After reading Horns and the Fireman, I've decided that Joe Hill just hates humanity. 
 Well written and all (just like Horns was) but he's a sadistic bastard of a writer. 
 Since this is Goodreads, I rate by how I responded to the book, not by the quality of the book itself. That's why it gets the two star "it was okay". If you liked Horns, you're going to love the Fireman. It's well written, fast paced, and an easy read. 
 Hill lacks his father's ability to see nobility in the ordinary people of New England, even with the occasional horror hidden just below the surface to motivate the plot. In Hill's world, man is born evil, with strict misanthropy applied across board, whether one is a victim to a mysterious plague or a hardworking bureaucrat trying to make hard choices. 
 The only exceptions to this "everyone basically sucks" rule are his overly idealized protagonists: his unrealistically mawkish patsy of a heroine coming out of the worst relationship ever, his ruggedly handsome intellectually-overqualified hero with a soul of well-intentioned cardboard, and the adoptive family of misfit ragamuffins they pick up along the way. 
 I particularly hated the ending -- not the bit before the bit but the bit after the bit which showed a complete lack of backbone. After setting up a dark and deserved conclusion, Hill weasels out of sticking the landing. 
 Last Hill book for me unless he decides to start writing light fantasy.