This is a tricky subject because there isn't really a single convenient ancient source to tell us about the life of the helots. The material is scattered across multiple authors and a span of about seven centuries. A really useful sourcebook for this is the Lactor volume on Sparta edited by Melvin Cooley (2017); it gathers most of the evidence we have on helots, along with the other Spartan social classes and institutions.

The best modern work on the helots is Jean Ducat's Les Hilotes (1990), but this could be tricky if you don't read French. There will be some useful references in Nigel Kennell's Spartans: A New History (2010).