Bad Blood, John Carreyrou, 2018

Bad Blood Review

About

John Carreyrou’s Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup (2018) is investigative journalism at its sharpest. It tells the true story of Theranos—the biotech startup founded by Elizabeth Holmes—and its spectacular collapse. Carreyrou, a Wall Street Journal reporter, exposes how ambition and deception intertwined to create one of the biggest corporate frauds in modern history.

Overview

The book follows Holmes’s rise as she promises to revolutionize blood testing with a device that could diagnose dozens of conditions from a single drop of blood. What begins as visionary entrepreneurship quickly morphs into a culture of secrecy, intimidation, and fabrication. Carreyrou methodically traces how lies became business strategy, fueled by investors’ greed and the mythology of Silicon Valley innovation.

Summary

(light spoilers) Holmes founds Theranos at 19, attracting powerful backers and a near-religious following in the tech world. But behind the scenes, her company’s technology never works as advertised. Carreyrou interviews whistleblowers, former employees, and scientists who reveal a pattern of cover-ups, data manipulation, and moral blindness. The narrative builds like a thriller, leading to the journalistic investigation that finally brought the company down. The story isn’t just about corporate fraud—it’s about how charisma and narrative can blind even the most sophisticated minds.

Key Themes / Main Ideas

• Deception and power — how storytelling overrides truth.
• Ethics in innovation — when disruption becomes delusion.
• Psychology of leadership — ambition without accountability.
• Whistleblowing — courage in the face of intimidation.
• Media and myth — the danger of believing the story we want to hear.

Strengths and Weaknesses

• Strengths — Investigative precision; tension worthy of fiction.
• Strengths — Illuminates systemic failure beyond one person.
• Weaknesses — Technical sections may slow pacing for some readers.
• Weaknesses — Focuses heavily on Holmes; supporting players feel underexplored.

Reviewed with focus on themes, audience, and takeaways — John Carreyrou