Reviews - Riverside Public Library

Booklist Reviews

*Starred Review* Stories of corporate fraud and malfeasance are so ubiquitous as to barely raise an eyebrow, so the shock-and-awe media coverage surrounding the charges of massive fraud against Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes indicated a story of nearly unprecedented significance. A teenage Stanford dropout when she patented her idea for developing portable devices to administer comprehensive tests using only a single drop of blood, Holmes had a meteoric rise in Silicon Valley. She was acknowledged as the youngest self-made female billionaire in the world, helped in large part by her doe-eyed, husky-voiced charisma that attracted the likes of former secretaries of state George Shultz and Henry Kissinger and current secretary of defense James Mattis to her board of directors. Yet the company's purported capabilities and successes were shams, created by Holmes' unwavering but deluded belief in her thesis and reinforced by a workplace run on intimidation, fear, and paranoia. It would take the dauntless efforts of Wall Street Journal reporter Carreyrou to expose Holmes for the charlatan she was. Crime thriller authors have nothing on Carreyrou's exquisite sense of suspenseful pacing and multifaceted character development in this riveting, read-in-one-sitting tour de force. Investigative journalists are perhaps the country's last true protectors of truth and justice, and Carreyrou's commitment to unraveling Holmes' crimes has been literally of life-saving value. Copyright 2018 Booklist Reviews.

Choice Reviews

Brace yourself for a gripping account of the rise and fall of the Theranos biotech company. This tale should interest any business, biomedical, law, or ethics student or faculty, but Amazon sales indicate much broader appeal. Carreyrou is a Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative reporter for the Wall Street Journal, earning awards for his coverage of Medicare fraud and corporate scandals. Bad Blood earned him the George Polk, Gerald Loeb, and Barlett & Steele awards. Bad Blood demonstrates not only Carreyrou's investigative expertise but also his gift for storytelling with mystery and intrigue. Carreyrou skillfully assembles the elusive truth from a vast assortment of facts, testimonies, and lies, under intense legal pressure from Theranos attorneys. He turns a complicated biotech topic into a comprehensible story. The author portrays founder Elizabeth Holmes, a Stanford dropout, as a calculating, manipulative young woman yet someone who possesses remarkable magnetism and powers of persuasion. Enabled by a well-connected family, the alluring Holmes ensnares the likes of Henry Kissinger, George Shultz, James Mattis, and Rupert Murdoch. Carreyrou's book holds a number of lessons for entrepreneurs, and readers are left with a reverence for this level of investigative reporting. Summing Up: Essential. All readership levels.

--C. LeBeau, University of Missouri--Kansas City

Chris LeBeau

University of Missouri--Kansas City

Kirkus Reviews

A deep investigative report on the sensationalistic downfall of multibillion-dollar Silicon Valley biotech startup Theranos.Basing his findings on hundreds of interviews with people inside and outside the company, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning Wall Street Journal reporter Carreyrou rigorously examines the seamy details behind the demise of Theranos and its creator, Elizabeth Holmes. Founded in 2003, when Holmes was just 19, the company's claim to "fame" was its revolutionary blood-testing system, which touted the detection of everything from high cholesterol to hepatitis C to cancer using only one drop of blood. While raising $9 billion through a series of aggressive (and falsified) claims and dozens of private investors, the company's spiking net worth caught Carreyrou's attention a few years ago. His eye-opening reporting on the company's inaccurate, voided, or corrected test results, as well as the loss of major retail partnerships with Walgreens and Safeway, knocked The ranos off the tech radar and left it irreversibly devastated. The author glosses over Holmes' history as an unpopular high schooler and, later, Stanford dropout, focusing on her early vision of the specialized blood-reading equipment, the rapid evolution of Theranos, and the early skepticism about the device's efficacy and reliability. The well-integrated employee profiles and testimonies effectively support Carreyrou's damning narrative and discredit Holmes as a power-hungry, avaricious young leader who courted venture capitalists with specious claims. Former Theranos employees paint Holmes as an increasingly tyrannical leader who demanded allegiance and who swiftly terminated those who she felt fell short of ultimate loyalty. The author brilliantly captures the interpersonal melodrama, hidden agendas, gross misrepresentations, nepotism, and a host of delusions and lies that further fractured the company's reputation and halted its rise. More recently, the Securities and Ex c hange Commission slapped Theranos and Holmes with fraud charges, though she still touts her device as having improved accuracy and importance. Already slated for feature film treatment, Carreyrou's exposé is a vivid, cinematic portrayal of serpentine Silicon Valley corruption. Copyright Kirkus 2018 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved.

Library Journal Reviews

Carreyrou's clearly written and accessible work can be compared to another outstanding business exposé, James B. Stewart's Den of Thieves—both are by Pulitzer Prize-winning Wall Street Journal reporters, both are based on deep investigative reporting, and both provide riveting accounts of business greed and fraud. In March 2018, Elizabeth Holmes and the health technology company Theranos settled SEC civil fraud charges by Holmes divesting control of the business and paying a large fine. Her former partner's case is pending. This work demonstrates how Holmes founded Theranos while in school at Stanford to provide a revolutionary blood-monitoring device using minimal blood. Holmes aspired to be like Steve Jobs, copying his dress and managerial style. She charmed and cajoled wealthy and powerful mentors who helped her raise millions. Inside the company, she and her partner terrorized highly skilled employees who were fired when they could not deliver quick results to match her promises. To stave off questions, the company believed it could "fake-it-until-you-make-it," a Silicon Valley flaw, per Carreyrou. Using aggressive tactics and pit bull attorneys, Theranos squelched dissent and threatened the author. VERDICT Highly recommended for all collections.—Harry Charles, St. Louis

PW Annex Reviews

An apparent scientific breakthrough rests on a quicksand of deception in this riveting account of the rise and downfall of notorious biotech firm Theranos. Expanding on his award-winning investigative scoops, Pulitzer-winning Wall Street Journal reporter Carreyrou recounts how Elizabeth Holmes, a charismatic Stanford dropout, started Theranos with claims of a revolutionary blood-testing technology that needed just a few drops from a finger-prick rather than tubefulls drawn from veins with needles. Her start-up became the toast of Silicon Valley, with a $9 billion valuation and a board including former secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and George Shultz. The reality, he reports, was less stellar: the company's flawed tests did not meet regulatory standards and gave dangerously inaccurate results, investors and journalists were snowed with fake demos, and Holmes and her second-in-command (and boyfriend), Sunny Balwani, dismissed employees' concerns and drove many out with verbal abuse and computer surveillance. The author's investigation is part of the story: as he pursues the truth, Theranos's attorneys, led by Bush v. Gore lawyer David Boies, intimidate his sources with lawsuit threats. In the end it is Holmes who is targeted with a lawsuit by the Securities and Exchange Commission for "an elaborate, years-long fraud" and forced to relinquish voting control over the company and pay a six-figure penalty. Carreyrou blends lucid descriptions of Theranos's technology and its failures with a vivid portrait of its toxic culture and its supporters' delusional boosterism. The result is a bracing cautionary tale about visionary entrepreneurship gone very wrong. Agent: Eric Lupfer, Fletcher & Company. (May)