Publisher: Federal Pen Publishing (ebook – 1 June 2026)
Series: Standalone
Length: 388 pages
My Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars
In the mood for something exciting, funny and just a little insane? Then look no further than the fantastic thriller novel The Bone Docs. The latest novel from Matthew Scura, an author with an interesting bibliography of fun sounding books, The Bone Docs was an awesome read with a memorable premise behind it.
Plot Synopsis:
When Flight 82 goes down over the Atlantic, forty doctors survive the crash. Unfortunately, they’re all chiropractors and dentists.
Stranded on an uncharted island with no rescue in sight, the survivors face a brutal reality: dwindling rations, no clear leader, and an alarming surplus of essential oils. The bigger problem? The chiropractors and dentists already despise each other. Pediatric dentist Rebecca Riley is too deep in medication withdrawal to keep the peace. Reluctantly famous chiropractor Carlton Berger never wanted to lead anyone anywhere, let alone across a tropical island at spearpoint.
As factions form and tempers flare, the castaways learn that surviving the crash was the easy part. The hard part is surviving one another. But when one castaway decides the island can’t support forty doctors, the feud turns deadly.
The Bone Docs is a satirical survival novel about the only medical professionals you don’t need in a crisis—and what happens when the bedside manner runs out.
With a hilarious background plot idea, The Bone Docs was a highly entertaining novel that quickly draws you in with its survival plot and satirical take on dentists and chiropractors. Scura clearly had a lot of fun pulling this novel together, and I had an amazing time reading The Bone Docs, which I mostly powered through in a single night.
I really enjoyed The Bone Docs story, which was thrilling and hilarious in equal measure. Employing a dual narrator system, Scura quickly introduces reader to the novel’s protagonists, famous chiropractor Carlton Berger and dentist Rebecca Riley. Boarding a plane filled only with dentists and chiropractors on their way to Calcium Con in London, the two protagonists find themselves amongst the few survivors of a dramatic plane crash that leaves them stranded in the middle of the ocean. With no rescue in sight, the remaining survivors wash up on a desert island and must find a way to survive. Scura does a lot of excellent work early in The Bone Docs, with an effective introduction to several of the main characters, as well as the overarching premise that two competing groups of calcium-focused medical professionals can’t stand each other.
The book soon turns into a more classic survival novel, with the characters working to find food, water and other resources on their new island home. While this is going on, Scura cleverly builds the simmering tension between the two medical tribes, which eventually boils over in some dramatic ways. The resulting insanity that follows makes for a tense and exciting final third for The Bone Docs, which I frankly couldn’t put down. Thanks to a particularly despicable villain, you find yourself highly invested in the protagonists surviving and getting justice, and the carnage that follows as chiropractors and dentists go to war was simultaneously dark and entertaining. Scura really lays in some over-the-top moments with this book, and the big confrontations and plot resolutions were quite enjoyable. Finishing with an interesting, if overly telegraphed, final twist, The Bone Docs ends on a great note, and readers will come away from this novel highly satisfied and entertained.
Unsurprisingly considering the underlying story idea, I found The Bone Docs to be a very over-the-top and intentionally silly book which is very easy to fall in love with. Working as both an intense thriller and an amusing satire of survival stories, The Bone Docs was a very intriguing mash-up of genres, but it’s one that I think worked very well. The main basis of the story, a complex island survival thriller, allows for a fast-paced narrative that initially draws you in with the protagonists’ attempt to survive the island and then becomes even more compelling with its dramatic turns, brutal deaths and dark conflicts. There is a very realistic human edge to this part of the story, with the characters getting drawn into conflict by selfish desires, with a slimy and manipulative villain takes control amongst a scared population. Scura further enhances this by showcasing the story through the eyes of two relatable flawed protagonists, whose own internal struggles allow them the strength to survive and fight back.
While Scura could have had a serviceable novel just by focusing on the fight for survival, what makes The Bone Docs stand out is its inherent comedic charm, with all the characters being either dentists or chiropractors. The majority of these ‘doctors’ the most outrageous and hilarious version of the professions Scura could envision, which results in some hilarious characterisations. The chiropractors are all unnaturally straight-backed, physically capable, essential oil addicts who believe that anything can be cured by a spinal adjustment. The dentists, on the other hand, are generally shown to be over-paid, arrogant whiners who look down on the chiropractors as phony doctors. The resulting personality clashes between the two groups of bone specialists are amazing, and I love how Scura turns their initial professional rivalry into a full-blown war with very little effort. Some of the jokes that Scura throws into the book about both professions are really entertaining (the obligatory lion hunting reference from a dentist had me cackling), and this ends up being a loving send-up of both professions. Throw in some other over-the-top moments played for comedic effect (such as the method in which the main antagonist is killed), and this was a very effective comedic novel that perfectly plays off the more serious thriller aspects of the plot to create an overall entertaining and gripping read.
I ended up really enjoying Scura’s comedic inclusions and the more serious thriller narrative of The Bone Docs, and I think the result was a very solid and captivating novel that I honestly couldn’t put down. Thanks to how effectively The Bone Docs kept me reading it for several hours straight, I must give this book a high rating, and I was honestly very entertained the entire way through. A fantastic standalone novel, The Bone Docs was one of the more unique reads of 2026, and it’s one I would recommend, especially if you want some thrilling, satirical fun.
