Is there an audiobook of Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup?

Yes. Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup has an Audible audiobook edition, narrated by Will Damron.

Is Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup on Kindle Unlimited?

No. Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup was not included with Kindle Unlimited when we last checked on August 3, 2026.

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou book cover for the Book of the Day journalism book review

Our score

4.7/ 5

Outstanding

Listen to Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup free with an Audible trial Narrator, runtime & our audio review

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EDITION PUBLISHEDMay 2018

PublisherScribe UK/Picador

Genres

Non-Fiction Journalism

Themes

Fraud and the limits of charismaWhistleblowing and the cost of speaking upTech hype versus the stakes of medicine

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup

Name: Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
Price: 12.99 USD
Availability: InStock
Author: John Carreyrou

John Carreyrou

John Carreyrou's Bad Blood reconstructs the rise and collapse of Theranos, the blood-testing startup that promised a medical revolution and delivered fraud. It's investigative journalism written with the propulsion of a thriller, and a clear-eyed study of how charisma, money, and fear can keep a lie standing far longer than it should.

The Review

Our take

What makes this book work isn't the scandal itself, eye-popping as it is, but the discipline of the reporting underneath it. Carreyrou, the Wall Street Journal reporter who broke the story, builds the Theranos saga the way you'd build a legal case: source by source, deposition by deposition, scene by scene. He resists the temptation to psychoanalyze Elizabeth Holmes from a distance. Instead he shows you the actual machinery of deception — the prototype that smeared blood and produced unreliable results, the demos rigged to hide failures, the way executives shuffled samples to commercial analyzers while telling the world their device did it all from a single fingerstick.

The structure is one of the book's quiet strengths. Carreyrou follows employees in roughly chronological order, letting us meet smart, idealistic people who join the company, sense something is wrong, raise it, and get crushed or pushed out. Because he keeps cycling through these individual stories, the pattern becomes undeniable. You watch the same betrayal happen again and again, and the cumulative effect is far more damning than any single accusation. The tension in the back half — when Carreyrou himself enters the narrative as the reporter Theranos's lawyers tried to intimidate into silence — reads like a legal thriller, except every threatening letter and surveillance detail is documented.

The human cost is where the book lands hardest. This wasn't a story about vaporware that wasted venture money. Faulty tests went to real patients who got false cancer scares, dangerous miscalibrations, results that could have steered actual medical decisions. Carreyrou never sensationalizes this, but he never lets you forget it either. The recklessness at the center of Theranos becomes morally serious in a way a lot of Silicon Valley failure stories aren't.

What you come away understanding is bigger than one company. Carreyrou anatomizes how the fake-it-till-you-make-it ethos of startup culture curdles when applied to medicine, how a board stacked with famous names and zero scientific expertise provided cover instead of oversight, and how a culture of secrecy, NDAs, and legal intimidation can suppress dissent for years. The portrait of Holmes is careful and restrained — he shows her drive and her lies without pretending to fully explain her — and that restraint makes the book more credible, not less.

Why you should read

Readers who loved investigative nonfiction like The Smartest Guys in the Room or Billion Dollar Whale
Anyone curious about Silicon Valley culture and how startup hype goes wrong
True-crime and corporate-fraud fans who want rigorous sourcing, not speculation

What to expect

Thriller-like pacing despite being grounded in documented facts
A methodical, build-the-case structure that rewards patient readers
Restrained, precise prose — Carreyrou lets events speak for themselves
A growing sense of dread as the scale of deception becomes clear

The prose is clean and functional rather than lyrical; Carreyrou is a reporter, not a stylist, and the book moves on the strength of its facts and pacing. The new afterword covering the trial and sentencing gives the story a real ending, which earlier editions lacked. For anyone interested in how fraud actually operates from the inside, how journalism holds power accountable, or simply how an entire ecosystem of investors and prestige can be conned, this is about as instructive and absorbing as nonfiction gets.

Reviewed by Ellis · How our reviews are written

Our verdict

4.7/ 5

Outstanding

Listen to Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup free with an Audible trial Narrator, runtime & our audio review

Buy on Amazon

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Prices may vary.

Where to read or listen

Is there an audiobook of Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup?: Yes. Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup has an Audible audiobook edition, narrated by Will Damron.
Listen to Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup free with an Audible trial
We earn from qualifying Amazon purchases.
How long is the Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup audiobook?: The Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup audiobook runs 11 hr 37 min.
Is Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup on Kindle Unlimited?: No. Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup was not included with Kindle Unlimited when we last checked on August 3, 2026.
How much does Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup cost?: On Amazon: Kindle $12.99, Paperback $10.31, Hardcover $13.23. Prices as of August 27, 2026 at 3:45 AM EDT and may change.

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Common questions

What is Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup about?: What makes this book work isn't the scandal itself, eye-popping as it is, but the discipline of the reporting underneath it. Carreyrou, the Wall Street Journal reporter who broke the story, builds the Theranos saga the way you'd build a legal case: source by source, deposition by deposition, scene…
Is Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup worth reading?: We scored Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup 4.7 out of 5. John Carreyrou's Bad Blood reconstructs the rise and collapse of Theranos, the blood-testing startup that promised a medical revolution and delivered fraud. It's investigative journalism written with the propulsion of a thriller, and a clear-eyed study of how charisma, money…