Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Bad Blood is the mind-boggling story of woman in her journey to defraud people and make tons of money. She claims to have “invented” a new technology that could test a miniscule amount of blood quickly, accurately, and with a device that takes up a small amount of space on a countertop or shelf. Her journey is ridiculous. The company, Theranos, seemed like it had the unhealthiest culture and I do not understand how anyone could remain there for months, even years, especially the people in the know. Does no one have a conscience? There were some good eggs that ended up talking but it seemed like there should have been many more. Her actions potentially had the consequence of killing people as well, but she didn’t care. I don’t want to use her name as she is despicable. She is currently serving jail time thankfully, but it doesn’t seem like it is enough. She dropped out of college as she claimed she wanted to change the world and revolutionize the medical industry. I may be cynical and I definitely do not know her, but she seems full of it. She even changed her voice. She is a compulsive liar and doesn’t show any contrition about what she has done or how it affected people. This book was so enthralling, and I wanted to keep reading to find out how the story unfolds and how it ended. The entire time I was baffled how she got away with everything. How could no one raise any flags or look deeper into the details? Even big names like Walgreens and Henry Kissinger fell for the scheme. This just further shows the problem with greed in this country. Everyone just wants to make a quick buck regardless of the legality, morality, or consequences. John Carreyrou does an astounding job conveying the trajectory of her rise and deserved fall. He chronicles it well but one thing I found hard was keeping track of all the names of people involved. There were so many! John did his homework and deserved all the accolades. When I was reading it felt like there was a flipflop between good and evil. One chapter felt that she was getting away with everything and deceiving everyone whereas the next chapter it felt like someone was standing up and that she might be caught. It was crafted well and I enjoyed it. Throughout my time reading this book there were several instances where I could feel tension in my body regarding my frustration with what was happening and the pull to find out more. It was a physical reaction to this read. I wanted to find out that it ended badly for her and the company. I wanted her to be punished and to see that people cannot get away with hurting others. I was hooked on the story and I couldn’t wait to finish. This story exemplifies things that piss me off the most (lying, hurting others, and getting away with it) which is why I didn’t want to give it five stars but I feel it is such a great book I will. It is a must read.
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