This work of journalistic non-fiction chronicles the rise and fall of Silicon Valley start-up Theranos and its founder Elizabeth Holmes. The book describes how Holmes, patterning herself after Apple visionary Steve Jobs, promoted herself and her company as being on the cutting edge of medical research, without actually having the technology to back up her claims. As the narrative reveals the lengths to which she and her collaborators went to sustain the deception, it explores themes having to do with the tension between appearance and reality, the nature and qualities of idealism, and America’s obsession with “the next big thing."
