Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
One of the most gripping business journalism books, I’ve ever read! Having been a long-time fan of stories about legendary companies and their leaders and having heard great reviews about this book, I’d been eager to read this one for long now. And boy am I glad I waited and read the book! Now I can go and watch the documentary. Haha!
The author narrates an unbelievable story and that’s what keeps you hooked throughout. The book is not over-stuffed with medical jargon that people from outside the industry would be put off by it. Also, the chapters were not too long and could command reasonable chunks of attention from the reader.
So, just to put it out there, if you already have an idea about the story and want to simply understand why Elizabeth Holmes did what she did then you wouldn’t find that in this book. Holmes refused to be interviewed for the book. Despite the turnout of the events, Carreyrou has portrayed her in as non-judgmental way as possible which is truly an admirable quality in a journalist.
One thing that I’d like to point out from my experience of having read a bunch of such books is that a big reason for this book to have garnered such wonderful and well-deserved reviews is because the story is stupendous and you keep wanting to know more. This leads to two things - First, the laudable quality of the author’s writing to be consumed by the story and second, you don’t get to see the author’s unique story-telling style or his narration!
Terrific journalism from Carreyrou and commendation for having stood his ground and continued investigation into the series of events. Cheers to everyone at Wall Street Journal for going up against the entire clan behind Theranos helmed by Holmes and backed by Balwani. Going by the experience of this book, I’d love to read more such accounts from John Carreyrou in the future as well.
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