If you liked
Books like Bad Blood
by John Carreyrou
Bad Blood is John Carreyrou's investigation of the Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes blood-testing fraud, built from his Pulitzer-Prize-winning Wall Street Journal reporting that broke the story. The 2022 Hulu Elizabeth Meriwether series The Dropout brought it to a much larger audience. If you finished it and needed more reading in the same register, these are our picks.
The shortlist
What to read next
Empire of Painby Patrick Radden Keefe
“Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe 2021 review. The Sackler family and the operational mechanics of Purdue Pharma's OxyContin marketing strategy across three generations. The canonical contemporary investigative non-fiction book on the opioid crisis.”
Say Nothingby Patrick Radden Keefe
“Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe 2018 review. The 1972 disappearance of Belfast mother Jean McConville and the broader IRA history of the Troubles. Keefe's first major book and the basis for the 2024 FX Hulu limited series.”
Killers of the Flower Moonby David Grann
“Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann 2017 review. The 1920s murders of dozens of Osage people in Oklahoma after the discovery of oil. The Apple TV / Scorsese film source and Grann's narrative non-fiction breakthrough.”
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankindby Yuval Noah Harari
“Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari 2014 review. A single-volume history of Homo sapiens from cognitive revolution to the present. The popular-history bestseller that defined the 2010s book-club shelf, with the trade-offs that ambition requires.”
The Anxious Generationby Jonathan Haidt
“The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt 2024 review. The smartphone-and-social-media-driven youth mental-health crisis and a four-point reform proposal. The most-cited contemporary book on adolescent psychology.”
The Plotby Jean Hanff Korelitz
“The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz 2021 review. A failed novelist steals a dead student's masterwork-plot and publishes it as his own. The canonical contemporary literary thriller about plagiarism and authorship.”
FAQ
Common questions about Bad Blood read-alikes
- What is the closest match for Bad Blood?
- Empire of Pain. Both contemporary American investigative non-fiction books about institutional corporate fraud with a charismatic founder figure at the center; both Patrick Radden Keefe and John Carreyrou built their cases from documentary evidence and former-employee witness testimony that took years to assemble.
- I want more Silicon Valley fraud non-fiction.
- The catalog is light on this specific subgenre. Outside the catalog, Reeves Wiedeman's Billion Dollar Loser (on WeWork), Michael Lewis's Going Infinite (on Sam Bankman-Fried), and Susan Fowler's Whistleblower (on Uber) are the canonical contemporary picks.
- I want more contemporary investigative non-fiction generally.
- Say Nothing and Empire of Pain (Patrick Radden Keefe), Killers of the Flower Moon and The Wager (David Grann), and The Devil in the White City (Erik Larson) are the canonical contemporary American narrative non-fiction shelf.
- I want a novel about institutional fraud or deception.
- The Plot (Jean Hanff Korelitz on plagiarism), Yellowface (R. F. Kuang on publishing-industry fraud), and Trust (Hernan Diaz on Gilded-Age financial fraud across four nested narratives) are the closest contemporary fictional picks.
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