Bad Blood by John Carreyrou Review | ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ (4/5) | The Startup That Convinced the World… Until It Couldn't 💉📉
There are some real-life stories that are honestly stranger than fiction.
This is one of them.
Before I ever picked up Bad Blood, I already knew who Elizabeth Holmes was. Like most people, I'd heard about the impossibly deep voice, the black turtlenecks, the claim that she could perform hundreds of blood tests from a single finger prick, and the meteoric rise to becoming the world's youngest self-made female billionaire.
But unlike many people...
I remember hearing about Theranos years ago and immediately thinking:
"Wait...that doesn't sound possible." 🤨
Maybe that's because I grew up around science. My parents are chemists, and my dad even holds several chemistry patents. I'm certainly not a scientist myself, but I spent enough time around scientific conversations to know that extraordinary claims usually require extraordinary evidence.
Theranos seemed to have extraordinary claims...
...but remarkably little evidence.
So I absolutely had to read Bad Blood.
📚 Book Information
Title: Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
Author: John Carreyrou
Published: 2018 (Updated Edition: 2020)
Genre: Nonfiction • Investigative Journalism • Business • True Crime • Corporate Fraud
My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ (4/5)
⚠️ Trigger Warnings
This book contains discussions of:
Suicide
Workplace bullying and intimidation
Medical negligence
Fraud and deception
Corporate corruption
Whistleblower retaliation
Legal harassment
Surveillance and stalking
Emotional abuse
Patient harm
Financial loss
💭 My Thoughts
The biggest question I hoped this book would answer was surprisingly simple:
How did Elizabeth Holmes convince so many incredibly smart people that Theranos was real?
We're talking about world leaders.
Generals.
Billionaire investors.
Scientists.
Board members with decades of experience.
Even Henry Kissinger.
Surely somebody would have walked into Theranos, looked around, and said,
"Hang on...show me the machine actually working." 😂
That mystery has fascinated me for years.
I can't say Bad Blood completely answered it...
...but it definitely gave me a much clearer picture.
Elizabeth Holmes wasn't simply charismatic.
She was incredibly secretive.
She isolated departments so employees couldn't compare notes.
She fired anyone who questioned her.
She surrounded herself with loyal believers instead of experts willing to challenge her.
She was apparently exceptional at pitching investors—particularly older, influential men who seemed captivated by both her vision and her confidence.
She also came from a well-connected family, worked relentlessly, and by all accounts was highly intelligent.
None of those things built a working blood-testing machine...
...but they certainly helped build a company that looked like one.
One person I kept thinking about while reading was Anna Delvey.
They're obviously very different people.
Anna largely fabricated an identity to gain access to wealth and status.
Elizabeth actually built an enormously successful company on paper.
She raised hundreds of millions of dollars.
She hired hundreds of employees.
She convinced Walgreens, Safeway, and some of the biggest names in politics and business to back her vision.
But both women shared an uncanny ability to make people believe.
That's a fascinating talent...
...when it's being used honestly.
As for the book itself...
John Carreyrou did an incredible job.
You can tell immediately that this wasn't rushed journalism.
The reporting is meticulous.
The interviews are extensive.
The evidence is carefully laid out.
Everything builds piece by piece until the whole illusion starts collapsing.
That said...
The middle section did begin to feel repetitive.
Employee after employee would discover something wasn't right.
They'd raise concerns.
They'd get ignored.
Then they'd either resign...
...or get fired.
Repeat.
It accurately reflects what happened, but after a while the pattern becomes familiar enough that the pacing slows down a little.
Still, I'd much rather have too much documented evidence than a sensationalized version of events.
The question I kept asking myself throughout the entire book was this:
Did Elizabeth Holmes actually believe in Theranos?
That's the part I still can't figure out.
Was this simply Silicon Valley's "fake it till you make it" culture taken far beyond its limits?
Did she genuinely believe the technology would eventually catch up with the promises?
Or did she know almost from the beginning that she was selling something impossible?
Maybe there wasn't one single moment.
Maybe she started out believing...
...and somewhere along the way crossed a line where admitting failure became impossible.
By then investors had poured in hundreds of millions.
Walgreens clinics were opening.
Patients were being tested.
The pressure had become enormous.
But even then...
What exactly did she think the endgame was?
Surely she couldn't have believed those Walgreens testing centers would continue producing unreliable results forever without anyone noticing.
Did she convince herself the next machine would finally work?
Did she begin believing her own story?
Or did she simply hope reality would somehow catch up?
We'll probably never know.
Elizabeth Holmes never participated in interviews for this book, and honestly...
Even if she had, I'm not sure I'd know what to believe.
📖 Plot Summary (Spoilers Below)
🚨 SPOILER WARNING 🚨
From this point onward, I'm discussing the entire story, including the ending of Bad Blood.
If you'd rather experience the investigation for yourself first...
now's your chance to escape. 🏃💨
Bad Blood Plot Summary (Full Spoilers)
Elizabeth Holmes grows up determined to become someone remembered by history. After enrolling at Stanford University to study chemical engineering, she develops the idea of revolutionizing blood testing by using only a tiny finger-prick sample instead of traditional blood draws. Convinced she has the next great medical breakthrough, she leaves Stanford in 2003 to found Theranos, combining the words "therapy" and "diagnosis."
The company's original concept changes repeatedly as engineers discover that Holmes's vision is far more difficult than she imagined. Eventually Theranos focuses on developing a compact blood-testing machine called the Edison, which Holmes claims can perform dozens of laboratory tests from just a few drops of blood.
Behind closed doors, however, the technology simply doesn't work.
Engineers constantly encounter technical failures, unreliable readings, and machines that break down. Instead of slowing development, Holmes pushes employees to promise investors that success is just around the corner. Departments are intentionally separated from one another, preventing staff from seeing the bigger picture. Employees who question the science or raise ethical concerns are frequently dismissed, often without warning.
Holmes begins a relationship with Sunny Balwani, who becomes Theranos's president despite having little experience in laboratory medicine. Together they create an intensely secretive corporate culture where fear becomes the primary management tool. Surveillance, legal threats, and aggressive confidentiality agreements become routine.
As Theranos attracts prestigious investors, Holmes assembles one of the most influential corporate boards in America. Former Secretary of State George Shultz, Henry Kissinger, General James Mattis, Sam Nunn, William Perry, and other prominent figures lend enormous credibility to the company despite having limited expertise in medical diagnostics.
Theranos announces partnerships with Walgreens and Safeway, promising convenient in-store testing centers that will transform healthcare. Patients begin providing finger-prick blood samples, believing the company's revolutionary technology is analyzing them.
In reality, much of the testing is secretly performed on conventional laboratory analyzers manufactured by other companies. Because those machines require larger blood samples than Theranos collects, technicians often dilute patient samples to make them usable, creating significant accuracy problems. Patients begin receiving dangerously incorrect test results, including false readings involving serious medical conditions.
One of the employees inspired by Holmes's vision is Tyler Shultz, the grandson of George Shultz. Initially enthusiastic, Tyler gradually realizes the company is concealing major problems. When he raises concerns internally, they are dismissed. After resigning, Tyler becomes one of several former employees subjected to aggressive legal intimidation designed to silence critics.
Another scientist, Ian Gibbons, faces tremendous pressure as legal disputes threaten to expose Theranos's technology. Already struggling personally, he dies by suicide before being required to testify, one of the book's most heartbreaking moments.
Meanwhile, Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou receives a tip suggesting Theranos may not be what it claims. He begins interviewing former employees, physicians, laboratory experts, and whistleblowers. As evidence accumulates, Theranos launches an aggressive campaign to stop publication. High-profile attorney David Boies threatens lawsuits against whistleblowers, journalists, and the Wall Street Journal itself.
Despite the pressure, Carreyrou publishes his investigation in October 2015.
The story immediately triggers widespread scrutiny.
Federal regulators inspect Theranos laboratories and discover serious deficiencies. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services conclude that patient safety has been placed in immediate jeopardy. Theranos is forced to void or correct hundreds of thousands of blood-test results.
Walgreens terminates its partnership and sues the company.
Safeway abandons its plans.
Investors begin filing lawsuits after learning the technology they funded never performed as advertised.
As public confidence collapses, Holmes attempts to shift attention toward a new machine called the miniLab, claiming it will finally deliver on Theranos's promises. Demonstrations fail to restore trust, and regulators remain unconvinced.
In 2018, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charges Holmes and Balwani with massive fraud. Holmes settles the SEC case by paying a financial penalty, surrendering voting control of Theranos, returning millions of company shares, and accepting a ten-year ban from serving as an officer or director of a public company.
Soon afterward, Theranos dissolves entirely after burning through nearly a billion dollars in investor money.
Following the events covered in the book, Holmes and Balwani were separately tried on federal criminal charges. Holmes was convicted on multiple counts of fraud in 2022 and later sentenced to more than eleven years in federal prison. Balwani was also convicted and received a longer prison sentence.
The company that once promised to revolutionize healthcare ultimately became one of the largest corporate frauds in modern history.
📚 Final Thoughts
I came into this book wanting one answer.
How did Elizabeth Holmes pull this off?
I left with a much better understanding of the mechanics of the fraud...
...but even more questions about Elizabeth herself.
The technology failed.
The science didn't work.
Those facts are no longer in dispute.
What remains fascinating is the psychology.
Was she an idealist who slowly crossed ethical lines?
A master manipulator from the beginning?
Or someone who gradually became trapped inside a lie too large to escape?
John Carreyrou can't answer that question.
Honestly, I don't think anyone can.
And maybe that's exactly why Elizabeth Holmes continues to fascinate people.
⭐ 4 out of 5 stars.
📖 If You Enjoyed Bad Blood, Try These
📚 Empire of Pain — Patrick Radden Keefe
📚 Billion Dollar Loser — Reeves Wiedeman
📚 The Smartest Guys in the Room — Bethany McLean & Peter Elkind
📚 Billion Dollar Whale — Tom Wright & Bradley Hope
📚 Too Big to Fail — Andrew Ross Sorkin
📚 The Cult of We — Eliot Brown & Maureen Farrell
📚 American Kingpin — Nick Bilton
📚 The Wizard of Lies — Diana B. Henriques
📚 No Filter — Sarah Frier
📚 Super Pumped — Mike Isaac
Comments
Post a Comment