them about their blatant lack of ethics.

works for the Wall Street Journal and showed through being up front about his employer's actions to protect him why there may still be some hope for a free press in the United States. (It also shows why we need to suck it up and start paying for our news again.)

It's a compelling read that won't take that long to get through. Yes, it's around 300 pages. It does not feel like a long book. I read slowly, but even I got through this in about a week and a half. People who read fast will get through this book quickly but will still feel a TON of emotions afterwards.

I will say that there is a depiction of suicide in this book. If suicide is a trigger for you, this may not be the best book to read. It's not a huge component of the narrative, but it plays a sizable role (and was also one of the few moments where I felt genuinely saddened by how much Holmes' actions eroded employee morale).

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Created Mar 16, 2019 at 12:46pm • Submit your own review...