What's a modern novel that creates an atmosphere of existential dread?

[James]

I'm reading "It" now by Stephen King and it's excellent, but I'm wondering if there's another modern novel by a different author that creates an atmosphere of dread and foreboding in the same way. I've read some of Paul Tremblay's short stories and I'm not a big fan of his style. Can anyone recommend me some good, modern, dread-inducing existential horror?

[Marzipan]

Anything by Thomas Ligotti, but I would say start on Teatro Grottesco, his collection of short stories. Clive Barker's Books of Blood are good too, however these are both short story collections. Barker writes other novels. If you want Stephen King-like horror, you're probably better with someone like Robert Bloch's Psycho. But if you want genuine existential horror, then Laird Barron and Ligotti all the way.

[Whitney]

I was going to say Ligotti and Barron, but Marzipan beat me to it.

Ligotti is the Godfather of existential dread. Some others that I think qualify:

Most books by Cormac McCarthy, especially Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West.
Area X: The Southern Reach Trilogy by VanderMeer, Jeff
Experimental Film by Gemma Files
The Visible Filth by Nathan Ballingrud
The Fisherman by John Langan
The Red Tree by Caitlín R. Kiernan

[Bill]

James wrote: "I'm reading "It" now by Stephen King and it's excellent, but I'm wondering if there's another modern novel by a different author that creates an atmosphere of dread and foreboding in the same way. ..."
Depends on what you mean by "in the same way". I'm not a big fan of Stephen King.

A few novels that I've enjoyed in the last few years, with ample "dread and foreboding":

Brian Evenson, The Warren
Livia Llewellyn, The One That Comes Before
Amelia Gray, Threats
Colin Winnette, The Job of the Wasp

[Dan]

I have read It, but never picked up a sense of existential dread from it during the experience. The sources of fear seemed direct and specific, caused by a malevolent entity, just as in most King novels.

Are you sure existential horror is what you are after? Existential dread is that sense of being insignificant because the cosmos is so vast and overwhelming. Aside from nightmares leading to panic attacks as a child from this sense, the first book to arouse this feeling in a less visceral way for me was Carl Sagan's Cosmos. You probably prefer fiction though, in which case GoodReads has a list of 211 books that might interest you: https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...

[Lucille]

Young Adam Alexander Trocchi
Toplin. Michael McDowell
J Howard Jacobson
The Curfew Jesse Ball and his
A Cure for Suicide
The Tenant Roland Torpor

[Canavan]

Perhaps The Ceremonies , T.E.D. Klein.

[Nick]

Dan wrote: "I have read It, but never picked up a sense of existential dread from it during the experience. The sources of fear seemed direct and specific, caused by a malevolent entity, just as in most King novels."

I felt this way about It too. Didn't experience much existential dread.

[uk]

"dread and foreboding" ... adding claustrophobia at its best and then you end up [miserably, no, only joking] with Adam Nevill, e. g.:

House of Small Shadows
No One Gets Out Alive
Under A Watchful Eye
The Reddening

...

[Anita]

The Association by Bentley Little