I’ve been wanting to read this ever since I’ve heard of it, but unfortunately, all the paperback copies in the library are forever on loan. Finally, though, the ebook versions arrived and I immediately placed a hold for this book.

Bad Blood is the story of Theranos. Once heralded as the startup that would change the world with its revolutionary technology, it was eventually exposed as a fake through a series of articles by John Carreyrou, the author of this book.

The book itself can be divided into two main sections. The first tells the story of Theranos from the insider’s point of view – how it started, how the culture of fear and intimidation was created and maintained, and the heavy-handed way Elizabeth Holmes and Sunny handled those who dared to stick up for what was right. The second half of the book tells the story of John Carreyrou as he experiences the full force of Holmes and Sunny’s legal wrath as they try to stop his investigation and intimidate his sources into silence.

After reading this, I have so much respect for Carreyrou and those who dared to speak up, such as Tyler Shultz, Erika Cheung, and Alan Beam. They spoke to Carreyrou despite the pressure put on them and because of them, the real face of Theranos was revealed. There was a lot of tragedy in the book, such as the suicide of Ian Gibbons, who was driven to death by Elizabeth and Sunny, and the persecution of his widow. Not to mention all the people who trusted Theranos to give them accurate results and were deceived.

I’ve also lost respect for some famous people, such as Henry Kissinger and the other illustrious members of the Theranos board. Although they were not medical experts and were hence more easily fooled, it was astonishing that not one of them questioned Elizabeth. Especially for people like George Shultz, whose grandson worked at Theranos and blew the whistle – how did he believe Elizabeth over him? This is a classic case of the appeal to authority fallacy; even though these people weren’t medical experts, they gave legitimacy to Theranos because of their expertise in their respective (non-medical) fields.

It also made me angry that Elizabeth was able to raise so much funds and achieve such prestigious partnerships despite the red flags. Not a single medical VC invested in her, consultants for Walgreens warned against the deal, and yet, she raised millions of dollars and her technology was allowed to put many people at risk. It goes to show that family connections and the ability to tell people what they want to hear can accomplish a lot.

Even though there are a lot of people in this book, due to the high turnover at the company, I found this account extremely easy to read and follow along. The key figures were vividly written and the first thing I googled after finishing this was to see if the relationship between Tyler and his grandfather had been mended (according to a line in this article, it has been).

I think that this is the definitive book on the Theranos incident. It’s not only an account of the history of Theranos and how one young woman manage to fool so many people for so many years, it also shows how important investigative journalism is. If John Carreyrou had bowed to the pressure from Elizabeth’s lawyers, the story would never have been published and Theranos would still be harming people.

If books aren’t your thing, ABC has a podcast on Theranos called The Dropout. They are still releasing new episodes, but I’ve found that the content so far is the same as what’s covered in Bad Blood. No surprise, since Carreyrou and his sources are interviewed extensively, but if you’re looking for another take on Theranos, it may be worth listening to this.