«A terrific evocation of a bygone Manchester girlhood, poignant and creepy by turns, by one of the most under-rated writers in England»

D.J. Taylor

«Compulsively readable, Shadow Girls is an atmospheric, shape-shifting novel, part coming-of-age, part supernatural thriller»

Lesley Glaister

«Slowly and superbly paints everyday life at an all-female school... Utterly gripping»

Heat

«Probing the effects of buried trauma and the Freudian return of the repressed, Birch's achievement here is to give an authentic, arresting voice to a character who has little insight into the depths of her psyche»

Daily Mail

«That unhappy girl is what really haunts the delusional and guilt-ridden Sally, through all the "almosts" of this novel. And those bruises are its real "heavy subject", subtly embedded in these clever, unnerving pages»

TLS