Book Club Discussion Questions for Bad Blood by John Carreyrou

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, Immunoassay: A Medical Diagnostic Test and our BookBrowse Review of Bad Blood.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. Really, the primary question is simple: what in Carreyrou's book angered you most?
2. The second question, of course, is … how in God's name did Theranos get away with its scam for as long as it did? CEO Elizabeth Holmes even had a visit from the vice president of the United States, who, along with others, was completely taken in. Such icons of wisdom and gravitas, such as Henry Kissenger and George Schultz, sat on the board of directors. What took so long for anyone to catch on?
3. How would you describe Elizabeth Holmes—what drove her? And what enabled her to pull the wool over the eyes of so many, even including some of her own employees? What kind of personality, or personality disorder, does she exhibit?
4. Consider Walgreens' actions: the company was warned by a consultant not to go ahead with instore clinics. Why did it refuse to listen to the advice?
5. How does David Boies, the well-known (some might say infamous) lawyer come across in this telling?
6. Does anyone in Bad Blood (other than the author) emerge as a hero of sorts? What about Rupert Murdock? Does it take someone with his wealth and power to stand up to a person like Holmes? He was a stockholder, after all.

Questions provided with permission from Litlovers.com: https://www.litlovers.com/reading-guides/non-fiction/bad-blood-carreyrou?start=3

Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Vintage. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.