{"id":40018,"date":"2026-01-09T10:17:55","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T15:17:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/creemore.com\/?p=40018"},"modified":"2026-01-16T09:22:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T14:22:26","slug":"helm-is-more-a-cabinet-of-curiosities-than-a-novel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/creemore.com\/v1\/2026\/01\/09\/helm-is-more-a-cabinet-of-curiosities-than-a-novel\/","title":{"rendered":"Helm is more a cabinet of curiosities than a novel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Book review: Helm by Sarah Hall<\/b><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

\u201cHelm isn\u2019t feeling Helmself.\u201d And it\u2019s thanks to humans \u2013 or \u201cup-monkeys,\u201d as Helm calls them. Human waste pollutes the air: \u201cburger wrappers, testicle deodorant, lip plumpers.\u201d It feels \u201cinsidious, sneaky, infectious,\u201d like a \u201ctoxic waft when you\u2019re asleep.\u201d Honestly, all of it has Helm feeling a bit under the weather.<\/p>\n

Who is Helm? Helm is the weather \u2013 or part of it. Sarah Hall\u2019s latest, Helm: An Extraordinary History of a Ferocious Wind from Neolithic Times and the Connection Between Nature and People, is narrated by Britain\u2019s only named wind.<\/p>\n

Helm has blown over Neanderthals, medieval pilgrims, wars, geological surveys, and everything in between. At times, Helm sounds wise and poetic. At others, they make fart jokes and \u201c[blow] eggs back up hens\u2019 tusses.\u201d Their voice is intoxicating, and that kept me hooked for a bit. But, despite the ambitious concept and stunning prose, Helm ultimately disappoints. The experimental structure comes at a cost: the human characters who should ground this epic never come to life.<\/p>\n

Hall\u2019s command of language is virtuosic and has earned its laurels. Lists of items lost to the wind convey the sheer length of human evolution: \u201cHowdah pistol, iron skullcap, Apple iPhone 11 64GB, Tornado F3 series, eject pin.\u201d I was delighted when these reappeared later. Rain doesn\u2019t just patter, it \u201c[hisses] like soft glass.\u201d<\/p>\n

The text sparkles with aphorisms that beg to be highlighted.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor no creature is ugly in this world… there is nothing wicked or sick or ugly, when it is loved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beautiful stuff. Hall clearly has the skills for this ambitious project. However, it falters: for a book about humanity\u2019s relationship with nature, the humans are underdeveloped.<\/p>\n

We meet a huge cast of intriguing characters: NaNay, a Neolithic seer with visions of stone monoliths; Michael Lang, a disfigured medieval priest intent on dragging a wooden cross up a mountain to exorcize Helm; and Selima Sutar, a modern scientist studying climate change harassed by skeptics. Each gives us a glimpse of humanity\u2019s evolving relationship with nature, but as characters they lack depth.<\/p>\n

In Helm\u2019s expansive experience of time, the human cast feels secondary. This is a shame, given the novel quickly pivots from Helm\u2019s subversive voice to spend the most time with them. They don\u2019t learn, change, develop, or grow.<\/p>\n

Take Michael Lang. His will to dominate nature defines him. He views Helm as a demon and aims to drag a heavy wooden cross to the summit to exorcise the wind and reclaim the mountain for God. He struggles physically against the incline. But internally, he remains convinced of his righteousness. No doubt creeps in. There\u2019s no reckoning with his fanaticism. The same is true of NaNay, who pursues a stone monument until her death, never questioning if her visions are worth the cost. Or Selima, who remains locked in paranoia.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Hall freezes her characters in their initial postures. Perhaps she means for humans to feel ephemeral, showing that their lives are \u201cas fast as fireworks.\u201d But spending most of the novel with people we never come to care about makes for exhausting reading. Theyremain symbols of their eras rather than individuals worth following.<\/p>\n

Helm is more a cabinet of curiosities than a novel. It\u2019s a collection of ephemera in search of a story. Characters and themes feel underdeveloped, with little payoff beyond appreciation for dazzling prose. This will suffice for some, especially readers who appreciate a fragmentary, non-linear approach. But the execution doesn\u2019t match the ambition. To chart humanity\u2019s relationship with nature across millennia, you need humans we want to follow \u2013 and Hall doesn\u2019t give us that.<\/p>\n

Helm by Sarah Hall was published Nov. 4, 2025 by Mariner Books.<\/p>\n

Chris Greer is the co-owner of Nottawa Cottage Bookstore. He grew up in Creemore and has a degree in English from the University of Toronto.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Book review: Helm by Sarah Hall \u201cHelm isn\u2019t feeling Helmself.\u201d And it\u2019s thanks to humans \u2013 or \u201cup-monkeys,\u201d as Helm calls them. Human waste pollutes the air: \u201cburger wrappers, testicle deodorant, lip plumpers.\u201d It feels \u201cinsidious, sneaky, infectious,\u201d like a \u201ctoxic waft when you\u2019re asleep.\u201d Honestly, all of it has Helm feeling a bit under […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/creemore.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/creemore.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/creemore.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/creemore.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/creemore.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/creemore.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40018\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/creemore.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/creemore.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/creemore.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}