3.5 stars, rounding up to 4. I feel a bit doubtful classifying this weird little novelette as a picture book, but it is! It's just a picture book for adults, with old museum photos and illustrations, with odd little drawings and library stamps for verisimilitude. It's dark and creepy with an odd wry humour at times - to be honest, if it weren't for the whole abduction and cannibalism bit, I wouldn't mind being trapped in a library basement with instructions to read books (albeit possibly not books on tax collection in the Ottoman Empire) and fresh doughnuts brought to my cell at regular intervals. That doesn't sound too bad to me... I'd give it an unreserved 4 stars if it weren't for the ending, which is extremely abrupt and didn't work for me at all.

Read it as part of Book Riot's 2018 Read Harder Challenge, Task 15: a one-sitting book.