Lighthouse media review - part 1
Back in March 2024 I participated in NaNoRenO, a monthly challenge to make a Ren'py game in one month. I wanted to do an art challenge but interactive, so it felt like a good fit. I had an idea for a lighthouse story that I guess could be described as psychological horror but that's probably not how I would have described it. But basically it boiled down to playing a lighthouse keeper who was kind of losing their mind and unable to parse the signs of Bad Things that were happening.
I drew multiple backgrounds for this, figured out how to do random events in Ren'py and got the programming working but then... didn't write anything. I got stuck on feeling like I should do a bunch of research to make things historically accurate and learn all the proper terms of what goes on in a light house. Between the art and programming I didn't feel like I could handle both research and writing in one month so I dropped the project. But not before I collected a list of lighthouse related media I wanted to read/experience. So as I started 2026 I decided it was time to put a dent into my lighthouse to-do list.
The Lamplighters - By Emma Stonex
The Lamplighters was instantly intriguing because it was. inspired by true story. In 1900 3 men disappeared from Flannan Isles Lighthouse. Currently the only theory it that all 3 men were swept away by waves, The Lamplighters does something very different with the prompt of 3 light keepers disappearing.
The book switches between the present story of the women left behind and the past "real" story of what happened on the lighthouse. There's a corrupt lighthouse corporation who's withholding information, a writer who wants to interview everyone so he can write a book about what happened, and 3 women haunted by not knowing.
It's very clear that a lot of research went into writing this book and it really helps to ground the lighthouse story in the nitty gritty of real lighthouse living. There's also great examples of the types of people who go into lighthouse work, which is brought up a lot when the character of the 3 men is brought into question during the investigation. It's not rare for people to snap from the isolation of lighthouse life, is that what happened? There are many teases throughout the story, some more tense or likely than others, but the book does deliver on an ending which wraps it up nicely, if not kindly.
The Lighthouse Witches by C. J. Cooke
I started The Lighthouse Witches right after Lamplighters and it instantly struggled. The writing was fairly basic, I didn't believe or understand the main character and the book quickly became more about dangerous fae creatures than a lighthouse.
The end of the book reveals that those things are all linked but the lighthouse plays such a small role in the story that I almost feel like this barely qualifies as a lighthouse story. The lighthouse is already decommissioned in the present story line and people can drive to it in a few minutes so it doesn't have any of the traditional themes of isolation.
The book is much more focused on the 'witches' part of the title. And like Lamplighters is inspired by a true historical moment, witch trials in Scotland.
Scotland saw a much higher rate of trials and executions than England during the same period. More than 1500 people were executed for witchcraft. In this book, the site of the fictional lighthouse is above a cave where the accused witches were imprisoned (for the sake of fictional book history).
This book has some tense and dark moments but I feel like it fails because I never really cared about the characters. I also felt like it lacked traditional witchcraft themes as well as lighthouse themes, so didn't have the vibes I was hoping for from two of my favourite tropes. This really should have been a home run for me.
Keeper
Aside from lighthouse books I also started a lighthouse game.
Most lighthouse video games are horror themed and honestly, I don't love horror. I get scared very easily so I don't have a craving to ever seek our extra fear feelings. But then along comes Keeper, a beautifully colourful, bright game about a lighthouse. Finally a lighthouse game for me!
The wild thing about Keeper is that you play as a lighthouse. Not a person who tends a lighthouse, but the building.
Keeper is beautiful so far, a really weird visual world that's fun to explore with some very minimal puzzle solving that's mostly given away with visual cues for what to do. We're only about 4 hours into it so possibly have half a game to go. I do really like that it is working around the basic lighthouse trope of being the light in the darkness. Protecting other beings with your light and keeping the dark at bay. But also you have a bird/cat friend who you repeated kill through a time travel puzzle mechanic that is really silly.
There's basically no dialog in this game so I'm very curious about how the storytelling is going to wrap up at the end and if we're going to get any explanation for the world.
Conclusion
I only have one other lighthouse book on my 'to-reads' pile at the moment so I think I'll wait till I find a second to read more on theme. But I do have a lot of Steam games about lighthouses on my wishlist but I'm not sure if I can handle the scary levels of any of them lol.
I might end up reading non-fiction?? If I actually want to learn more about lighthouses. Honestly the Wikipedia pages are fairly entertaining and informational on their own. I really like lighthouses due to their themes of isolation, protection and being on the boundary of safety and danger. There's also the element of being something present yet basically extinct. There are very few manned lighthouses left in the world, technology has basically eliminated that job. They symbolize a simpler yet more dangerous time that's fairly foreign to anyone under 60. Do they embody a sense of nostalgia? Or maybe pure fantasy? It's not like there were a lot of lighthouse keepers. Even being a lighthouse keeper in the time of lighthouses sounds like it was a fairly rare gig.