Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou- Reshelved Books

Happy May all!

We've officially been in quarantine now for, oh... 7 weeks now?  If we're using March 9th as a start date.  We spent the entire month of April in quarantine and I didn't much reading for fun... I have 2 books that I'm halfway through because I'm a terrible slacker.  


Today, I decided to write a review for a book that I read a little over a year ago.  At the time, I had started a review that was sitting in queue and for whatever reason, I just never finished it.  I actually went and erased the review.  With everything that's going on and with these long days that sometimes blend into each other, coupled with the rain; what better time to read a book that's super long but super captivating?! 

There is no better time but the now. 

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou came out almost 2 years ago now.  I remember seeing it when it first hit the new nonfiction shelf at the library.  I decided at the time not to it check out but I regretted that decision- the book quickly became unavailable because everyone was looking for a copy and there was a hold list for it.  

Since I can be an inpatient at times, I went out and a snagged my own hardcover copy.  (Which ended up being for the better because I've loaned it out to several people.)

This book is deception, lies, insanity and true crime all rolled into one!  It's not true crime in that anyone died or that there was a hit placed on someone but what happened this entire scheme and how people invested money and they lost their investments and the lies.  It was a very crazy story.

Elizabeth Holmes is a college dropout who decided that she would create a service where one drop of blood could be used for a plethora of lab tests.  One little drop of blood could be used X amount of times and tell the medical history of a patient.  It was definitely a cool idea and like Holmes said, it was great for people (like her) who didn't like having their blood drawn. 

The problem with Theranos was that it tried to something that wasn't possible.  Instead of admitting this and trying to change her approach, Holmes continues to LIE.  Her lies grew BIGGER.  The company started to fail overtime, it became a place that was a workplace hazard on top of various of the other things.  Employees were afraid to reach out through the proper channels in fear of retaliation.  

Eventually John Carreyrou, an investigative journalist for The Wall Street Journal heard about Theranos and Holmes and did an expose article on it.  (It was on on the same caliber as Tiger King.)

There is so more about this story that I can't even began to describe here in this post.  Whether you snag a copy digitally or if you listen to it as audiobook, it's totally worth investing the time into it.  This book was an easy 5 coffee beans out of 5. 

Happy reading!
- Jillian