Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

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

9 reviews

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.5

This book was so very well-written, and I would recommend the e-book specifically or a later published copy, since it has extra material in the back about the court proceedings. I really admire Mr. Carreyrou's fearlessness and tenacity to make sure this whole story was told and fact-checked. It's very clear from the writing that the investigation was extensive, and Theranos tried to make that as hard for him as possible. As for Elizabeth Holmes, did she have a a rough time in college (including possibly being a victim of assault) and was influenced and at least a little groomed by Sunny? Very possibly. Was he verbally or in other ways abusive? Also very possibly. But she knew exactly what she was doing and who she was scamming. She knew her products didn't work and that every other thing out of her fake male-sounding voice was a lie. It's still so wild that she got so many old white dudes to give her money.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Medical content, Stalking, and Classism

Minor: Cancer, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

wyabook234's review against another edition

dark informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Medical content, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Bullying, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Emotional abuse and Sexual assault

sea_tea_books's review against another edition

informative tense

4.5

Suggested alternate title: "Theranos: The Cult of Elizabeth Holmes." Several times the book mentioned Elizabeth tried to emulate (or maybe become?) her idol Steve Jobs, and that she rounded up her employees, telling them to blindly obey her as she was building a religion. Yikes.

"Theranos operated under a culture of secrecy and fear." Secrets make us sick.

Another case where capitalism overthrows science and critical thinking.

Unbelievable how many

enablers Elizabeth was able to surround herself with. That may have been the key as to how she was able to get so far in her farce, waste so much money, and harm so many people without being stopped. Any skeptics or whistleblowers were promptly squashed with fear mongering, squeezed with non-disclosure agreements, or stuck in litigation limbo. Even Elizabeth's supposed right hand man Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani wasn't safe from her wrath when she scapegoated and dumped him as the company sank deeper into legal trouble. Nepotism and wealthy "old boy" men permitted her illegal behavior – while turning a blind eye to common sense and scientific evidence – in return for a chance at increasing their personal wealth. American capitalism (read: selfishness and greed) at its finest. 

Don't get me wrong, Elizabeth Holmes deserves the blame. She is guilty, not only of crimes punishable by prison time, but also of being a deceptive, manipulative, scarily harmful saleswoman who can never be trusted again. She does not appear to show remorse for any of her behavior, nor does she accept any blame for her wrongdoing. The magnitude of her denial is bewildering. Let's put it this way, Dr. Ramani Durvasula could have a field day assessing Elizabeth Holmes. Dr. Ramani often says she doesn't trust charismatic people; how relevant in this case.

An interesting part of this book was

that it told the story of how someone as callous, manipulative, and ruthless as Elizabeth Holmes could continue her reign of terror for so long in this country, nestled comfortably among the wealthy zealots willing to overlook glaring problems, bypass due diligence, and deftly skirt consequences.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Medical content

torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

challenging dark informative tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Stalking, and Gaslighting

Minor: Eating disorder, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, Dysphoria, and Pandemic/Epidemic

readingsponsoredbybts's review against another edition

informative mysterious tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cancer, Chronic illness, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Cursing, Misogyny, and Stalking

jessthanthree's review against another edition

informative tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse and Gaslighting

Moderate: Cancer, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

mermaidsherbet's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Medical content, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Cancer, Chronic illness, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Stalking, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Suicide

rovardotter's review against another edition

challenging informative mysterious tense medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying

Minor: Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting

bardic_llama's review against another edition

adventurous informative mysterious tense medium-paced

3.5

Only gripe I really had while reading is that multiple acronyms would be introduced early on in the 1st half of the book and I'd forget their meanings when they were then used in the 2nd half. Main one being CLIA-clinical laboratory improvement amendments. 

Also I'm not a big nonfiction reader as I struggle to keep focused especially around the midway point but one's written by journalists like this one & Jon Ronson's The Psychopath Test, I've throughly enjoyed mostly due to their writing style. They feel as if they're written by common folk for common folk in which they always explain enough but give ways for the reader to search up more if needed/wanted.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Toxic relationship, Medical content, and Gaslighting

Minor: Adult/minor relationship