In Yangon, Myanmar, a country ripped apart by a coup, 12-year-old Vika is arrested alongside his father for the crime of sharing poetry. News of Vika’s arrest reaches Kae Zhang, the fearless founder of the Geneva-based human rights organization Article 5. Kae and her diverse team of driven workers, each with personal experience of global displacement and discrimination, set to work on the tricky logistics of getting Kae into Myanmar to negotiate Vika’s release. With the help of her mentor, the crusty and brazen Reinhardt Allen, Kae and her number two, Anan, set off for Thailand, where they begin a dangerous journey across the border into Myanmar. Reinhardt engages a trusted guide named Champo and secures a meeting with a colonel who may be willing to negotiate—but only on his terms. As Kae moves through a shifting landscape of dangerous jungles, decimated villages, and unjust courts, Vika’s freedom seems to move ever further out of reach. Enemies soon appear on all sides—even back in Geneva, where the rest of the Article 5 team members start to feel the reverberations of their dangerous fight for the young boy’s life. Lovett and Schultz map familiar espionage tropes onto well-rendered real-world struggles; realistic fights for dignity and justice drive the action. The authors’ depictions of Myanmar—and of the terror imposed by its military rulers—feel both chilling and authentic, beginning with the assault on Vika’s shop, where “terror lingered in the air, an acrid burning smell.” Kae is an admirable hero with a compelling balance of impressive credentials and relatable insecurity. (She displays plenty of wit, as well: “I just channel my inner Sisyphus,” she says to explain her perseverance.) The cast of secondary characters at Article 5 is equally engaging; the team members are distinguished by vivid personalities and layered backstories. The shared histories and subtle shorthand between them hint at a whole world of fascinating previous adventures and ones to come as the series progresses.

Reporters are always on the hunt for a good story, even while on vacation. Dallas TV journalist Vicky Robeson is ostensibly on a two-week break in California, but thoughts of work are never far behind. Recently promoted to news director, she’s waiting to hear from the higher-ups about her proposed budget, which is coming in the face of network cuts. When she visits Bakersfield, her ulterior motive for her holiday is to find out if her sister is still alive. They were separated during a California wildfire when they were very young, and their parents perished—Vicky never knew if her sibling survived. (“She’d never found anyone who knew any details about her parents. Or her younger sister. But she’d kept looking, kept following up on leads however unlikely they might be.”) Working with Susan Winslow, who singlehandedly runs a newspaper in the town of Isabella, and her teenage niece Chrissy, Vicky finds her search complicated by a reunion with Pete Harris, her former flame. This would be a lot for anyone to take on, but Vicky remains determined and focused, even as she navigates the complex emotional terrain of dealing with her ex-boyfriend and the possibility of reuniting with the sister she hasn’t seen in decades. When the trail leads to the gates of The Colony, an insular, fundamentalist compound located in the middle of a national forest and presided over by the ruthless and violent Richard Hart, Vicky’s investigation takes a dangerous turn. The novel lays out its twisty plot cleanly and efficiently, though the revelations are somewhat muted. Moving along at an engaging clip, the narrative tends to favor plot over characterization. Readers may feel like the complexities and complications of family, work, religion, and relationships are waiting to be explored more deeply.

When she was growing up, writes Machado, Venezuela regularly held elections with peaceful transfers of power and enjoyed a degree of prosperity greater than many of its Latin American neighbors, thanks to abundant oil. That changed when Hugo Chávez came to power in 1999. He “began by focusing on controlling the judicial system,” replacing longtime jurists with his lackeys, and enriched himself while immiserating his people. The universities were islands of resistance, she writes, but now “even private universities…have been compromised by the regime.” Despite winning election to Parliament, she had to fight to take her place there, and, when she ran for president, she was cheated out of victory by Chávez’s successor, Nicolás Maduro. She also won the Nobel Peace Prize (which she later gifted to President Trump, who is not mentioned in the book). Machado’s “manifesto” is a brief set of principles, most unobjectionable on their face: “Our individual liberty will forever be fully realized within a Venezuelan ecosystem booming with liberty. …The people of Venezuela deserve a duly elected government that maintains the will and capacity to guarantee the safety of every citizen.” She remains out of power for all that, Maduro having been kidnapped by the U.S. but with his lieutenant installed in his place. Machado’s book certainly gives insight into her antisocialist views and the agenda that might follow should she in fact take office one day, but the book is a bit of a hodgepodge—a chronology, a little autobiographical essay, the manifesto itself, and testimonials by various opponents of the regime—that seems done in a hurry.

Meg’s return to Adirondacks Bible Camp in upstate New York comes with much excitement about reuniting with longtime friends Kayla and Nicole and seeing her crush, red-haired, blue-eyed Danny. But camp also comes with increasing frustration about the rigid rules and strict purity culture expectations set by both her parents and the camp leadership. Her work waiting tables is hard in many ways despite the perk of a room that’s nicer than the campers’ cabins. Though her job often places her in close proximity to Danny, she knows that she isn’t supposed to be thinking about romance. Still, she can’t seem to help it. As Kayla and Nicole follow their own paths, Meg, who has black hair and light, rosy skin, struggles with self-doubt and searches for answers to the complex questions she’s beginning to have about her faith and future. She finds refuge in her love for drawing and texting with Britnee, her friend from home who moved away. Meg’s experiences with religion, family, and self-definition are sympathetically told and well supported by the gentle illustrations and soothing color palette. Engaging flashbacks rendered in monochromatic blue panels add context and depth. This leisurely story creates plenty of space for readers who may be on journeys like Meg’s to ponder and reflect, without offering oversimplified answers. The supporting cast is racially diverse.

Twelve-year-old New Yorker Ria Bailey, who has a “not-in-the-picture-at-all British dad” and a Bengali Indian mom, is about to start middle school with her best friends, Ghanaian immigrant tech genius Miracle Owusu and athletic Irish and Mexican American activist Annie Hernandez. When Ria’s art historian mother, a vocal advocate for repatriating looted artefacts, is pushed to resign from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Ria faces the prospect of leaving the only home she’s ever known. The plot thickens when a ruby resembling one stolen from the museum arrives at their apartment, along with a cryptic message. Worried about Ma’s possible involvement, Ria and her friends plot to return the ruby during their school’s annual museum sleepover. But their attempted reverse heist meets with unforeseen complications. They also encounter Zakir, a mysterious—and distractingly cute—boy. Before long, Ria and friends are racing through the city, dodging menacing strangers, meeting a tech billionaire, and unmasking a long-hidden conspiracy. A brisk pace and well-developed characters enliven this adventure that celebrates the diverse immigrant communities that keep New York thriving; a supporting cast of helpful uncles and aunties from different communities aids the girls in their adventures. DasGupta deftly weaves themes of cultural identity and history into a fun, contemporary storyline that explores the impact of colonization and capitalism on the Global South. Some suspension of disbelief is required, but the story builds to a satisfying finale.