A riveting tour de force
Carreyrou’s commitment to unraveling Holmes’ crimes is literally of life-saving value.
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 John 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 was literally of life-saving value. Carol Haggas, in a starred review for BOOKLIST
Eye-opening. A vivid, cinematic portrayal of serpentine Silicon Valley corruption.
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. He 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. KIRKUS REVIEWS
A bracing cautionary tale about visionary entrepreneurship gone very wrong. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, a starred review
