What does "my flesh begins crawling with suspense" mean? [closed]
The phrase was come upon in the following context:
Show me a character whose life arouses my curiosity, and my flesh begins crawling with suspense.
By Fawn M. Brodie (italics added)
Solution 1:
make someone's [flesh/skin] crawl - To cause someone's skin to feel funny or get goose pimples through fright.
- Source: McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs
make one's flesh creep / make one's skin crawl - Cause one to shudder with disgust or fear. This idiom alludes to the feeling of having something crawl over one's body or skin.
- Source: The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms
The author of your quote has apparently assumed artistic license to adopt and alter the normal meaning of this phrase, rendering it an alternative meaning correlated with suspense and curiosity, rather than fear or disgust.
Solution 2:
Apparently, the author is keenly interested in what's going to happen to the character in question. "Suspense" in this case means eager anticipation. The crawling flesh bit is almost, but not entirely, the equivalent of goosebumps.
Like, "Eeeee! What's this character going to do? What's he going to say next? Is he going to be successful? Less than successful? Is he going to marry that girl, or divorce his wife, or what? Eeeee, this is fun! My flesh is positively crawling ... with suspense!"
It's kind of corny, to be sure. But there it is.