By Victoria Merlino

“Nobody in the room cried, but my grandmother did ask me if I wanted cake afterward. For me, this was the end of Billy Edkins: not with a bang but with a forkful of chocolate.”

by Kevin Cleary

“We both stopped at nothing to please our partners while simultaneously turning a blind eye to our own needs.”

by Rebecca Simon

Higher offers a look at one girl’s discovery of a regionally popular opioid and her stifling addiction to it. However, it’s useful to take heed of the universal components of the story. Not particular to the author is her introduction to heroin, her abrupt graduation to dependency, and her struggle to kick it. While the memoir belongs solely to the author and elicits certain sentiments, it is also didactic—a piece for analysis.