Scan barcode
A review by georgereads982
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou
3.5
The story of theranos and its downfall was compelling to begin with, however it quickly became confusing as more and more employees/teams/investors/complicated medical jargon was introduced. I think John Carreryou's narrative started out strong, but as he introduced himself into the story it quickly became messy, jumping from person to person and situation to situation with no real sense of structure.
The level of detail was also frustratingly inconsistent. Some details that seemed unimportant were mentioned multiple times (take a shot everytime he mentions people being thrown by Elizabeth's "deep" voice) whereas moments that provided context and allowed the story to progress were only mentioned briefly or never mentioned again - particularly with regard to deals that Elizabeth made and the manipulation she engaged in. The downfall of theranos and everything that happened after the Wall Street Journal article was completely glossed over which was a strange choice. Carreryou only wrote one chapter about the aftermath of his article and how theranos was affected despite the (sometimes unnecessary) detail he went into regarding trivial things within the company in its early years.
Overall Bad Blood was an interesting and compelling read but it could have done with a bit of fine tuning.
The level of detail was also frustratingly inconsistent. Some details that seemed unimportant were mentioned multiple times (take a shot everytime he mentions people being thrown by Elizabeth's "deep" voice) whereas moments that provided context and allowed the story to progress were only mentioned briefly or never mentioned again - particularly with regard to deals that Elizabeth made and the manipulation she engaged in. The downfall of theranos and everything that happened after the Wall Street Journal article was completely glossed over which was a strange choice. Carreryou only wrote one chapter about the aftermath of his article and how theranos was affected despite the (sometimes unnecessary) detail he went into regarding trivial things within the company in its early years.
Overall Bad Blood was an interesting and compelling read but it could have done with a bit of fine tuning.