The House on the Gulf: Frequently Asked Questions

Note: My answers may contain some spoilers for the book—please don’t read this if you haven’t finished the book!

How did you get the idea for this book?
It came from a vacation in which my family stayed at the home of a friend’s parents in Florida. Unlike Britt and Bran’s family, we definitely had permission to be there, but it still felt odd to stay in a private home of someone I didn’t know, who wasn’t even there at the time. The whole experience made me think that it would be a really interesting thing to put in a book.

Why did Bran lie to his mother and sister about who owned the house?
Bran thought that his grandparents owed his mother, because of the way they had treated her. But he knew that she wouldn’t agree to move into the house if she knew who it really belonged to. So he felt it was okay to lie because he was correcting an injustice. Of course, as he eventually found out, telling one lie only leads to more. And the more he tried to justify his lies to himself, the deeper he got into trouble.

Why wasn’t Bran more careful in his Internet research?
Bran had a little bit too much confidence in his Internet abilities! It’s really easy to assume that if you find something on the Internet, it must be true. But it’s also possible to find a lot of lies on the Internet. So you do have to be careful.

Why didn’t Britt tell her mother when she found out what Bran had done?
Britt was used to her brother always being right, so she trusted his judgment more than her own.