Forget JF's jolly Nursery Crimes and Thursday Next books.  This one is much darker.  Set in a somewhat parallel world where the UK freezes over for the entirety of winter, requiring the inhabitants to hibernate in special dormatoriums.  A drug can be had to stop the user dreaming, and thus reduce energy expenditure, but it has sinister side effects.  Into this world, a young man with no family takes a job that will keep him awake all winter, can he survive not only the winter but the people who live in it?

Another great story by this author!! A huge fan of how his mind works and the stories that come out, especially the ridiculous worlds that have clever parallels with our world. It's also doubly impressive that this is a standalone, a whole world and plot done in 400 pages.